Senate Republicans Defeat Reauthorization Of Jobless Aid, Tax Cuts

[laughingliberal]

Senate Republicans and a handful of Democrats Saturday defeated a bill to reauthorize unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and a plethora of tax provisions for the middle class not because of the bill's trillion-dollar deficit impact, but because it did not include tax cuts for the rich.

"In economic times like these, 9.8 percent unemployment, you should not raise taxes on anyone," Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told HuffPost.

Two bills were defeated. By a vote of 53-63, the Senate rejected a bill by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) that would have preserved Bush era tax cuts for lower- and middle-income taxpayers, but would have allowed cuts for people earning more than $200,000 a year to expire. Four Democrats and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) joined Republicans in voting against the measure. The Senate also rejected a bill by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) that would have extended all the cuts, but not for anybody making more than $1 million.

The Baucus bill would have preserved Emergency Unemployment Compensation and Extended Benefits Programs created in 2008 as a customary response to rising unemployment. The programs provide up to 73 weeks of federally-funded benefits for when layoff victims exhaust the standard 26 weeks of state-funded aid. The programs lapsed last week, threatening a holiday cutoff for two million unemployed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/04/senate-unemployment-benefits_n_791995.html

Let's really shine the light on them-refuse to pass tax cuts for anyone until unemployment benefits are extended.

[tabatha]

1. 53-63?

That adds up to 116 and all one needs to pass is 60?

[Parker CA]

4. 53-36 nt

[madinmaryland]

6. It was 53-36.

[AC_Mem]

2. Write to your Senators

Speak your Truth - NOW!

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=IL

[Parker CA]

3. So it's clear the R's won't vote for anything but extensions for all. Where does this leave us?

What kind of F'd up compromise will the Senate Dems and WH make with these anti-American bastards?

If nothing is done and all cuts expire, there's no doubt R's will extend them for everyone permanently after they take control in January. I wouldn't be surprised to see Dem's in the Senate break ranks and support the extension either.

This entire situation is a massive communication and messaging failure that's just absolutely screwed up.

[laughingliberal]

"there's no doubt R's will extend them for everyone permanently after they take control in January."

Really? AFAIK, we still have the Senate.

[Parker CA]

15. The Dems in the Senate will not allow themselves to be branded as the party who blocked tax cuts.

With the R's on message as they'll certainly be, I see virtually zero chance for the Senate Dems to hold together and block the move. Obama could always veto, but then he'd be the president voting against tax cuts for the entire nation.

The solution, and there is one, is for the Dems to get on message now and beat the R's over the head with it for the next few weeks and months. We're already behind in the game, and have no doubt, the R's are setting this up to make the larger argument to the American public that Dems want to vote against tax cuts for everyone.

[Dulcinea]

5. So now what happens?

Will this come up for a vote again? Or are the unemployed well and truly screwn?

[BrklynLiberal]

8. The unemployed, those on Medicare, those that live on Social Security,

and virtually everyone who is not a millionaire...are very screwn.

[BrklynLiberal]

7. Is there a chance in a million that the Dems will be able to frame the message on this to show that

it is the repukes that are out there for the millionaires...and NOT the middle class and people who are NOT millionaires..
Or will the French Revolution in reverse continue???

http://markmaynard.com/?p=7501

<snip>

The best part of the article is the contribution by Thomas Frank, the author of What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. Here’s a highlight:

….Right-wing politics has become a vehicle for channelling this popular anger against intellectual snobs. The result is that many of America’s poorest citizens have a deep emotional attachment to a party that serves the interests of its richest.

Thomas Frank says that whatever disadvantaged Americans think they are voting for, they get something quite different:

“You vote to strike a blow against elitism and you receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our life times, workers have been stripped of power, and CEOs are rewarded in a manner that is beyond imagining… It’s like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy.”

As Mr Frank sees it, authenticity has replaced economics as the driving force of modern politics. The authentic politicians are the ones who sound like they are speaking from the gut, not the cerebral cortex. Of course, they might be faking it, but it is no joke to say that in contemporary politics, if you can fake sincerity, you have got it made.

And here, according to the author of the article, is the big takeaway message from all of this… “If people vote against their own interests, it is not because they do not understand what is in their interest or have not yet had it properly explained to them. They do it because they resent having their interests decided for them by politicians who think they know best. There is nothing voters hate more than having things explained to them as though they were idiots. As the saying goes, in politics, when you are explaining, you are losing. And that makes anything as complex or as messy as healthcare reform a very hard sell.”

<snip>

I am on the verge of just giving up altogether...

[leftstreet]

9. Which Dems? The 'handful of Democrats' who voted their Inner Republican?

:puke:

You ask a good question, though.
How can they possibly spin this?

[BrklynLiberal]

10. The repukes will manage to make the Dems look bad.....they always do...

and a disgusting number of Democrats in DC are complicit.

[madmax]

14. I know things are really going down the crapper when

BrklynLiberal becomes disgusted. :hug:

[BrklynLiberal]

18. I am literally numb with disappointment..

[Parker CA]

17. Getting on message strong and fast is our only hope at this point. If that fails, R's win again.

It's really baffling to me that the Dems haven't put a greater focus on the messaging and communication aspect of the debate. I'd say R's allocate at least 75% if not more of their energy to messages, while Dems focus 99% of their energy on policy alone. Even if we cut back that percentage, we'd end with a stronger message than we have and we'd still be pushing sound policy.

Something has to change.

[BrklynLiberal]

19. They have been ignoring George Lakoff for decades..at their own..and our peril.

[ibegurpard]

11. OK then...hang this around the Repukes' necks and stand fast against reauthorization of ALLof them

NO compromise on this one.
NONE!

[madmax]

13. +109 !!

[madmax]

12. Let it die and write a bill for the Middle Class

Then let them vote No.

[corkhead]

16. this should be a hugh political liability for the pukes,

but their bought and paid for corporate media will successfully drop this bag of shit in the laps of the Dems.