Senate Democrats Filibuster Provision of President Obama’s Jobs Bill. What?

You read the headline right. Harry Reid and Senate Democrats are now filibustering part of President Obama's jobs bill. President Obama said in his September 30th weekly radio address,

"Some Republicans in Congress have said that they agree with certain parts of this jobs bill. If so, it's time for them to tell me what those proposals are,"

Republicans tried to force a vote on part of the bill they like, but Democrats filibustered the vote.

Thursday night, Democrats filibustered a Republican-backed provision of President Obama’s jobs bill, because the GOP proposed to pay for it by slashing $30 billion worth of funds for federal programs. Republicans forced the vote to build a counter-narrative that Democrats don’t want to work with them on jobs legislation, even bits of Obama’s own plan.

But by tradition, it’s very rare for minority leaders to force votes on messaging legislation, and one Senate Democratic aide warned this will come back to haunt a future Republican majority.

“This is the Senate version of hardball,” the aide said Thursday night. “We can’t stop Republicans from getting their vote, but we can force them to set a precedent that might come back to bite them in the future.”

Obama's Bus Tour Fails: Senate Fails to Pass Scaled Back Jobs Bill

President Obama's desperate 'Plan B' is to break his doomed jobs bill into small pieces and try to get some part of it past the Senate. The problem is all these little parts come with a price tag and Obama is wanting a  tax increase to pay for it. That dog won't hunt with the GOP.

WASHINGTON – Despite a campaign-style push this week by President Barack Obama, the Senate on Thursday scuttled pared-back jobs legislation aimed at helping state and local governments avoid layoffs of teachers and firefighters.

Obama’s three-day bus tour through North Carolina and Virginia — states crucial to his re-election race next year — didn’t change any minds among Senate Republicans, who filibustered Obama’s latest jobs measure to death just as they killed his broader $447 billion jobs plan last week.

The vote came in relation to a motion to simply take up the bill. Some Democrats who voted with the president, like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, however, said they couldn’t support the underlying Obama plan unless it’s changed.

Thursday’s $35 billion measure combined $30 billion for state and local governments to hire teachers and other school workers with $5 billion to help pay the salaries of police officers, firefighters and other first responders. The White House says the measure would “support” almost 400,000 education jobs for one year. Republicans call that a temporary “sugar high” for the economy.

Old Obama Jobs Metric: “saved or created.” New Obama Jobs Metric: “supported.”

President Obama is claiming his jobs bill will create save support 400,000 teacher's union jobs.

Via Whitehouse.gov(pdf)

The American Jobs Act Could Prevent Hundreds of Thousands of Layoffs,
and Allow Schools to Rehire Thousands More:

• Nearly 300,000 Educator Jobs Have Been Lost Since 2008, 54 Percent of all Job Losses in Local Government: Local governments shed nearly 300,000 education jobs between August 2008 and August 2011. By another measure, employment of teachers fell by 7.2 percent between 2007-08 and 2010-11.
• Local Governments Have Lost Nearly 200,000 Education Jobs Over the Past Year: Over just the past 12 months, local government education employment has fallen by 194,000 jobs.
• State and Local Funding Cuts Put As Many as 280,000 Teacher Jobs At Risk Next Year: In the four largest states, budget reductions threaten teacher jobs and key funding for schools. In New York City alone, nearly 780 employees were expected to lose their jobs by October. In California, budget triggers may
shorten the school year. And in Texas and Florida, tens of thousands of teachers could be laid off.
• The American Jobs Act Will Support Nearly 400,000 Education Jobs—Preventing Layoffs and Allowing Thousands More to Be Hired or Rehired: The President’s plan will more than offset projected layoffs, providing support for nearly 400,000 education jobs— enough for states to avoid harmful layoffs and rehire tens of thousands of teachers who lost their jobs over the past three years.

The White House plays on the old idea that fewer teachers will cause increased class sizes and students learning less. That does not have to be true. Class size and money spent are not the driving factors behind improved student test scores. In Great Britain, they have found larger class sizes can lead to students learning more. Also, increased education spending does not necessarily equal better student scores.

 Via Education Next:

The strongest factors in increased math and science scoring by students was lack of strong teachers' unions involvement and strong competition from the private-school sector.

Via Education Next:

If President Obama really was concerned about education in America, he would ban teachers unions and institute school vouchers to increase competition. Sadly, President Obama is mainly concerned with saving the teachers, unions that are actually destroying education in America.

Senate Democrats fail to move Obama's jobs bill; likely to move on to other legislation.

Two Democrats, Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana, voted against the bill.

(FOX News)- President Obama's $447 billion jobs bill failed to clear a procedural hurdle in the Democratic-controlled Senate Tuesday night despite a White House push that accelerated in the 11th hour.

The bill received a simply majority of 51 votes but fell short of the necessary 60 to end debate. Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana were the only Democrats to vote against the bill. Both of them are facing tough re-election campaigns next year.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., had said earlier that although he intended to vote in favor of ending the Republican filibuster, he did not intend to support the bill if it reached a final vote.

Now that it has failed, both the House and Senate are expected to turn this week to approving U.S. trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, one of the few areas of agreement between Republicans and the administration on boosting the economy.

