Posted on 02/10/2010 10:59:21 AM PST by BradtotheBone
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pledged Tuesday to pass a $104 billion jobs bill with the support of Republicans.
That vote is expected after next week’s recess, as the Senate will be closed on Wednesday and no more votes are expected this week because of a second major storm that is expected to blanket Washington.
Reid said Democrats would hold a special meeting on jobs legislation Thursday at 12:30 p.m. and urged all members of his conference to attend.
“I would doubt there will be any votes this week,” Reid said on the floor. “It appears, what I’ve been able to hear, that people now can’t get planes to get here, and they’re having trouble getting planes out of here.”
Reid said he is making progress negotiating the jobs legislation with GOP leaders.
“We’re going to continue to work with everyone on an agreement to move forward with this matter,” he said.
The legislation includes a payroll tax credit for small businesses that hire new workers, which Reid hopes will win over Republicans.
The provision emerged from a proposal by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) that has also been proposed by the White House.
Reid and Democrats expect to pick up Republican support for the package, which costs about $85 billion the first year and $19 billion the second year, according to a draft of the bill.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday after a bipartisan meeting at the White House that he could back separate measures “to produce immediate bipartisan accomplishments that will grow jobs here at home,” as long as they’re not attached to controversial items.
McConnell also requested that Democrats formally release the bill text so his party could read it.
“My members need to be able to feel like they understand what they are being called upon to support,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.
Senate leaders are working on an estate tax deal that could make it easier to move a bipartisan jobs bill. A deal being discussed by Reid and McConnell involves moving an estate tax bill through the Senate that would prevent a huge hike in the tax from taking effect in 2011, staffers and lobbyists say.
The agreement would provide needed Republican votes for Reid on the jobs bill and stop the estate tax from returning to a historically high level.
However, McConnell is demanding a time certain on when the estate tax would move before agreeing to any deal on the jobs bill.
The Democrats’ bipartisan push reflects the new political reality in the upper chamber. With Scott Brown (Mass.) sworn in last week as the GOP’s 41st senator, every contentious bill pushed by Democrats will need the backing of at least one member of the minority.
Reid may not be able to count on the full support of his own party for the measure, as liberal Democrats are protesting its heavy emphasis on tax breaks. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said the parts of the bill he’s seen haven’t convinced him to back it.
“Why not think about things like taxing bonuses and send money directly into small-business loans?” Brown said. “Things like that we need to be talking about, not some of the same old, same old.”
The credit for hiring new employees would be applied to workers hired between Feb. 3, 2010, and Jan. 1, 2011, who have been unemployed for more than 60 days and do not replace existing workers.
While some Republicans have offered support for the idea, others have cautioned that the tax credit didn’t work well when the Carter administration tried it in the 1970s and that businesses won’t take advantage of it until they need new workers.
The draft of the bill calls for a $1,000 retention tax credit for certain newly hired individuals in 2010. To qualify for the credit, businesses must keep workers employed for at least 52 weeks and not reduce their pay below a certain threshold. Businesses will also be able to expense $250,000 in depreciable property for 2010, up from $125,000 for last year.
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) wants to include bonus depreciation in the final package, but the provision lacks support in the House where Democrats argue it favors larger companies over smaller ones.
The draft also resuscitates a number of tax breaks that expired last year. It includes corporate provisions aimed at energy conservation and bolstering research and development, and it extends tax breaks for individuals, such as deduction for local and state taxes and relief for homeowners suffering from natural disasters.
The Congressional Budget Office has yet to score the bill’s cost. Sources said some of the provisions, including nearly half of the tax extenders and the extensions in unemployment and COBRA health benefits, aren’t offset.
Some of the measure is paid for by ending “black liquor” biofuel tax credits for paper companies; clamping down on tax shelter abuse; and using interest owed to the federal highway trust fund.
Reid late Tuesday noted that senators are having trouble catching flights into the nation's capital.
Fifteen senators missed votes on Tuesday and Democrats would likely not have enough support to pass a jobs bill by Friday, as Reid had initially planned.
This piece of crap isn’t a jobs bill, it’s porkulus 3.
