President’s Jobs
Measure Is Turned Back in Key Senate Test
Published: October 11, 2011 - New York Times
WASHINGTON — In a major setback for President Obama, the Senate on Tuesday
blocked consideration of his $447 billion jobs bill, forcing the White House and
Congressional Democrats to scramble to salvage parts of the plan, the
centerpiece of Mr. Obama’s push to revive a listless economy.
The legislation, announced with fanfare by the president at a joint session
of Congress last month, fell short of the 60 needed to overcome procedural
hurdles in the Senate.
The vote in favor of advancing the bill on Tuesday was 50 to 49. Two moderate
Democrats facing difficult re-election campaigns, Senators Ben Nelson of
Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana, joined a solid phalanx of Republicans in
opposition. In addition, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of
Nevada, switched from yes to no so that he could move to reconsider the vote in
the future.
Given Mr. Obama’s repeated demands, as he traveled the nation in recent
weeks, that Congress pass the bill intact, the Senate’s vote to block the
measure represented a significant setback and came after leaders of his own
party had adjusted the measure to include a surtax on incomes of more than $1
million to round up additional Democratic votes.
After the vote, the president criticized Republicans for balking at a measure
that included initiatives they supported in the past.
“Tonight’s vote is by no means the end of this fight,” the president said in
a statement. He added, “In the coming days, members of Congress will have to
take a stand on whether they believe we should put teachers, construction
workers, police officers and firefighters back on the job.”
Votes on pieces of the bill could begin this month, perhaps as early as next
week, Senate Democratic aides said. Party leaders said they needed to consult
their caucus before they decided on the timing or chose the provisions to be
considered separately.
Several Democratic senators said they might join a handful of Republicans in
searching for job-creation proposals that could gain bipartisan support — a
formidable challenge in a chamber where comity seems to worsen by the week.
House Republican leaders have said they do not intend to take up the
president’s bill as a whole. But they welcomed the signal from the White House
that the administration would be open to a piecemeal effort.
The House majority leader, Representative Eric Cantor, Republican of
Virginia, said he hoped “the president will drop his all-or-nothing approach and
begin to work with us on areas of commonality,” including initiatives that could
promote hiring and economic growth.
“We are willing to take up the things we can agree on,” Mr. Cantor said.
The president’s bill is a mix of public works spending and temporary tax cuts
intended to respond to what Mr. Obama calls an economic crisis and an emergency.
Senate Democrats tried to make the president’s bill more palatable by adding a
surtax of 5.6 percent, starting in 2013, on income in excess of $1 million.
As the Senate moved toward a vote Tuesday, Mr. Reid made an accusation heard
with increasing frequency from Democrats: Republicans were opposing the
president’s jobs bill because, for political reasons, they wanted the economy to
remain in bad shape.
“Republicans think that if the economy improves, it might help President
Obama,” Mr. Reid said. “So they root for the economy to fail and oppose every
effort to improve it.”
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, replied in kind.
“Democrats have designed this bill to fail — they’ve designed their own bill to
fail — in the hope that anyone who votes against it will look bad,” Mr.
McConnell said. “This whole exercise is a charade that’s meant to give Democrats
a political edge in an election that’s 13 months away.”
Senate Democratic leaders said the vote Tuesday showed that a majority of the
Senate — 51 senators, including Mr. Reid — wanted to take up the bill.
Fourteen million Americans are unemployed. The unemployment rate — 9.1
percent for the last three months — is higher than when Mr. Obama took office.
And job-creation efforts have fallen short of White House hopes. The Labor
Department says that nonfarm payroll employment totaled 131.3 million in
September, compared with 132.8 million in February 2009, when Congress approved
an economic stimulus bill championed by the president.
The jobs bill calls for $175 billion in new spending on highways and other
public works, an extension of jobless benefits and aid to states to prevent
teacher layoffs. The bill would provide $272 billion in tax relief for
individuals and businesses.
One of the more popular items in the bill is a further cut in payroll taxes,
intended to increase take-home pay for 160 million Americans. Congress last year
reduced the Social
Security payroll tax rate paid by employees to 4.2 percent, from 6.2
percent.
Under Mr. Obama’s proposal, workers would pay 3.1 percent next year, just
half the normal rate. The tax is applied to the first $106,800 of wages.
Republicans and some Democrats objected to tax proposals by the president
that would have increased taxes for many couples making more than $250,000 a
year. Democrats have rallied around the “millionaires’ tax,” a populist proposal
that they say highlights their differences with Republicans.
The roll call was held open for more than two hours at the request of Senator
Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, who flew back to Washington on
Tuesday night so she could vote for the jobs bill. She had been in Boston
accepting an award from a regional business organization.
Mr. Tester, explaining why he voted against the bill, called it an “an
expensive, temporary fix to a problem that needs a big, long-term solution.”
“We should not be sending billions of dollars in bailout aid to states,” Mr.
Tester said. “And I can’t support tax gimmicks that do little to create jobs.”
Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, voted to take up the jobs bill, but
said that he opposed the measure itself. “I do not believe that we should raise
taxes on ordinary earned income,” Mr. Webb said. “The bill should be paid for by
other means such as raising the capital gains rate or ending costly subsidies
and tax loopholes.”
Senator Joe Manchin III, a West Virginia Democrat who had expressed
reservations about the bill, also voted to begin debate and to end what he
described as a Republican filibuster.
“But let there be no mistake,” Mr. Manchin said, “if this bill does not
change, if it is not improved, if it is not more focused on job creation and
more fiscally responsible, I will strongly oppose final passage.”
The White House said it was prepared to negotiate with the handful of Senate
Democrats who resisted the bill, including Mr. Manchin, to discuss specific
parts that might win their support.
Helene Cooper contributed reporting from Pittsburgh, and Mark Landler from
Washington.