GOP Kills Obama's Jobs Bills: Dems Regroup

By: Nsenga Burton | Posted: October 12, 2011 at 8:58 AM

President Obama campaigning for his jobs bill (Getty)

The Associated Press is reporting that the Senate voted to kill President Barack Obama's $447 billion jobs plan. Obama's plan died at the hands of Senate Republicans on Tuesday, even though the president had been campaigning for it across the country for weeks.

The $447 billion plan died on a 50-49 tally in the 100-member Senate, falling well short of the 60 votes needed to crack a filibuster by Republicans opposed to its stimulus-style spending and tax surcharge for the very wealthy. The tally had been 51-48, but Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) switched his vote to "nay" to reserve the right to force a revote. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is recovering from surgery and did not vote.

Now the White House and leaders in Congress are already moving on to alternative ways to address the nation's painful 9.1 percent unemployment, including breaking the legislation into smaller, more digestible pieces. And on Wednesday, both the House and Senate are poised to approve long-stalled trade pacts with South Korea, Panama and Colombia.

"Tonight's vote is by no means the end of this fight," Obama said in a statement after the vote. "Because with so many Americans out of work and so many families struggling, we can't take no for an answer." The Democrats will continue to fight for the bill and will try to reach some bipartisan agreement with the GOP.

We're just wondering why the GOP is voting against the jobs bill when they haven't offered one up. If Obama's job bill doesn't work for them, then they need to put forward a bill that does, because unemployment is chronic. The worst type of person is one who votes against something, yet fails to offer a solution.

We find it interesting that when it comes to protecting corporations and the wealthy from tax hikes, the GOP is "johnny on the spot," but when it comes to job creation, there's little to no action -- just theory. What are we worried about? The GOP is just doing what it does: looking out for the employed and privileged. We suspect that unemployed Republicans know this by now.

Read more at News One.

In other news: Christian Right Pastor Attacks Romney's Mormon Faith.

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