The Senate resumed consideration of H.R. 2112, the Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture appropriations bill, which will combine the FY 2012 Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development appropriations bills (also referred to as an Ag-CJS-THUD minibus). At noon, the Senate voted 82-17 to confirm David Mariani to be District Judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
The Senate then voted 59-39 to table an amendment to H.R. 2112 from Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) which would have ensured that transportation funding is used for repairing bridges and highways instead of building bike trails and squirrel sanctuaries. More amendment votes are possible today.
Yesterday, the Senate voted 99-0 for an amendment from Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), which blocks the Justice Department from using taxpayer funding for any current or future gunwalking operation similar to “Fast & Furious.”
Also yesterday, the Senate, by a vote of 44-55, rejected an amendment from Sen. McCain which would have eliminated the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms program, which has been recommended for cuts by the OMB. Even OMB has no weight with the liberals and it is amazing that McCain still tries since his friends across the isle love reminding him why he lost the race for president - "no support."
Democrats just seem to be disconnected from reality at the moment. The Hill reports, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday said Congress needs to worry about government jobs more than private-sector jobs, and that this is why Senate Democrats are pushing a bill aimed at shoring up teachers and first-responders. ‘It's very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it's the public-sector jobs where we've lost huge numbers, and that's what this legislation is all about,’ Reid said on the Senate floor.” (See video of Reid’s remarks here.)
And in an interview with ABC’s Jake Tapper yesterday, President Obama said, “[E]ven though I believe all the choices we've made have been the right ones, we're still going through difficult circumstances.”
But the reality is that over 1.5 million private sector jobs have been lost since February 2009, unemployment is still 9.1% while the unemployment rate for government workers is a much lower 4.7%.
Yet Democrats continue to push another bailout for teachers and other local government workers, despite the billions they spent on it in the 2009 stimulus and a follow-up bailout in 2010. Teachers and first responders are the responsibility of States and communities and not the Federal Government who is taking Other People's Money [or borrowing from China] and redistributing it to certain states and certain teachers and first responder programs in an effort to buy votes with our money.
And though Democrat leaders like Sen. Reid and President Obama are enthusiastic about spending even more money on the same policies that didn’t work before, Politico writes, “Several moderate Democrats and Republicans appear to be struggling to overcome ‘stimulus fatigue’ setting in among voters back home and are withholding support for now — meaning the latest proposal is at risk of winning even less backing than the president’s signature economic bill, which fell nine votes shy of breaking a GOP-led filibuster last week. ‘At some point — and my opinion is now — we’ve got to stop spending money we don’t have,’ said Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who caucuses with Democrats. He told POLITICO he probably would vote to block the latest proposal from even moving forward for debate.”
Politico even noted, “‘It’s a little philosophical in the sense that I’m not sure federal taxpayers should be paying for teachers and first responders. That’s traditionally a state and local matter,’ Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) said in an interview. . . . Other Democratic moderates are far from sold. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) said he would oppose the bill but vote to begin the debate. And Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska — who face tough reelection campaigns in red states next year and were the only Democrats to vote to filibuster Obama’s overall jobs plan last week — aren’t ready to embrace the latest proposal.”
As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said today, “This is the third time in three years the President’s asked us to bail out the states. How many more times — and how many more billions — before someone realizes it’s a bad idea? More bailouts aren’t going to solve this problem. They’ll just enable it. But the bottom line is this: Everybody knows the last thing you want to do in a jobs crisis is raise taxes. It’s just common sense. The President has said as much himself. But for some reason he’s determined to keep trying anyway.”
He added, “The Majority Leader is out there telling people that Republicans are rooting for the economy to fail. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Look: if Republicans wanted the economy to fail, we’d all line right up behind the President’s economic policies, rather than opposing them. Because they haven’t solved this jobs crisis. . . . It’s completely preposterous at a time when 14 million Americans are looking for a job in this country for the President to be riding around on a bus saying we should raise taxes — on the very folks who create jobs. Think about that: We’ve got 14 million people out of work, and two self-identified conservatives for every liberal in this country, and the President’s out there doing his best Howard Dean impersonation. He’s completely out of touch.”
Tags: Washington, D.C., Harry Reid, loss of jobs, government bailouts, Barack Obama's Jobs Bill To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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