As is typical for liberals - even with a job bill that will cost the taxpayers ZERO, the libs want to spend more imaginary future tax money (our grandchildren and great grandchildren get to pay the tab).
This is so very immoral - And I firmly believe, unconstitutional.
I don’t like this, but at least they killed health care, cap n tax, and card check. 3 out of 4 aint bad...
This is a rather small bill and will allow the repubs to end Dear Reader’s bs about being the party of no...
Looks like the Dems and the Pubs are up to their old tricks!
Libtards will extend unemployment benefits and call it ‘jobs’.
Anyone who votes for anything more than a tax cut, find a new job!!!NO DEBT EVER AGAIN!!!
He also pledged the same re: Cap and Tax; and 0bamaCare.
Voters need to contact their congressmen and impress upon them that "WE DON"T WANT IT!!!"
If pencil neck Cantor and the boys support this, we must throw them out of office.
They won't even let Republicans read the damned thing.
This bill has to be killed the state of ca does not need a bailout, starve the beast. Let the Patriot act die I am not a terrorist, enforce the damn immigration laws so that no one can sneak into the country especially terrorist,profile just do not invade my privacy you incompetent idiots.
The Progressive’s RINO’s Republicans will help their fellow socialist progressive democrats whenever they can.
ANY republican that votes for this bill needs to be targeted when they run for re-election in 2010 or 2012.
uh....in case you haven’t noticed...I will say it in secret... don’t tell anyone else though...none of what you have mentioned is dead yet.
Bipartisan? Really? maybe that’s why it only costs $104 billion instead of the usual $1 trillion trend we’ve been seeing over the past year. besides, this isn’t a Job creation bill. Most of it is directed to unemployment benefits.
It appears the title is a bit misleading.
The Repubs just don’t see the writing on the hand. There is a reckoning coming in November.
From Boortz today:
So the Senate has been working on this mystery jobs bill. While we have yet to see a final version, Harry Reid wants the Senate to vote on this thing ASAP. It ain’t gonna happen. We are talking about spending another $85 billion that we don’t have. So I am in no hurry to rush this puppy along without knowing a little more about it.
Here’s what we do know. It’s called the “Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act.” I just love these phony little feel-good names that politicians of all stripes give to their little bills. Only this one isn’t little. We do know some of the provisions .. try these on for size and see if you can imagine that these goodies will encourage small businessmen to get out there and start hiring folks.
•A payroll tax credit for businesses to hire and retain persons who have been unemployed for at least 60 days. (If a person has been unemployed for more than 60 days, is that the person you really want to hire? How about someone who managed to keep a job through all of this and only recently became unemployed.)
•Extensions for unemployment benefits. (Already small businesses are suffering under increased unemployment insurance costs. This is the result of continuous extensions of benefits. As long as you pay some of these people they’ll continue to sit on their asses.)
•Extensions for the 65% Cobra health insurance subsidy. (More costs for small businesses. Way to go, Democrats)
•Extension for stimulus programs: the Build America Bonds program and a small business loan guarantee. (A loan guarantee sounds like a way for the taxpayers to incur even more liabilities when businesses fail under the weight of Democrat tax increases.)
•Extension on federal funding for highways.
•Extensions on low-income housing credits. (Oh great. Just what we need. Let’s ruin more neighborhoods with Section 8 deadbeats.)
•Extensions on spending programs for energy, disaster relief. (Government spending and temporary, not permanent jobs creation)
•Extensions of Medicare payment programs. (This creates jobs how?)
•A tax to raise revenue from foreign-held assets and trusts. (Ahhhh. Another tax. And, again, this increases jobs how?)
What is the predominant word you notice here? “Extensions.” This is just another way of saying “more of the same.” Is this really what is going to turn the tide of this economy? More spending, more taxes, more government.
o_o
If the Republicans vote FOR it... they will lose all support from the Tea Partiers and others that want to get control of spending.
If the Republicans vote AGAINST it... the Democrats in November will say Republicans voted against the jobs bill and high unemployment is thus their fault.
We need to call this turd what it is, Porkulous 3, and vote against it. Don't let the democrats get away with calling it a JOBS bill.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.