Reid removes large chunks of Baucus Jobs Bill.

[SirNitram]

Link

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is rewriting a jobs bill after Democrats complained of too many concessions to Republicans.

Reid announced Thursday that he would cut back on the jobs bill Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) introduced only hours earlier, essentially overruling the powerful chairman.

“We’re going to move this afternoon to a smaller package than talked about in the press,” Reid said.

The bill now include four components: tax credits for employers who hire new workers; a provision allowing businesses to write off the cost of capital investments; Build America Bonds, which allow state and local governments to lower their borrowing costs; and a one-year extension of funding for transportation programs in the Surface Transportation Act.

Baucus had stuffed the bill with many provisions that Democratic senators thought went beyond the goal of creating jobs, such as $31 billion in extensions to expiring tax provisions, including the research and development tax credit. That and other tax cuts were included to win GOP votes.

Reid said he made the decision to rewrite the bill before meeting with skeptical Democratic colleagues on Thursday afternoon.

Democrats complained the bill did not focus enough on job creation.

“I would prefer a jobs bill that simply focused on job-creating initiatives, this bill has become something more than that,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), who led early negotiations to produce a jobs bill, said before the meeting. “Maybe that’s what has to be done in order to get some bipartisan support.”

Reid said he decided to rewrite the legislation to send a clear message to people struggling financially in the midst of the biggest national recession since the Great Depression.

“The message is so watered-down with people wanting other things in this big package,” said Reid.

This should be SOP until the Financial Committee is not run by people so on the take, Mafia lawyers feel sick.

[Molyneux]

well.
That's vaguely heartening, in a meandering sort of way.

All I can say is - about damned time that they stood up for their own party on something!

[Patrick Degan]

Harry Reid's demonstration that he has a spine will, I'm sure, be only a passing moment and he'll be happily rewriting every tax break back into the bill just as soon as the first available Republican whispers "boo" at him.