The Obama administration continued its policy of submitting to Republicans and getting little in return, managing to pass a much-scaled down deficit reducing jobs bill on Wednesday in the Senate, while proposing to cut food stamp benefits.
Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine joined Democrats to break the filibuster in a 61-38 vote, advancing the $26 billion bill that would help to preserve teachers’ jobs and other public sector employees across the U.S. Although the bill reduces the deficit by $1.3 billion over ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and is paid for through offsets, including cuts to food stamps and the closing of corporate tax loopholes, 38 Republicans voted against the bill.
Final passage of the bill in the Senate is expected by the end of the week.
Shortly after the bill’s passage in the Senate caucus, Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted that she would be calling the House back into session early next week, to approve the legislation once the Senate votes.
The bill, which extends last year’s stimulus law, would provide $10 billion for additional support to local school districts to prevent imminent layoffs. The remaining $16 billion will help cover the federal government’s share of Medicaid spending or FMAP in the first six months of 2011.
While it is estimated that the bill would help keep nearly 140,000 educators employed next year, expenditures are offset in part, by a return of food stamp benefits to levels under the pre-Recovery Act Law, effective March 2014.
So, Democrats passed a deficit reducing jobs bill today by further squeezing the poor and the powerless!
