Its The Economy Stupid

The Democrats have been given the biggest break ever. The question is what will they do with it?

Shortly after the vote, the majority leader, Senator Harry Reid, turned to the small-business bill, one of the few items left on the Senate’s dwindling agenda before the August recess. Indeed, it had been on the floor intermittently over the last several weeks, only to be pulled to make way for other legislation including the extension of unemployment insurance.


But with some Democrats viewing the small-business bill as critical to their political prospects in November, Senate Republicans were not about to let it through easily, and have insisted on a chance to offer amendments.


In a bid to save the bill, Democrats released a new version of it on Wednesday night without a $30 billion lending program. But Mr. Reid immediately introduced an amendment that would restore the fund, and he continued to block any Republican amendments. Democratic aides said talks with the Republicans would continue, and they were still hopeful that some form of the measure would be approved.


President Obama called on the Senate to approve the bill in a statement in the Rose Garden on Monday. “We all have to continue our efforts to do everything in our power to spur growth and hiring,” he said. “And I hope the Senate acts this week on a package of tax cuts and expanded lending for small businesses, where most of America’s jobs are created.”


He also raised the issue in his weekly radio and Internet address on Saturday. The White House said Mr. Obama would continue pushing for the bill.


“Small businesses are the engine of private sector job creation, and the president will fight against any attempts by the partisan minority to block progress on legislation that helps our economic recovery,” a spokeswoman, Amy Brundage, said.


Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana and chairwoman of the small-business committee, who is a main author of the legislation, said the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, seemed intent on denying Mr. Obama and the Democrats a chance to pump up the economy ahead of the midterm elections.


“I think Senator McConnell knows and believes this bill could actually create millions of jobs and doesn’t want to give the president and Democrats credit for doing what we do, which is standing up for the middle class,” Ms. Landrieu said.


“If Democrats don’t stand for small business, I don’t know what we stand for,” she added. “I don’t want to go into this election standing for Wall Street and big business.”


The main point of disagreement is the centerpiece of the legislation: a proposed $30 billion lending program that would make credit available to small businesses through local banks. Some Republicans have decried the proposal as a mini “bailout” and said they would vote against it.


The most prominent potential Republican supporter of the bill, Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and the senior Republican on the small-business committee, said Wednesday that she firmly opposed the $30 billion program because it echoed the huge bailout of Wall Street, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which has become a political liability for lawmakers who supported it even though many economists say it was a success.


“It has all the quality and features of the TARP program,” Ms. Snowe said in an interview outside the Senate chamber. “I think we’ve been down that road.”

NYTimes

Now Olympia Snowe basically signaled, whether she was trying to help Democrats or not, what the tact will be from Republicans to try to turn folks against the bill. They are going to call it TARP II or some such to try to demonize the bill.

First off if they try it the Democrats can co opt the message. The primary problem folks had with TARP wasn't the size or how effective it was, because in the end most realize it worked. The problem for most folks was that TARP was a bailout of the assholes who got us in this mess while the average person on "Mainstreet" was neglected.

So hey, Democrats can call this TARP II, a bailout of mainstreet. A bailout of the little guy. A bailout for the folks who weren't doing anything wrong but still got killed by the recession.

Framing a bailout as one that targets mainstream is pretty much a winner. It has the advantage of both being true AND of putting Republicans in a defensive posture for not supporting a bailout of mainstreet.

But on another front this situation can be pushed for as long and as hard as Democrats want to. THE number one issue in the midterms will be the economy. So how do you build up momentum going into the elections? You be seen fighting your ass off to create jobs.

One of the main tactical problems I have with Harry Reid is he hates taking losses. If he doesn't have the votes for cloture on a particular bill then he simply will never file for cloture. But while this keeps his scorecard pretty it allows Republicans to avoid taking tough votes. And in fact it lets some of his corporate Democrats off the hook as well. But he is looking to get reelected this fall as well so maybe, just maybe self preservation will kick in.

Think about the reprecussions if he decides to stay in session until a jobs bill of some sort gets passed. If he says screw an August recess and the one issue the Democrats are working on every day is jobs jobs jobs. And every day conversely the Republicans are seen working against jobs jobs jobs. And the media will have no choice but to cover it because staying in session through a recess is not a "normal" thing. So every day you get wall to wall coverage of Democrats going on the floor to yell at Republicans to let them pass a jobs bill. And every day you see Republicans squirming trying to figure out how to combat the line that they don't want to bailout mainstream.

It would make for compelling TV.

I realize this is probably a pipe dream but if it happened it would undoubtedly be a game changer. One that you can't buy. One group is fighting for jobs, one is fighting against and there won't be any bs excuses this time about it not being paid for because it IS paid for.

Lets hope someone has the sense to pick up on this...

Contradiction

I admit I'm late on this one but something just occured to me today.

How is it that last year when Democrats were trying to pass the stimulus bill Republicans kept saying that the government can't create jobs and then when Democrats were trying to pass the health care reform bill Republicans kept saying they should be focused on trying to create jobs instead and nobody ever called them out on this contradiction?

