Reid has withdrawn cloture on the jobs/tax extenders/unemployment extension bill, signalling that he doesn't have the votes to pass it.
The $140 billion measure looks increasingly unlikely to pass — leaving thousands losing unemployment benefits every week — due to intransigence from both Democrats and Republicans. Yesterday, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) told reporters that he does not support the deficit spending. “Borrowing and deficit spending at the point of a crisis is one thing, but when you’re in recovery, borrowing and deficit spending is another thing. Borrowing during a recovery is risky because it may slow down the recovery,” he told The Hill. “If everything is an emergency then nothing is.”
Millions of people losing their sole source of income, and ten of thousands more likely to lose their jobs if this aid isn't passed isn't an emergency for Ben Nelson. The unemployed folks in Nebraska would probably disagree, and I hope he hears from them today.
Reid held instead a budget point of order vote this morning to try to go forward by waiving paygo. That vote lost 45-52, with Bayh, Begich, Feingold, Kohl, Landrieu, Lieberman, McCaskill, Menendez, both Nelsons, Pryor, and Webb voting with Republicans.
Reid is searching for alternatives to scale back the bill to try to get Dems and those "moderate" Republicans back.
Now, Obama's Democratic allies have been forced back to the drawing board in their efforts to pass the measure, which also would protect doctors from a looming cut in Medicare payments and raise taxes on investment fund managers. A new, scaled back version of the measure is likely to be revealed Wednesday afternoon.
Just on Saturday, Obama made a plea for the measure, including $24 billion in aid to cash-strapped state governments to help avoid tens of thousands of layoffs and ensure the economy doesn't slip back into a recession.
To try to revive the bill, top Democrats are expected to roll back last year's $25 a week increase in unemployment checks and give doctors just a short reprieve from scheduled cuts in their Medicare payments instead of relief until the end of next year. Democratic leaders promise to restore the $24 billion in state aid that was struck by Wednesday's vote.
So the emergency continues for the nation's unemployed, thanks to the deficit peacocks.