Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Jobs Act Failed in the Senate


According to the article, consideration for the Jobs Bill was blocked as it simply did not have ten additional votes. Now with the Democrats left to scramble and pick up pieces here and there, what will happen next.

Honestly, I was shocked by the reaction. Most everyone though that at least the Bill would be considered and at least part of it would be passed under the title of the Jobs Act. (Here's another source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20103989-503544.html.) I honestly did not think that the entire thing would get passed due to its hefty price tag of $447 billion dollars.

What do you think should happen next? And how should the Democrats save face?

7 comments:

Sophia Wienbar said...

Side note: Sorry, I didn't expect the image to be that big.

PatrickG said...

I am, unfortunately, not that surprised. If any part of the bill passed it would have been a miracle. I say this because Republicans will never let Obama succeed at anything. Ever. Period end of story. Especially now with the 2012 elections around the corner. The Republicans have decided that it would be more worth their time to prevent any progress be made under a Democratic President than help that President to do what is best for the country. The worst part is that the Democrats, instead of deciding they will also band together like the Republicans, have instead decided to divide and have a few support Obama and the others basically act like Republicans. Something else that can be applied here is the inconsistency within both parties political beliefs. Even though history has shown that Republicans have supported many of the ideas in the bill (some even came up with many of the ideas), the GOP will either a) deny they ever did and be found out on TV or b) completely ignore this statement and continue to set up every obstacle for Obama as possible. Now I can't pin all the blame on the GOP. Obama has not been strong enough during his entire presidency to really encourage Congress to pass this bill. He has compromised way to many times and his success lie mainly in foreign policy, not the economy. I'm glad he has revitalized the Obama from the 2008 elections, but it might be too late for the Obama that promised change to change anything.

Colin Grele said...

I agree with Patrick. The Republicans do not want any of Obama's ideas to succeed. All they want is for Obama to fail and get him out of the White House in after the 2012 election. However, I did think that parts of the Jobs Bill would be passed and I am a little surprised that no part of it was because there are some things in there that both parties would likely agree on. I believe that the Republicans do not want to give any credit or praise to something that Obama created.

Alyssa_Block said...

Once again, when Iw as listening to NPR earlier, and I 'm sorry I am having trouble finding the link, but the host was interviewing two senators, Republican Johnny Isakson from Georgia and Democrat Carl Levin from Michigan. While both were nearly certain that the Jobs Act would fail in the senate, there were some ideas thrown around that various components of the bill could be passed individually, which reminded me of the Compromise of 1850 (APUSH anyone?), where the components of the bill were passed in separate pieces. While it does appear unlikely that every portion of this bill will get passed, I think there is some hope that at least some of the components will get passed. Hopefully, jobs can be created from these!!!

Andrew Lyu said...

Just a quick note, it is not as if the Jobs Act has been voted against. The motion to put the jobs act onto the table for debate and consideration failed.

This is not to say that portions of the Jobs Act which both parties agreed upon were voted down. This is to say that the Jobs Act itself was not voted on at all.

Unknown said...

I also have to agree with Patrick - it seems that under a Democratic President, a number of the Republicans are inclined to play the dog in the manger - heaven forbid they hand successes to Obama to pin under his belt once they've got it in the making in their hands even if it's the only easily available way to help anyone regardless of political affiliation - better keep the country's broken bones unbandaged while a Democrat appears to run the country, leave that job for them to claim credit in case they've successfully stifled his chances at reelection and are humbly obliged to step up. I understand part of the unattractiveness of the bill came from the cost, but frankly, I liked the idea of increasing the proportionality of taxes to raise funds. I have to admit that this had never occurred to me particularly - at claims that Obama has done little for America, my family shrug and tell him that at least unlike Bush he doesn't seem to have made matters much worse - but of course some of the complainers want something to complain about.

While certainly hope that in the event a Republic wins the next election the Democratic portion of Congress won't turn up their noses that way if presented with an idea of honest merit of theirs - the political system seems to have a tendency to lock America in a fissure between political parties on a number of scales.

- Dillon Waugh

Rebecca Wysong said...

I think that the Republicans are not going to do anything for the next year and half and just wait until Obama is out of the office to do anything. Even if this bill could have helped the economy there was no way that it could have been passed. But are the Republicans hurting themselves as well? Won't this make them look foolish for not even considering the bill and could it affect them as well. I remember listening to the commentary post Jobs Speech. They had different circumstances where it would benifit either side. They stated that the Republicans do not look at something that pertains to the economy that the Democrats put forward for cconsiderarion, they will look like they are the ones not considered the "middle class". I am not sure if that is so either way something needs to be done for the government to stop being so partisan and consider the American people.