Dems scramble to pass jobs bill

[1776Forever]

Source: POLITICO

By LISA LERER | 3/1/10 5:07 AM EST

Democratic leaders scrambled during the weekend to overcome a series of roadblocks that have slowed progress on even the initial phases of their jobs agenda.

House leaders are confident they’ll be able to move a jobs bill this week. But in the Senate, quick passage of popular unemployment benefits seems far less certain.

Democrats were eager to blame the GOP for the holdup, pointing to Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning’s one-man filibuster of legislation extending unemployment benefits, transportation funding and other programs set to expire Sunday.

Bunning’s stand is likely to leave unemployed workers without benefits for several days — and looking for someone to blame.

“Where is the Republican leadership?” asked Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow. “Are they going to stand up and stop this, or are they going to continue by their silence to be supporting what Sen. Bunning is doing?”.......

Liberal Democrats would like the legislation to include more money for job training, and programs for summer jobs programs and public-sector jobs that were included in the $154 billion the House passed in December.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33669.html

[ixion]

1. The spin in this article is typical

Rethugs get a pass, Dems get (not-so-subtly) get characterized as "scrambling", "eager to blame", "liberal Democrats" all which work to undermine the Dem leadership.

And it works because the Dems rarely push back.

[1776Forever]

2. Both the Dem's & Repub's are to blame on this one - Reid should not have put UE in a separate bill

I have no idea why the Unemployment Extension and the other measures were put in a different bill. If anyone can explain to me why it was done please do so.
:shrug:

[ixion]

3. Oh, I agree... was just talking about the bias in the article

:)

[1776Forever]

4. I see your point on that issue.

:thumbsup:

[CherokeeDem]

5. I lost benefits as of midnight...

As I understand it, the UE issues were already in another bill leftover from legislation that did not get enacted before the end of the year. Reid decided to pull the UE benefits extension from the jobs bill and "clean up" outstanding bills. At least that is an explanation I heard last week on MSNBC, if you can believe them. Go figure...they play games and we get screwed.

[1776Forever]

13. I agree totally! This crap has to stop and they need to realize how much damage they can cause!

When I watch CSPAN Congressional coverage sometimes there are people talking about the stupidest things! One day they were discussing giving an award to a NASCAR team that won 4 races! I just could not believe that it took them over two hours to discuss this award they wanted to give and it was Dem's and Repub's talking!

Then another day they wanted to give an award to a golf course somewhere in ME - OK fine - BUT why can't they do all this award stuff in a different forum or cut it down more and get to the REAL business that makes our quality of life better! We the PEOPLE have the right to ask that of our Public Servants!

:fistbump:

[True_Blue]

16. Same here, but you can still file for the extension

Another DUer told me to file anyway. I called DES today and they also told me that I still needed to file for the extension, so I did.

[True_Blue]

15. Because the Republicons were filibustering everything

For the last couple of weeks it was in the Jobs Bill but there were signs that the Republicons were going to load up that jobs bill with every sort of earmark, and then vote against it. Harry split out this portion of the bill for emergency consideration thinking it would have better chance at passing.

[Cosmocat]

6. It makes me want to pull my hair out ...

MSM is under two orders, the Ds are ALWAYS in trouble in some way, the Rs are always to be spun positively if at all humanly possible, and are not to be out can out called for the douchebags they are at any time ...

[lonestarnot]

7. Guess that's our job. Do we get paid for that? And if we do are we 1099'd?

[NJmaverick]

9. Politico is a republican owned and run website

[Myrina]

8. ... is this a better bill than the last POS that almost got thru ...

... in late January or is this the same one? :shrug:

[wowimthere]

10. Where are the teabaggers now?

[Better Believe It]

11. Where is the Democratic leadership to stop the Republican obstructionists?

That's the real question.

One would think the Democrats were in a small minority in Congress and that the Republicans had won the 2008 elections by a landslide.

Has anyone ever seen a weaker group of Democrats in Congress than the current bunch?

[lsewpershad]

12. Time to consider

Scrapping the senate entirely. It's proveing to be obstructive and useless.

[1776Forever]

14. Please see my reply in post #13! Couldn't agree more!

Something has to give here!

[True_Blue]

17. So where are the Repubs to call out Bunning on this?

How much more obvious can they be? The entire GOP plan is to make the government as dysfunctional as possible so the Dems look incompetent. They will keep people from getting unemployment benefits and then FOX will talk about how the Dems are causing people to lose their homes and starve. They would rather have people die or live on the street than do anything that makes the Dem's look good.T