A Million Little Pieces: Obama's Jobs Bill Is on Hold in the Senate

OCT 13 2011, 10:04 AM ET 6

Is it dead? Will some of it pass? What will the parcels look like? Some indications on the future of the president's plan.


President Obama's jobs bill failed in the Senate this week, and now Democratic leaders will break it into pieces that, they hope, will win enough Republican support to pass.
"Tonight's vote is by no means the end of this fight," President Obama said in a statement released Tuesday night. "We will now work with Senator Reid to make sure that the individual proposals in this jobs bill get a vote as soon as possible."
What's the timeline on this? Will most of Obama's proposals pass? What can we expect the political outcome to be?
Timeline: Senate Democratic leaders will start crafting the pieces in November, according to a senior Democratic aide. They'll have to cut bargains with Republicans not just on policy, but on how to offset the new spending -- not an easy task. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said at a news conference Wednesday that the piece-drafting process has not yet begun. Realistically, it's doubtful the Senate will be able to move any part of Obama's bill before mid- to late- November.
What will the pieces look like? No one seems to know. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has floated the idea of coupling Obama's proposed national infrastructure bank with a GOP-proposed "repatriation" tax break for U.S. companies bringing their earnings back to American soil. While it sounds good on paper, Schumer's proposal could be a long shot, as Democrats have had problems with that tax proposal before.
Will Democrats stick with their proposal to tax millionaires? Most likely, but it will continue to be a tough sell with Republicans. Reid included this proposal as an alternative to Obama's suggestion to raise taxes on incomes over $250,000 and on oil companies, which could not have gathered unanimous Democratic support. Democrats can still use the millionaire tax to pay for smaller chunks of the plan, if they adjust the rate increase on millionaires, tailoring the tax hike to offset different amounts of spending.
Will most of Obama's plan pass the Senate? Probably not. While Democrats could have an easier time cutting deals with the GOP on individual pieces, Senate Republicans do not see eye to eye with Democrats on deficit-reduction mechanisms to pay for those pieces. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he opposes raising taxes on anyone -- and tax hikes are the cornerstone of Democratic "pay-fors." It's possible that Congress's deficit-reduction "supercommittee" will get roped into solving the deficit-offset issue, as Obama suggested when he first laid out the $447 billion plan. The committee must approve its deficit-reduction plan by Nov. 23, so the timelines sync up more or less.
Who will win the political fight? Obama has made the bill a high priority, knowing fully that Senate Republicans could and likely would block it. After Tuesday night's failure, Obama indicated that he would press for the individual pieces of his bill to pass. By all indications, Obama intended to hammer Republicans for opposing his package and his popular plan of taxing rich people to pay for it, but as Democrats and Republicans cut deals in the Senate, Obama will be dragged back into the ideological middle if he stumps for compromises that involve significant concessions from his own party.
Image credit: Jason Reed/Reuters

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Presidential News Conference - About Jobs and the Economy

President Obama could not have stated any better today on how people are very skeptical about congress and their failure to act. President Obama has stated his case, and has challenged the Republican led congress to come out with a jobs bill that will be accepted by the American people, if they cannot accept his. He has stated that the Republicans have not been responsive to him or to the American people. He stated that the American people most definitely favor his choice in the bill to tax the very rich to help pay for the bill, that would boost the economy and lower the unemployemnt rate by at least 2%. The Republican led Congress now are behind a rock and a hard place, as the conservative belief is to lower taxes on all people, including the rich. But if they cannot find a way to get people back to work, and to help the economy besides taxing the rich, then they will be continually accused of being a do-nothing Congress. If they go along with President Obama and tax the rich, they will be going against the basis of the conservative belief. Now it seems that no matter what decision they make, it most likely may mean the loss of their jobs.
The President again has stated his case why the Congress needs to pass his jobs bill, and bring it to a vote now. Even though the President may not have Republican support or a total support by the Democrats, he continues to believe that the Congress needs to either vote on his bill now, or come up with an alternative. He wants Congress to either vote for his bill, or explain why they will not support it, even though every aspect of the bill has been supported by both Democrats and Republicans in the past. Obama wants action now. Regardless whether the Congress agrees and passes his jobs bill or not, he wants action. He wants Congress to commit and move forward to do what it takes to get the economy going, get people back to work, and to get the infrastrucure of this country built up again.
The President belives that his jobs bill will boost economic growth. People are out of work and this is one reason why the Congress needs to act and pass a jobs bill. The President claims that he would like nothing more than to stop hounding the "do-nothing" Congress on the campaign trail as he has for the last several weeks now if they would just do their jobs and 'act'.

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By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 1:47 PM EST, Sat September 24, 2011



(CNN) -- President Barack Obama says the passage of his new jobs bill will help improve America's troubled economy.
"That's going to make a difference right away," the president told BET network. "It's estimated that that would grow the economy by an extra 2%, put a 1.9 million people back to work. Those aren't our estimates. Those are independent estimates. So that could make a difference."
The $447 billion jobs plan presented last week to Congress calls for targeted tax cuts, infrastructure spending and new job training assistance that would be paid for by ending tax loopholes for corporations and some tax cuts for American families earning more than $250,000 a year.
BET released portions of an interview Saturday that will be played in full Monday.
Obama discussed the effects of the economic crisis on African-Americans and defended his administration's efforts. He said people didn't fully appreciate the "depth" of the global economic crisis "glimmering on the horizon" when he took office.
When he looks back on his term, he said "the decisions we made were the right decisions."
"I am spending all my time in this office trying to make sure that if there's some kid in the South Side of Chicago that doesn't have a shot right now, isn't going to a good school, parent doesn't have a job, then I'm fighting for him."
Obama will deliver remarks at the Congressional Black Congress Foundation annual Phoenix Awards at the Washington Convention Center on Saturday night.

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