Senate Tangles on Infrastructure
As Senators return to work this week, they will resume the partisan battles over President Obama's jobs bill, as Democrats press for action on a $60 billion plan to spur new road and bridge construction.
"Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress aren’t paying attention," said the President in his Saturday radio address. "They’re not getting the message."
"Tell Congress to stop playing politics and start taking action on jobs," he added.
The title of the Obama Saturday address was "We Can't Wait to Strengthen the Economy and Create Jobs," as the White House argues that GOP lawmakers are blocking logical job creation ideas in Congress.
"The truth is, we can no longer wait for Congress to do its job," said Mr. Obama.
The truth also is that Democrats control half of the Congress, and if they are going to get anything through the Senate, there will have to be compromise with the GOP, whether the White House likes it or not.
That's the way the system works. Yes, the system isn't pretty, but that's the way it works.
And so, just like votes earlier in October on the Obama jobs bill, Democrats are likely to be short of the 60 needed to act on specific plans from the White House.
But at this point, Democratic leaders aren't making much of an effort to find middle ground - and for that matter, Republicans aren't exactly coming out of their shoes to look for a compromise solution either, as both sides emphasize the jobs ideas that they like and that the other usually does not.
Both parties are playing straight from the political playbook right now, which advises pointing the finger of blame at the other over jobs and the economy, and talking about how you support "common sense" solutions, while the other side is dominated by a bunch of ideological crazies bent on destroying the fabric of America.
The House does have several smaller jobs measures up for votes this week:
- Small Company Capital Formation Act of 2011
- Access to Capital for Job Creators Act
- Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act Those won't measure up for the White House, but it will give Republicans more ammunition to say that the House has passed almost twenty bills that create jobs, none of which have been acted on by the Senate. Meanwhile, the White House will roll out more on the "We Can't Wait" front today - a move that is starting to remind me of a battle plan from the Clinton Administration. One thing the Clinton White House did very well was to stay very disciplined and on-message, selecting one story to focus on each day. That's what has been happening over the last week with the Obama White House, as they roll out one administrative action after another on jobs, all part of their argument that the GOP Congress isn't doing anything to help the economy. We'll see what the latest installment is on Monday.
