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Senate’s ‘First Step’ Jobs Bill Moves to Vote
The U.S. Senate cleared the way last night for a vote this week on a jobs bill that must be just the first step in closing the nation’s staggering 10 million jobs deficit created by years of Wall Street recklessness and failed Bush-era economic policies.
By a 62-30 vote, the Senate broke a filibuster against the bill. Five Republicans voted to end the filibuster and one Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), voted against the cloture motion.
The bill includes a one-year extension of the federal highway program, aid to state and local governments for school, energy and other infrastructure projects and tax incentives for employers to hire workers. But AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says that without “bigger and bolder actions” the $15 billion legislation:
is merely a Band-Aid on an amputated limb. [Majority Leader] Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said this bill is just the first step and more actions need to be and will be taken. We couldn’t agree more….We need 10 million jobs and Wall Street and the rich—who have benefited for years from Bush’s economic policies—need to pay to rebuild the economy and middle class they destroyed.
Following last night’s vote, Reid told reporters that the bill:
is not the only jobs bill that we’re going to be dealing with. We have a jobs agenda, not a jobs bill. We’re not going to stop until every American who wants a job can get one.
Trumka says the AFL-CIO’s five-point jobs program is the model around which effective jobs legislation should be built. It includes:
- Extending unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, food assistance and health benefits;
- Rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and investing in green jobs;
- Increasing aid to state and local governments to maintain vital services, especially schools and public safety;
- Increasing funding for neglected communities to match people who want to work with jobs that need to be done;
- And using leftover bank bailout funds to get credit flowing to small businesses for job creation.
Says Trumka:
America’s workers need jobs now. We need action from Washington now. The Senate should bring big and bold jobs bills to the floor. It’s time to let the American people know where their representatives stand on the most crucial issue of our time—and it’s time for action, not excuses.
Republicans voting to end the filibuster were Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Scott Brown (Mass.), George Voinovich (Ohio), Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Christopher Bond (Mo.).
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6 Comments
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It will mean that the tin can will continued to be kicked down the dirt road,no accountability or no assumed responsibility to the union workers or working family that votes.A lot more of american hopes that will be broken.Good union jobs are always needed now.No one ever wants to step up to the plate to do things now,action now,it’s either shit or get off the pot!There will always people pulling the strings.Same old politics that don’t work.Wake up and smell the coffee.Charity starts here home in America,American borns need good-union jobs,not going into your retirement to pay for federally stimulus cobra/cobra,and other things that go on in a typical day that most people complain.Like illegal aliens getting welfare and medicaid that a blue-collar pays through high taxes when worked.When your unemployed and the gov’t turns you down for medicaid.The only good thing the gov’t has done was extended unemployment and raised the benefit $100 monthly and federally subsidized the cobra.That is meant by a bandage on an amputated arm.Union jobs are critical now!!!!!!!!!
Let’s think outside the box. We need a Federal Jobs program (WPA) like the one they had during the Great Depression. We need more government, not less right now.
WELL WITH THE U S SENATE NOW HAVING SCOTT BROWN MADE IT EASIER TO HAVE A VOICE OF HONESTY , TRANSPRENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY , THAT IT DID NOT HAVE BEFORE IN THE U S SENATE WHICH HAD CONTROLED THE U S SENATE THE LAST 3 YEARS ! THERE WAS THE PROBLEM IN AMERERICA AND FOR AMERICANS .
CAN THE AFL-CIO TELL ALL UNIONS IN AMERICA , WHO WILL GET THE JOBS , MOST OF ALL THIS MONEY WILL GO TO BUILD HWYS AND ROAD CONTRUCTION IN AMERICA , WHO WILL GET THE JOBS , ACORN WORKERS , FOREIGN BORN WORKERS COMING IN BY 125,000 A MONTH WITH WORK PERMITS , AND OR THE ILLEGALS WITH FONY PAPERS , WITH NO USE OF E VERIFY , WHY OUR THE UNIONS , STAND ASIDE AND LETTING THIS ONSLOT OF AMERICANS JOBS FOR AMERICANS , ITS OUR TAX MONEY AND IT SHOULD BE AMERICAN BORN CITIZENS GETTING JOBS IN AMERICA . THERE GOING TO SPEND A BILIION THIS YEAR AND GIVE IT TO ACORN WORKERS TO DO THE CENSUS IN AMERICA ABOUT A MILLION JOBS FOR THEM , AFTER THEY WILL BE BACK ON UNEMPLOYMENT AGAIN , AND OR PELOSI IS GIVING THEM 8.7 BILLION OVER THE NEXT 4 TO 6 YEARS , HOW ABOUT WORKING BORN AMERICANS , HOW ABOUT THERE AMERICAN DREAM ? , HOUSE, CAR , FOOD , KIDS , ETC, OUR MONEY , OUR TAX MPONEY IS GOING TO THESE CORRUPT GROUPS OF PEOPLE AND WE OUR PAYING FOR IT IN EVERY WAY !
FRANKIEBOY IS RIGHT ON IN THE WAY HE IS THINKING AND TALKING , WE NEED MORE OF THE FRANKS TO STAND UP IN THE COUNTRY SPEAK THE TRUTH ABOUT UNIONS AND POLITICS , ACCOUNTABILITY , TRANSPRENCY AND HONESTY IN AMERICA FOR ALL AMERICANS AND ALL AMERICAN WORKERS AND VOTE CANCER AND CORRUPTION OUT OF OFFICE ! WE THE PEOPLE , FOR THE PEOPLE , BY THE PEOPLE . WE LIVE BY A CONSTITUTION AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS , NOT BY THE WILL OF MAN AND WHAT HE THINKS , BUT WHAT WHAT AMERICANS THINK , THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE . GOD BLESS ALL AMERICANS AND ALL OUR TROOPS FOR OUR FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY
Frankieboy, I felt your frustration where you stated “American born need good-union jobs” hopefully, Sen. Harry Reid words will be action to make “Wall Street and the rich to pay from years of Bush’s economic policies. All they need to do is bring back the record-keeping ergonomic bill that President Clinton had in Congress before he left office. The economy’s relaying on computer and energy.
Everything that’s made has the microchips installed. Could the majority in Capitol Hill, invested in these chips to avoid embarrassment against Bush vetoed of the ergonomic bill? We will see next month how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will rule for the Dept. of Labor proposal for record-keeping.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s jobs bill, the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act (S.AMDT.3310 to H.R.2847) has two major tax provisions:
(1) an exemption from payroll taxes for employers who hire new employees in 2010 and
(2) a $1,000 tax credit for employers who keep those employees for at least 52 weeks.
However, the bill DOES NOT require that these new workers be American workers or that employers use E-Verify to confirm that the workers hired are legally authorized to work in the US.
HIRE Act. Hire whom? Visa workers and illegal immigrants?
Email your Senators and demand they vote NO on the HIRE Act unless or until it includes a mandate making it applicable to LEGAL US workers only.
US Senate Contact Page
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=state&Sort=ASC