Democrats Race To Meet Jobs Bill Deadline
Democrats are racing to hash out the details of a jobs bill by a self-imposed Monday deadline — and working overtime to gain the Republican votes they’ll need to pass it.
Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Max Baucus spent Thursday in a flurry of delicate negotiations with Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch , with aides going back and forth on the details of a tax-focused jobs bill.
The bill has shifted from a sweeping piece of legislation to a smaller, bipartisan bill — loaded up with tax cuts to gain Republican support. With Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown’s swearing-in Thursday evening, the Democrats no longer have the 60 votes they need to overcome a GOP filibuster by themselves.
“We are completely changing the strategy to go for a bill that can get Republican buy-in and pass,” said a Democratic aide.
But Hatch says there are still major difference to work out — including disputes over how to pay for the job help in the bill.
“It always comes down to the payfors,” he said. “Nobody likes the pay-for side of it.”
Baucus, the chairman of the Finance Committee, and Grassley, the ranking Republican on it, are taking the lead in negotiations — even as some Democrats doubt their ability to cut a deal after failing to produce a bipartisan health care bill last year.
Moderate Democrats — spooked by the loss in Massachusetts last month — are putting intense pressure on leadership to move a jobs-focus bill before the Senate leaves for February recess. They demanded that Baucus forgo marking up the legislation in his committee, fearing that it would slow down movement of the bill.
“We need to act quickly,” said Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.). “We can’t take too long — we’ve got to move.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says Republicans will pay the price if they don’t back the bill.
"It'll be so glaringly apparent to the American people if we don't get a few Republican votes to support us that they are not interested in any success to the American if they are continually going to say no,” he said.
But Republicans expect to extract a price for any support they offer.
Grassley is demanding that any bill he negotiates be kept out of what one of his aides called a “Dems-only spending fest.” He also wants a commitment that Democrats will take up the estate tax in a “timely manner” — as well as an extension of a series of corporate tax breaks like the research and development credit.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told POLITICO on Wednesday that “there’s a lot of work going on to try to figure out what ought to be in, what ought not to be in, how much is going to be paid for, how much isn’t.”
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Baucus and Schumer wrested the lead on the package from Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, who were originally tasked by Reid late last summer to craft a jobs bill. Dorgan and Durbin spent months gathering 121 policy proposals grouped in broad categories like small-business job creation, green technology, infrastructure development and the protection of public sector jobs.
A draft circulated last week put a price tag at roughly $80 billion.
But after the Republicans won the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat — and lost their 60th vote — Democratic strategists urged leadership to avoid producing a bill that could be seen as heavy on spending.
“There was a second thought given to whether a package heavy in spending that could easily be branded as a second stimulus was the right thing to do,” said a Democratic aide.
Baucus and Schumer approached Reid with the idea of dropping the Durbin-Dorgan proposal in favor of running a tax-focused bill out of the Finance committee. Schumer already had agreement from Hatch on an unemployment tax credit — a proposal he first suggested to the Utah Republican before the holiday vacation.
Baucus said his plan wasn’t necessarily a better approach — just a more practical one.
“It’s just that I’d like to get something done, something passed,” he told POLITICO. “That means we have to talk to Republicans.”
Dorgan said he still plans to push for other pieces of his proposal.
“This jobs agenda is not going to end Monday,” said Dorgan.
Details of the negotiations have been slowly emerging. Republicans are pushing for the so-called “doc fix,” a one year suspension of cuts in Medicare payments to doctors. Democrats want to include a one-year reauthorization of the highway trust fund — estimated at nearly $20 billion. Democrats would also like to extend unemployment insurance payments and Cobra health benefits for unemployed workers.
The employment tax credit proposal authored by Schumer and Hatch is also expected to be included in the package. The proposal would allow any company hiring a new worker to forgo paying the employee’s Social Security tax in 2010.
The bill is also expected to include job creation tax credits, small-business aid, and other corporate tax breaks.
Finance Committee member Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said she had yet to be consulted with on a member-to-member level by Democrats as late as Thursday midday.
“It’s pretty fast moving,” she said. “I hope that we have the ability to have input because it is important to get this right, to make sure it’s going to work.”
And still, Republicans remained skeptical that legislation could attract significant bipartisan support.
“All I can say is that if it's anything like what passed in the House at the end of last year, then I'm inalterably opposed,” said Arizona Sen. John McCain. “We want to work with the president and the Democrats. But that means sitting down at the table together — something we have not done yet.”
Sources: Politico, MSNBC
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