Senate Jobs Bill Stalled

Politico reports that Senate Democrats "will miss their self-imposed deadline for bringing a jobs bill to the floor Monday," and while DC's major snowstorm may have played some role in the delay, "it seems unlikely that Democrats would have been ready to proceed Monday, anyway."

Although both parties say Washington should be focused on jobs -- January's unemployment rate came in Friday at 9.7 percent -- Democrats can't move a bill without 60 votes, and they control only 59.

And while the storm made negotiations more difficult, aides and lawmakers say there were substantive problems, too -- and that the difficulty of reaching agreement even on a relatively small jobs bill, packed with tax cuts backed by Republicans, illustrates the tough partisan politics of the Senate as it moves toward the elections this fall.

Aides say they still don't believe the bill will receive significant support from Republicans.

Read the full story here.

Despite the slight drop in the unemployment rate in January, "the government now estimates 8.4 million jobs vanished in the Great Recession. And economists say the nation will be lucky to get back 1.5 million of them this year. They also warn it will take until the middle of the decade for the job market to return to normal."

From the AP:

The economy is growing, and normally job creation would be strengthening. But the job market is weighed down by employers who remain slow to hire because consumers are not spending enough. Companies worry about their prospects once government stimulus aid fades. They also fret about possibly higher costs related to taxes or health care measures from Congress and statehouses.

As the New York Times noted on Monday, stimulus funds that allowed states avoid laying off many of its employees are now drying up.

Federal stimulus money has helped avoid drastic cuts at public schools in most parts of the nation, at least so far. But with the federal money running out, many of the nation's schools are approaching what officials are calling a "funding cliff."

Story continues below

Congress included about $100 billion for education in the stimulus law last year to cushion the recession's impact on schools and to help fuel an economic recovery. New studies show that many states will spend all or nearly all that is left between now and the end of this school term.

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Comments

[1010TRAVIS]

The party of "no" the democrats refused to band together to pass health care.

[rottnkid]

By no means am I quitting. I'm just very frustrated by the actions of some of these people in elected office. There's always one @$$ hole holding up the process for whatever dumb @$$ reason. This is starting to get old.

[comicpro]

Unreal. Just unreal. Can you say the most inept useless,powerless,balllless body of putridness in world poitics?

[OneConservative]

Good. If the bill fails to pass, that's less slush fund money for the Democrat party.

[AMERIKA]

The Senate Dems are feckless wonders. They can do all they want to do under omnibus spending bills in reconciliation. All the rest of this noise is just the sound of their inaction and fear of taking action. From recess appointments, to forcing filibusters, to passing important legislation through any means necessary, they need to act and act now. Or they will be ex Senators and we will have to live with a Republican House AND Senate. Yikes.

[CarmanK]

Yeah, it really irks me when the President says he is so willing to be a one term president, if he has to choose between doing the right thing and nothing. I suggest, he think about the rest of us who worked to get him into office. And after 8 years of Bush, 8 years of Reagan, 4 years of HW, it is time, we dems had a president that lasts longer than 4 years. When do these guys get the message. Our country is in trouble, I know it, the tea baggers know it, even the rethugs know it, but somehow, the urgency of the situation escapes our elected officials. Scott Brown is a one term senator, because the MA voters were mad, but not stupid.

[ThankGodhesgone]

"But the job market is weighed down by employers who remain slow to hire because consumers are not spending enough.

Don't you need a job to make money to spend? Or do they think we should just charge everything, worsening the debt that we are already in over our heads?

[ladyearth]

Uh oh. Be careful. The last Republican who gave tax cuts did not tell us he was using the world for his credit card, with no borrowing limits to boot.

[Grannysue]

So the GOPERS want to do away with ALL taxes, OK, then who's gonna pay their healthcare? Wait then they will be in the same boat were all in....maybe we should take them up on it, man can you hear them all whinnen already?

[hilary916]

I wonder if the people in MA are regretting their vote yet.

[hey0there]

where can i read the full text of this jobs bill, are they reauthorizing the h1B visa guest worker program in it this year

[ramal]

Mr. Krugman is far more optomistic than am I. I would say that the country is lost. Like Poland of the 18th Century split the country up and call it a day. California and the Southwest to Mexico: the Pacific-Northwest and the border states to Canada; New England can reintergrate with the Mother Country; the South can reform the old Confedracy and the Plains and the Mid-West, well who really cares?

[irishgramm]

Gee wiz-a-roonies, the Senate can't come to an agreement to a "watered down" Jobs Bill...........Whhhhhhaaaattt a big ol' surprise, what a bunch of weenies!!! They just don't understand how precarious their "job" status is themselves...............Look, Senators, I don't what any more Republicans in the Senate or the House, so get your butts in gear and start passing what needs to be passed, cause I guarantee the far right is salivating at the thought of taking your seats away from you, and not only will it destroy what is left of the economy,those people are NUTS......I don't know how to make it clearer. No passed legislation, no Health Care Bill, no nothing except sitting around whinning, no jobs for YOU!!!!!

[billobasher]

The tea baggers are so far out there that they have now mounted a primarry challenge against RON PAUL!

Nope, they aren't extreme at all. L-O-L

[WOODSTOCKER51]

.one of their "guest speakers"............is for "civil knowledge tests"......can you picture palin..taking a test like this?.she would run out of hands to write her answers down.......lol.she has zero knowledge of american history ........it would expose her as the fruaud she is.......lol.

{1/2 the senators from red states would fail as well!....."oh how they long for those pre civil war days".....

[timewaster2dcore]

Republicans trumpet "fiscal responsibility" at any chance they get. They get away with it because the majority of Americans are dumb enough to fall for it.

A little reality check here:

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/1999/monday2.jpg

Among all those dudes, which one is the most "fiscally responsible" and to which party does he belong?

[ramal]

"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American People."---H.L. Mencken

[disgruntledprogressives]

It's obvious that the US Federal leislative process is now in total gridlock, It will remain that way as long as the 60 vote requirement in the Senate is allowed to remain in place. The only hope for relief and restoration of democracy in the US is having at least 51 Republicans elected to the Senate who will use a simple majority vote to eliminate the 60 vote super-majority requirement. The Democrats will never be able to muster the cojones to do it.

[Rachel O]

Why would they do that when they're the only ones to exploit it?