WASHINGTON – Despite a campaign-style push this week by President Obama, the Senate on Thursday scuttled pared-back jobs legislation aimed at helping state and local governments avoid layoffs of teachers and firefighters.
Obama’s three-day bus tour through North Carolina and Virginia didn’t change any minds among Senate Republicans, who filibustered Obama’s latest jobs measure to death just as they killed his broader $447 billion jobs plan last week. The 50-50 vote came in relation to a motion to simply take up the bill.
GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine joined all other Republicans in voting no, as did three Democrats, leaving a total that fell far short of the 60 needed to proceed.
“We cannot rely on permanent tax increases to plug budgetary holes in the short term, especially during this time of unprecedented economic stagnation and rampant national unemployment,” said Snowe.
Thursday’s $35 billion measure combined $30 billion for state and local governments to hire teachers and other school workers with $5 billion to help pay the salaries of police officers, firefighters and other first responders. Republicans called it a temporary “sugar high” for the economy.
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