As Obama presses passage of his jobs bill, Congress shrugs

[Poll_Blind]

From the Kansas City Star:

WASHINGTON — Congress is highly unlikely to approve the massive jobs package that President Barack Obama has been pushing relentlessly from coast to coast, day after day, for almost a month.

Republicans don't like its proposed tax increases. Some Democrats are reluctant to endorse another cut in Social Security taxes; others are wary of oil and gas tax hikes. And Obama's low approval ratings, the most dismal of his presidency, are making it hard for him to build any momentum.

When Capitol Hill lawmakers return Monday from a weeklong break, the first order of business in the Democratic-run Senate won't be the president's $447 billion jobs package — despite his daily demands to pass it now — but legislation dealing with Chinese currency manipulation.

"We'll get to that," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said of the jobs plan, which he says he supports. "But let's get some of these things done that we have to get done first."

Much more at the link. This article covers not just the disagreement between Democrats and Republicans about the President's jobs plan but the politics involved, including the likelihood that (according to Dick Durban) "...we're not going to have 100 percent Democratic senators" supporting it and the reasons behind that. The article finishes with mention of the "supercommittee", whose shadow will grow longer as we approach late November.

My experience has been that the Republicans will be able to remove what useful programs are in here and the legislation which winds up getting passed will be another abomination- which the President will hollowly hail as a victory for everyone. Par for the course for most important legislation since last December.

PB

[ixion]

1. This is why Congress' salary ought to be voted on by the public

and the public should be allowed to suspend their salaries or remove them from office at any given time, by a simple majority vote.

They work for us.

[DFW]

9. Don't forget to vote on whether they have health insurance

If we don't, they don't.

How soon after passage of such a law do you think it would be before single payer was enacted?

[ixion]

10. Yep, absolutely.

Congress shouldn't be glamorous or powerful. It is a job doing the people's business, and when you do a poor job, you lost it, along with the salary and benefits.

[rsmith6621]

2. Plain and Simple......

......Congress does not want to PISS OFF their Wall Street contributors and handlers. Until members off congress decide they are elected by the public and not a corporation we will not get past where we are at this time and place.


OCCUPY or Shut Up

[B2G]

3. Why aren't we occupying Pennsylvania Avenue? n/t

[Pirate Smile]

4. As usual, Congress is the problem. It isn't the President. It.Is.Congress.

Even when we controlled both sides - the Senate was the problem.

[ixion]

5. Well, Obama is part of the problem, too

I hoped he wouldn't be, but he is.

[Pirate Smile]

8. Not really. Gitmo isn't closed because of Congress. There wasn't a public option because of Congress

(some Senate Dems).

The reason we didn't get more progressive legislation is almost entirely because of Congress. It wasn't Nancy Pelosi. It was the Senate during the first 2 years and, now, it is because of both the House and the Senate. The House is obviously a disaster right now but the Senate requires at least 7 Republicans - more if you are dealing with Ben Nelson and Mary Landreiu - to do anything as even the Jobs Bill shows.

This Congress is truly one of the absolute worst - if not the worst in history.

The tax increases the President included are very progressive. These couldn't get approved by the all Dem-controlled Congress. The idea of the wealthiest tax payers only getting a 28% deduction instead of a 33% deduction was too much to ask. That is ridiculous.

[ixion]

11. Yes, really.

He has failed us in no uncertain terms.

[TheWraith]

13. Damn right. We don't need no stinkin' facts, we just KNOW Obama's to blame!

Fuck those elitist "facts" that tell us what to think.

[Poll_Blind]

6. BTW, buried far deeper than Jimmy Hoffa's bones is a accounting of the time when...

...we had both houses, the Presidency and still capitulated under the threat of a filibuster which never once materialized. I can't blame the burying, though- there are some big damned skeletons nobody wants to talk about, much less address. Durban's comments just brushes a bit of dirt off some of those bones.

PB

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Obamanaut]

7. And yet, the vast majority will be reelected if they choose to run. And they know it.

"We the people" vote for the "name we know."

Eddie Murphy's movie "The Distinquished Gentleman" explains it nicely.

[ixion]

14. The system is corrupt.

it's time to remove corruption from the system. They won't want the job w/o the perks and the power.