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Subscribe to RSS“Senate Democrats are moving forward with a vote on legislation they say will restrict the ability of U.S. companies to move jobs overseas, even as Republicans decry the legislation as mere election-year posturing,” The Hill reports. “Democratic leaders are not optimistic they will achieve the 60-vote total needed to break a filibuster and bring the bill up for a final vote. The cloture vote is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.”
“Lawmakers are largely ignoring an Obama administration shopping list as they ready a stopgap spending bill to avoid a government shutdown at week's end. Republicans are insisting the measure be kept clean of additional spending sought by the administration, such as federal grants to better-performing schools and more than $4 billion to pay off settlements of long-standing lawsuits by black farmers and American Indians,” per the AP. “The Senate could pass the measure as early as Wednesday and the House could clear it for President Barack Obama's signature before the budget year ends at midnight Thursday.”
Not-so-lame duck? “Democrats are considering cramming as many as 20 pieces of legislation into the lame-duck session they plan to hold after the Nov. 2 election,” The Hill reports. “The array of bills competing for floor time shows the sense of urgency among Democratic lawmakers to act before the start of the 112th Congress, when Republicans are expected to control more seats in the Senate and House.”
“Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a rare appearance before a meeting of Democratic committee chairmen last week to make a direct, pre-election appeal for cash,” Roll Call reports. “The California Democrat used the session to chide the senior lawmakers for not doing enough to try to maintain the majority; she said the bulk of them — two-thirds — have yet to meet their Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee dues goals for the cycle. ‘She said, ‘Your money was budgeted for; you owe us this money,’ according to a Democratic lobbyist familiar with the meeting.”
“While their leaders have discouraged House Republicans from publicly talking about a GOP takeover in November, some senior Members are already lobbying for the party to relax its term limits for Members in top committee positions,” Roll Call reports. “After the Republican takeover in 1994, the party established six-year term limits for committee chairmen, a policy that Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) said earlier this year he intends to uphold.”
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"Senate Democrats are moving forward with a vote on legislation they say will restrict the ability of U.S. companies to move jobs overseas"
I thought the bill just removed the current tax incentives for companies to send jobs offshore, is that not true? If this is true I don't believe that it would restrict companies from moving jobs overseas, it just woud not subsidise it, big difference.
It also provides a tax break if they move jobs that are currently overseas back to the US. So no tax breaks for moving overseas, AND additional tax breaks if overseas jobs are moved back here.
Andy if what you say is correct any Congress Person that votes against the bill should be tarred and feathered then exiled from the country, I hope people and the press pay close attention to this bill.
W Bush - agree, we all need to pay close attention to this bill, if it passes or not, we need to know who voted for it and who did not, those voting for this bill are voting for the American Workers, those voting against it are voting for the mega wealthy. Pretty clear and simple.
Dems should grow a spine here and pass the bill using reconciliation if they can't get to 60. Reconciliation can be used for budget and tax items so this should qualify.
Imagine that... The Democrats once again spending money before they have it in hand then declaring they are owed the money because it was already budgeted for. It wasn't yours to spend Nancy. Time to learn the lessons main street America has known for years- live within your means, don't spend more than you bring in and don't count your chickens before they hatch! The tax payers are not Congress's personal bottomless piggy bank!
I watch the senate debate this bill on cspan - I guarantee that no republican will vote for this bill despite the fact that on the face of it seems like a good bill - for "jobs". The republicans called it "a bill that punished business for making profits". It is actually time for all of us to realize that the only ones running this country is big business and they are doing a bad job.
They are not hiring
They pay their executives too much
They let them screw up companies and walk with big severance package ie HP, Goldman Sacs...
They don't make anything anymore
They only care about the shareholders - which in reality people like to think that just cause they have 401s or money markets accounts they actually care about us - not those shareholders - I'm talking about the already rich shareholders.
They hold us hostage and threaten to leave if we don't take pay cuts, or give them tax breaks (let them leave, I think we can all survive without them - look at us now - their not doing anything for us now)
The powers to be keep the poor people supporting them because the lead us to believe that we will someday be the powers to be and we want to have it just like them "when we get there"
Cathy, I think the problem goes a little deeper. You want to look at the result but we aren't examining the problem. WHY are jobs going overseas? Because American manufacturers can't compete in the market place when faced with the high cost of US labor and environmental standards. Why aren't they hiring? Because they already have sufficient labor to supply product for the level of demand in the current market place. Why do CEOs screw up and walk away with massive golden parachutes? Because they sign contracts that guaranty them regardless of performance. Companies aren't going to hire if it's not profitable. Shareholders aren't going to keep a board of directors in place if the company isn't profitable. Companies aren't going to attract top management if they aren't offering attractive salary and benefits packages. I'm not decrying or condoning any of the actions, simply pointing out that the results we see now are because of deeper issues. In order to treat the symptoms we need to understand the disease.
Excellent Cathy, just excellent, quite true and to the point.
Suzy - perhaps what you say is true, but it also may be time for all of us to boycoyt the products made by those companies who are so greedy they prefer profits over country? Works for me, maybe we can get everyone to give it a try, that way the folks making the money will be the ones who stayed here, and I could care less if the companies who went over seas survive or not.
I'm still not sure when profit became a bad thing. I always thought it was the American Dream myself... Cuz if you're not in business to make a profit then why are you in business?
And we wonder why unemployment is near 10%? The Republicans will not vote for this for the same reason why Boehner gets 60k golf vacations financed from lobbyists...because their votes are controlled by big business and their upper class CEO base looking to make more and more money without thinking of the employees that make the day to day operations of their businesses tick.
Also makes me more critical of why the Supreme Court stated that companies can make campaign contributions...even if they are based overseas? This is a HUGE problem and this corruption needs to be cracked down on. Obama talked about this alarming trend in this year's state of the union, but no one paid attention until now (all except Justice Alito who mouthed "not true "). Wish Republicans (and I guess any congressman who votes against this bill) would worry about their constituents and the Americans they represent (especially ones out of work) and not merely the lobbyists/donors/businesses that put money in their pockets to push their agendas.