Fail: Obama’s $447 Billion American Jobs-Killing Act Has Pretty Much Died, Reid Won’t Let Congress Vote on It (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on October 5, 2011
Pres. Barack H. Obama’s American Jobs Act has essentially died in Congress.
Expect more angry POTUS speeches at CBC dinners and swing state townhalls to gin up some kind of support from American voters for his sleight-of-hand economic policies and agenda. And there’s the possible beefing up of Obama’s AttackWatch snitch police brigade to also look forward to.
At least Captain Clueless’s jobs-killing bill lived a bit longer than the budget he introduced in February — even congressional Democrats couldn’t control holding their noses over the fantasy-land, nonsensical budget that Rep. Paul Ryan called “debt on arrival”.
Democrat Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has blocked Republican Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell’s efforts for an immediate vote on the jobs bill — likely because Reid knows there are not enough votes to pass it. Michelle Malkin reports:
Reid, responding to McConnell’s assertion that Obama asked Congress to take up the Jobs Act “right away,” insisted that Obama didn’t mean right away right away:
“Right away is a relative term,” Reid said. “[I] sponsored it, I am the one who brought it to the floor. We need to move to this right away … I have said I will bring it to the floor this work period.”
Reid’s doing some heel dragging because he knows he doesn’t have the votes — or possibly the intentional delay is subtle payback for 20 minutes on hold.
Meanwhile, President Obama has given up on “pass this jobs bill now” and is settling for “pass it this month.” Next up: “Easter-ish would be good too…”
“Right away” is a relative term… Huh? Did Harry listen to a different BHO speech than the rest of us did last month? Nice Deb calls Harry’s response “hilarious and surreal”:
We are living in surreal times.
FLASHBACK: “No delays. I’m sending this bill to Congress today, and they ought to pass it immediately.” – President Obama, remarks on the American Jobs Act, September 12, 2011.
Rinse and repeat about 50,000 times.
Remixed highlights of that SOTU speech:
Pres. Obama “Pass the Bill” Remix: Emperial March
From Reuters, Obama’s jobs bill falls to pieces in Congress:
President Barack Obama’s job-creation package effectively fell to pieces on Monday as a top Republican lawmaker said the House of Representatives will only pass portions of the $447 billion measure.
As Obama continued to press lawmakers for a vote on his signature legislation, Representative Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, said that was not going to happen.
Asked if the bill as a complete package was dead, Cantor said: “Yes.”
The bill appeared to be in trouble in the Democratic-controlled Senate as well, where aides from both parties said it will likely fail when it comes up for a vote later this month.
Monday’s developments made plain what many analysts have believed for weeks — that Washington is too divided to take any significant steps to lower the 9.1 percent unemployment rate before the 2012 congressional and presidential elections.
“At this point I think that Washington has become so dysfunctional that we’ve got to start focusing on the incremental progress we can make,” Cantor said. “Both sides want to do the big, bold things — the problem is they look vastly different.”
Obama said he would be willing to consider a piecemeal approach on the legislation, which could be central to his re-election prospects. Polls show that jobs and the economy are voters’ top concern and that many Americans have lost confidence in Obama’s economic leadership.
From WLS radio in Chicago last week… Sen. Dick Durbin affirmed that there aren’t enough votes in the Senate to pass Obama’s jobs bill.
Durbin on Obama jobs bill: Democrats don’t have enough votes
Darned those nasty, non-kowtowing Republicans… it’s not easy being president if you don’t understand economics that actually work nor have both the Senate and the House in your vest pocket.
About the author
Comments