Might be something to remember going forward when Democrats try to pass more jobs bills through Congress to bring down the unemployment rate.

You Don't Say...

So Harry Reid rejects the Republican compromises in the jobs bill, pares it down to just the essentials which are very popular, doesn't rely on vote counting for once and puts the bill up for cloture and magically the Democrats overcome a filibuster gaining 5 Republican votes giving the bill an up or down vote.

Mind you ConservaDem extraordinaire, and a real asshole IMHO on a personal level, Ben Nelson voted against it, AND Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg was out with illness.

Almost makes you think that maybe Harry Reid should put Republicans on the spot more often....

Picture That

This However WAS Encouraging

It seems that Harry Reid is tired of letting President Baucus run the show and he's not going to play Charlie Brown to the GOP's Lucy anymore. (or at least not in this instance.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is rewriting a jobs bill after Democrats complained of too many concessions to Republicans.

Reid announced Thursday that he would cut drastically back on the jobs bill Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) introduced only hours earlier, essentially overruling the powerful chairman.

The Finance Committee estimated that Reid’s proposal would cost approximately $15 billion.

The Baucus bill, which was estimated at $85 billion, included $31 billion in tax extenders that Reid has decided to leave out. A Senate Democratic leadership aide said Reid decided to drop the tax extenders after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to endorse the Baucus package.

“We’re going to move this afternoon to a smaller package than talked about in the press,” Reid said.

Max Baucus, after totally fucking up the health care reform bill, tried to make this jobs bill as Republican as possible. He has shown that he can't be trusted to handle major Democratic legislation. And its good to see that finally Reid has woken up to that fact.

President Obama On Job Creation

Mike Pence PWNED On Stimulus Criticism

I guess the one small saving grace for Mike Pence is that even with all of his unfounded and irrational criticism of the stimulus bill, he didn't put us a ridiculous YouTube of him searching for jobs with a bloodhound.

From the Evansville Courier and Press of Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS — More than 2,400 people are now at work on federal stimulus-funded roadway projects in Indiana, according to a state report being released today.

Covering 83 projects and listing a total payroll of $2.8 million, the Indiana Department of Transportation report details only a small fraction of the hundreds of projects so far selected for funding using the $440 million the agency received under the American Relief and Recovery Act.

Economists say it's too early to tell whether the long-term value of President Barack Obama's economy-boosting effort will justify its $787 billion cost. But construction executives say stimulus-funded projects certainly have created jobs and spared layoffs within the industry.

"Things were slowing down, and the stimulus filled in the gap," said Tim Mahoney, an economics professor at the University of Southern Indiana.

"It has kept people employed that would be laid off."

It's tough to tell exactly how many new jobs are being created or old jobs are being saved by stimulus projects that range from repaving roads to laying new ones.

"On all these stimulus programs, the anticipation is greater than the reality in terms of getting the money spent and getting the jobs created," Mahoney said. "Just by the nature of a public works program, it just takes awhile to get geared up."

Nonetheless, INDOT has been among the quickest state transportation agencies in getting projects under way.

The nature of construction industry work already causes a great degree of fluctuation in employment numbers.

What's clear is that the stimulus projects have boosted an industry otherwise floundering in Indiana.

The work is badly needed. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, Indiana's construction industry has lost nearly 24,000 jobs over the last two years.

"In general, it definitely puts our people to work," said Pete Bjorkman, the chief estimator for Evansville-based J.H. Rudolph.

"We've been struggling here just due to the recent economic woes we've been through."

Bjorkman said the company has a core group of workers that are among the first called to begin projects each year. The stimulus, he said, has allowed the company to rehire those core workers.

He said in the construction industry, a better measurement is how many hours are available for everyone from truck drivers to project managers.

"Our crews are going to be working more hours and more days because of this ...," he said. "It is creating more crew hours for our people that wouldn't have been there before."

Mahoney said it's early, but signs are beginning to point to slow progress, in part thanks to the stimulus package.

"I think the markets are starting to look and say 'OK, there are some of these projects that are starting to pay off,'" he said. "But the private sector is still coming back slowly. Public dollars mean an awful lot to that (construction) industry."

I wonder if Pence will go home during August break and tell these people that they are all failures and that they don't count.

Some how I doubt it.

(h/t Greg Sargent)

Stimulus In Action

Man, I guess government CAN create jobs.

CHICAGO — The 250 workers who staged a December sit-in at a Chicago window factory to protest losing their jobs were celebrating Thursday, after another window manufacturer announced plans to reopen the plant and start hiring back the displaced workers within months.

The sale of what had been Republic Windows and Doors to a California company, Serious Materials, for $1.45 million, was completed in bankruptcy court this week, with company officials promising United Electrical Workers Local 1110 to rehire all the laid-off workers at their former rate of pay.

“We see this opportunity to expand our operations in direct relation to the stimulus package, which includes the greening of federal buildings and the weatherization assistance program,” said Sandra Vaughan, the chief marketing officer for Serious Materials, which also manufactures energy-efficient windows and building products in Boulder, Colo., and Vandergrift, Pa.

Suck on that Michael Steele. That is after you finish up with Rush lol.