Republicans AND Democrats Killed The "Jobs Bill"

The “Jobs Bill” (referred to hereinafter as the Jobs Bill) failed in the Senate last week. Republicans voted against it. “Of course they did!” you might be saying. But several Democrats voted against this bill as well. Just some idiot defectors? Well, I don’t know about “defectors,” but some prominent Democrats were against this measure. Both Senator Harry Reid and Senator Joseph Lieberman voted AGAINST the Jobs Bill. This, I am sure, was a blast to Obama’s ego. Here is what Senator Lieberman had to say:



“If a vote was called on the American Jobs Act as it is now ... I would vote against it,” said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, who voted to proceed with debate Tuesday. “The bottom line here is that I don’t believe the potential in this act for creating jobs justifies adding another $500 billion to our almost $15 trillion national debt.”


I think this quote from Senator Lieberman says it all. Okay, almost all, anyway. There was one more little detail about the Jobs Bill. It turns out very little of the contents of this bill dealt with “creating jobs” (which the government cannot do anyway – except by taking more tax money and “redistributing it”), but instead attempted to bring some changes to the federal tax code. Here is where both Democrats and Republicans found some common ground against Mr. Obama. You see, one way this bill would “create” jobs would be by raising the tax rate for individuals who make more than $200,000 ($250,000 for couples) each year. Oops…er, um…several DEMOCRATS realized THEY were going to get hit by this little proviso. They, along with most of the Republican senators, knew that many individuals and couples fall into the “greater than $200,000 but less than $1,000,000” income range largely because these persons own small businesses, are in upper management, or serve as (ehem…) politicians.

(Free factoid: At least 80% of the jobs in the United States were created by Small Business)

Now, there are many people who are yelling that the “Republicans” killed the Jobs Bill. And of course, the bill would have survived if fewer Republicans had voted against it. But, it also would have survived if a few more Democrats had voted FOR it, as well. You have to admit, if Senator Harry Reid could not vote for this bill, there must have been something TERRIBLY wrong with it. And there was. This bill would have added many billions of dollars to our already unmanageable debt (See Senator Lieberman above). Even Senator Reid is feeling the heat as “the 99%” are getting fed up with the national debt. Granted, a small but loud portion of “the 99%” are busy occupying this place or that, but there is no real focus to their anger. And believe me, I feel the anger right there with them. But the majority of the 99% are just working folks like you and me, who literally don’t have time to “occupy” much of anything except their jobs. And the last thing they want is more taxes, especially the at least $500 BILLION the Jobs Bill proposed to ask (I mean force) the American people to pay.