Fail: Obama Campaign Sends Email Blasting GOP For Blocking Jobs Bill; After Reid Blocks Jobs Bill…

Obama's shipment of fail has arrived.

( Weekly Standard)- The Obama campaign sent out an email today asking supporters to urge Congress to at least vote on the president’s jobs bill almost immediately after Democratic majority leader Harry Reid blocked a vote on the bill in the Senate.

On the Senate floor today, Republican leader Mitch McConnell asked for unanimous consent to proceed on voting on the bill. Reid, who has struggled to find enough votes for the bill in the Democratic caucus, objected to the motion and killed the opportunity for a vote.

About ten minutes later, Jim Messina, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, emailed this message to supporters:

President Obama is in Dallas today urging Americans who support the American Jobs Act to demand that Congress pass it already.

Though it’s been nearly a month since he laid out this plan, House Republicans haven’t acted to pass it. And House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is out there actually bragging that they won’t even put the jobs package up for a vote — ever.

It’s not clear which part of the bill they now object to: building roads, hiring teachers, getting veterans back to work. They’re willing to block the American Jobs Act — and they think you won’t do anything about it.

Eric Cantor to Obama: Your Jobs Bill Is Dead

Eric Cantor says the "all-or-nothing approach" is dead in the House.

(CNS)- At a Capitol Hill briefing on Monday, a reporter asked Cantor whether the "jobs package as a package [was] dead?"

Cantor said, "yes," and shortly thereafter said, “It seems as if the president is in full campaign mode. The president continues to say ‘pass my bill in its entirety.’ As I’ve said from the outset, this all-or-nothing approach is just not acceptable.”

Cantor also questioned whether Obama had the votes for his jobs bill in the Democrat-controlled Senate, saying that the president had some “whipping” to do.

Hilarious! President Obama can't get Democrats to pass his jobs bill!

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) reveals the real reason Senate Democrats delayed a vote on President Obama's jobs bill. They don't have the votes to pass it.

(The Hill)- Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said that, at the moment, Democrats don’t have the votes to pass President Obama’s jobs bill, but Durbin added that that would change.

“Not at the moment, I don’t think we do but, uh, we can work on it,” Durbin said according to Chicago radio station WLS…

“The oil-producing state senators don’t like eliminating or reducing the subsidy for oil companies, “Durbin said. “There are some senators who are up for election who say I’m never gonna vote for a tax increase while I’m up for election, even on the wealthiest people. So, we’re not gonna have 100% Democratic senators. That’s why it needs to be bi-partisan and I hope we can find some Republicans who will join us to make it happen.”

There are still no cosponsors either.

Obama administration does not dispute $200k per job price tag in their jobs bill

How many jobs could your workplace create for $222,000? Assuming you paid the full cost of the job for one year, the number might be 8 if you work in a restaurant. The number might be 4 if you work in a factory or office. The number President Obama can create for $200,000 is only 1.

(ABC News) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner didn’t dispute a Harvard economist’s estimate that each job in the White House’s jobs plan would cost $200,000, but said the pricetag is the wrong way to measure the bill’s worth.

And he also pointed out, in an interview today with ABC News’ David Muir, that there is no other option on the table for getting the economy moving and putting more people back to work.

“You’ve got to think about the costs of the alternatives,” Geithner said when asked about Harvard economist Martin Feldstein’s calculation that each job created by President Obama’s American Jobs Act would cost taxpayers about $200,000.

“If government does nothing, it does nothing now because they’re scared by politics or they want to debate what’s perfect, then there will be fewer Americans back to work, the economy will be weaker,” he said.

Obvious: President Obama doesn't expect or want his jobs plan to pass Congress

No matter how many times President Obama shouts "pass this bill", Obama neither wants or expects his jobs plan to pass Congress. President Obama is engaging in a class warfare 2012 strategy. Cheri Jacobus over at The Hill explains.

It’s become apparent that Obama doesn’t actually expect or even want his plan to pass Congress. He knows his “savings” aren’t real and won’t stand up to scrutiny by economists and experts, just like they didn’t stand up to former President Clinton’s scrutiny. All candidate Obama needs to extract from his plan and angry rhetoric is to win back his far-left base and trick “regular” people (non-experts) into believing he is fighting for the “little guy,” but those mean, old Republicans are standing in his way and trying to protect rich folks. And of course, to him “rich folks” are the enemy (until they write a check to his reelection campaign).

That, in case anybody is wondering, is the very definition of class warfare... Read the whole article here.

President Obama: Pass my Jobs Bill now!, Senate Democrats: Uh, Maybe next month.

 Hardest hit is President Obama's ego.

The Hill reported:

The Senate likely will not take up President Obama’s plan to create jobs until next month following a planned recess period, the No. 2 Democrat in the chamber said Sunday.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said the Senate would focus on a number of “related issues” to the $400 billion job-creation legislation this week. But he quickly noted on CNN that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has placed the massive jobs bill “on the calendar.”

The Senate is slated to be in recess Sept. 26-30, returning for legislative business on Oct. 3.
Some debate on the measure could begin “this week,” Durbin said. The legislation “is ready,” he said, “and poised.

“But it’s more realistic it’d be next month,” Durbin said.

President Obama: Pass my bill or bridges will fall down or something (video)

What ever happened to the mantra that "the politics of fear" was hurting America?