Congress might not be getting much accomplished this quarter but you can’t say they’re not trying (well, depending on your definition of “trying”). The Senate voted yesterday to not vote (yes, you read that correctly) on a measure that was billed as an “incentive to create American jobs.” The “Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act” (S. 3816) would have, among other things, offered a payroll tax holiday to companies that move jobs back to the United States. The Act would have also limited deductions and tax credits for companies who opted to move jobs offshore.
You can read (SB 3186 here (downloads as pdf).
The bill was sponsored by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) and had no support outside of the Democratic party unless you count Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-VT) who is an Independent. Opponents of the bill, however, came from both parties. The GOP unanimously opposed the bill and was joined by Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester (both, D-MT), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark Warner (D-VA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT).
Sen Mitch McConnell (R-KY) considered the bill dead in the water, saying on the Senate floor, “This is about as pure a political exercise as you can get.”
Proponents of the measure disagreed, claiming that the bill was intended to save American jobs.
In the end, the reasons didn’t matter. The Democrats did not have the votes needed to bring the bill to a vote, falling 7 short of the 60 they needed. But give them a week or so. I’m betting we’ll see this one again.
So is this an mild attempt to do away with NAFTA? Dems bring,Dems take away!
lets ot forgt cafta signed in 2005.
The use of acronyms to describe legislative bills has been discussed on the blog before. It kind of jumped out at me that with a little creative title restructuring, this one could be CAJOLE…however, that might not be the connotation they were looking for 😉
This was probably a typo, but Mark Warner is from Virginia, not Vermont.
Ooh Chris, you’re right! Thanks!