Today in Washington, D.C. - Sept 22, 2010 - Dems Again Prioritize Partisan Bill To Save Their Own Jobs Over Saving Jobs For Ordinary Americans

The Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 3454, the Fiscal Year 2011 Defense Authorization bill. No votes are expected today. Yesterday, Democrats failed to get the 60 votes needed to take up the Defense Authorization bill which Democrats wanted to use as a vehicle for controversial policy measures ike repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the “DREAM Act.”  But don't be fooled, Harry Reid is not backing down. The Defense Authorization Bill does not need or require these items which previously failed to be passed. Expect more from Reid and other liberals during the lame Duck Session of Congress.

Tomorrow afternoon, the Senate is scheduled to vote on reconsidering cloture on the motion to proceed to Democrats’ partisan Disclose Act bill, S. 3628. When the bill was last voted on in July, cloture failed by a vote of 57-41.

Just yesterday, a Gallup poll found that “[t]he economy in general and the specific economic problem of unemployment or lack of jobs far outpace all other issues when Americans are asked to name the most important problem facing the country.” Asked what the most important issue is, 33% of respondents named the economy and another 28% cited jobs and unemployment.

Yet Democrats have apparently decided the only jobs they’re interested in saving at the moment are their own. Recall that the Disclose Act is designed to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which struck down certain limits on campaign speech. The bill is transparently partisan: it was written by the man in charge of electing Democrats in the House, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and the man who just recently had the equivalent job in the Senate, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). And the senator currently charged with electing Democrats to the Senate, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), took to the floor this morning to advocate for it.< But it gets even more absurd. Politico reported last night, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just scheduled a vote on the DISCLOSE Act, which would force donors to publish their involvement in political ad campaigns, for Thursday. Why not [Wednesday], you might ask? Because there are no votes in the Senate scheduled for [Wednesday]. And that may be, in part, because there's something else going on [Wednesday]: A big New York fundraiser for the Senate Democrats. . . . The event has prices raising up to $15,200, but a mere $2,500 contributed or raised buys you access to a ‘VIP reception with members of Congress.’ . . . And then, it's back to D.C. to get all that big money out of politics. The source who sent this one over puts it in the ‘you can’t make this up category.’”

In other words, Democrats have put off addressing the economy or impending tax hikes to vote on a bill that they claim is to reign in big money in political campaigns. But they put the vote off for another day so they could raise some big money for their political campaigns.

Sen. McConnell blasted the Democrats’ priorities today, saying, “[A]fter spending the past year and a half enacting policies Americans don’t like, [Democrats] want to prevent their opponents from being able to criticize what they’ve done. . . . That's it. It’s that simple.  . . .  It seems like the more Americans say they want Democrats to focus on jobs. . . . the more determined they are to press ahead with some piece of legislation aimed either at killing private sector jobs or preserving their own. Here we are, in the middle of a recession, with 27 states yesterday reporting increases in unemployment, 14 million Americans looking for work, and a national debt that’s putting the very future of the American Dream in jeopardy, and here we are voting on a bill that amounts to little more than an incumbency protection act for Democrats in Congress. If Americans are looking for one final piece of evidence in this Congress that Democrats have lost perspective, then this, Mr. President, is it.”

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