Democrats this week will try to blame Republicans for killing President Obama’s jobs bill even though many of those same Democrats don’t support the president’s proposal either.
Senate Democrats have already rewritten portions of Obama’s $447 billion job package and on Tuesday they are expected to put it to a crucial test vote, knowing that while the changes make the measure easier for fellow Democrats to support, Republican senators are going to oppose it, leaving them open to charges that they killed it.
The newest version, crafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., dropped Obama’s proposal to pay for the measure by raising taxes on individuals earning $200,000 or more a year. Reid replaced that tax increase with a 5 percent surcharge only on those earning $1 million or more a year.
Even with the revisions, Democrats, who control 53 vote, know they don’t have the 60 votes needed to actually move the bill to the Senate floor. Republicans are united in opposing any spending measure that includes a tax increase.
But what Democrats do hope to accomplish with Tuesday’s vote is to demonstrate that a majority of them, at least 51, do support the president’s efforts to create jobs while leaving Republicans the blame for killing off the massive jobs initiative at a time of high unemployment and economic uncertainty for many families.
“What will be surprising, if this comes to pass, is that so few Republicans will vote for it,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said Friday, “given that the American public so strongly supports the provisions of the American Jobs Act and is demanding quite clearly that Washington take action on the people’s number one priority, which is to do something about the economy, to get it growing, and to get hiring accelerated.”
The maneuvering in the Senate will help bolster Obama’s claims — repeated at stops across the county over the past month — that Republicans are the only obstacle to getting thousands of construction workers, firefighters and teachers back to work.
The claims are part of Obama’s re-election strategy to use congressional Republicans as a foil, but there are still a number of Democratic lawmakers who don’t support his proposal.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., a moderate facing a tough re-election battle next year, told The Washington Examiner he won’t back the plan even in its revised form.
“I think we need to cut spending in this town, not raise taxes,” Nelson said.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is among those who opposed the president’s original bill and still hasn’t agreed to back the revised version, balking at the proposal’s price tag.
If enough Senate Democrats remain opposed to the bill, party leaders may simply change it again, a move they would not rule out late last week.
“We’re talking to everyone,” Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., told The Examiner.
Senate Democrats huddled with Obama Friday to discuss the jobs package and Carney said after the meeting that the White House expects “an overwhelming majority” of Senate Democrats to support it Tuesday.
But if the bill falls short of a 51-vote majority, Democrats could have a hard time blaming the Republicans.
“The president’s proposal faces bipartisan opposition in both houses of Congress, because everyone knows that more ‘stimulus’ spending and job-killing tax hikes won’t get our economy moving again,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
