A Job For The Senate

Steve Benen notes that Harry Reid is talking a new jobs bill, but one can only imagine how the GOP and the ConservaDems will try to stop it.

For that matter, it's not clear how much Reid emphasized the idea yesterday -- The Hill ran a fairly lengthy report, but I haven't seen similar reporting from the other outlets. If there was a concerted push about a major new employment initiative, it seems likely there'd be more attention focused on this.

That said, I can only hope this talk continues. We'll no doubt hear talk of a "second" stimulus -- or "third," if you count Bush's useless package from early 2008 -- but the demand for a jobs bill should be obvious. The recovery efforts from earlier this year rescued the economy from a depression, and helped bring some stability to an economy on the brink. Given the severity of the economic downturn policymakers inherited, a bold, ambitious jobs bill can make a huge difference -- the stimulus got us out of the ditch, a new effort can get us going in the right direction again.

The politics, of course, will be painful. Center-right Democrats say they want a focus on the employment picture. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.) said last week, "Three things ought to be the top priority: jobs, jobs and jobs." Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) added, "[J]obs should be our top priority and we shouldn't do anything that detracts from that."

But what will they, and others like them, say if/when a new jobs bill (cue scary music) requires federal investment? Will conservatives, once again, say that deficit reduction should take precedence over additional economic recovery efforts?

No doubt the GOP will say the only jobs bill they can support will be corporate tax cuts. I'm sure those will turn into new jobs instead of higher corporate profits and bonuses, just like they did with Bush's tax cuts.

Then again with the populist streak going through the GOP right now, it's going to be damn hard for a lot of folks to vote against a jobs bill. We'll see what happens with it. Lord knows the Dems need to do something at this point...and part of that something needs to be reining in the Fed.