October 12, 2011
RIDING THE WEAK UNICORN:
Obama Loses Big on Jobs Bill (Patricia Murphy, Oct 11, 2011, Daily Beast)Nothing quite illustrates the depth of Barack Obama's weakness in Washington better than the painfully public defeat the Senate handed him Tuesday by blocking his signature "American Jobs Act."
The cleverly named bill was sold as a paid-for, bipartisan package of cures for the country's anemic job market. But the Senate soundly defeated the measure, leaving it eight votes shy of the 60 that Obama needed just to get the Senate to consider it. Worst of all for Obama were the defections of two of his fellow Democrats, which limited the bill to getting more than a bare majority, as well as the declarations from several more that they would vote against the package if the Senate ever did consider it for an up-or down vote.
The defeat was a sharp rebuke for Obama that amounted to a vote of no confidence on the economic policies of recovery spending that he's championed for years, namely his idea that flooding the economy with public money will jump-start the private sector. But even Obama's fellow Democrats seem to have developed sufficient spending fatigue to put the brakes on new outlays, while the most moderate Democrats say the economy will never recover as long as the deficit continues to spiral out of control.
Posted by oj at October 12, 2011 6:44 AM
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