House Afire

The House will be back in session today for one day to try to pass the Senate jobs bill...or the skinny, mangled thing known as the "jobs bill" at any rate.

The unusual in-and-out session was called because the Senate waited until last Thursday, after the House had already recessed for its summer break, to pass a $26 billion bill to prevent tens of thousands of teachers and an equal number of other state and local government workers from being laid off before the November election.

With the new school year just weeks away, election season fast approaching and the overall job picture still bleak, Democrats had no choice but to act quickly. Many of those whose jobs are being saved belong to teacher unions or the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, two key components of the Democrats' political base whose get-out-the-vote efforts in November could determine whether they hold or lose control of Congress.

"This legislation is about creating and saving American jobs, and preventing a double-dip recession," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in announcing the special session just hours after the Senate passed the bill that the administration says could save the jobs of nearly 300,000 teachers and other public workers.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., shrugged off suggestions that Democrats were taking a gamble by ordering members back to Washington and diverting colleagues facing tough re-elections from their campaign activities.
"It's not a gamble," he said, but "it would be gambling our children's' education to have them go back to school and find no teacher in the classroom or a larger class size."

Van Hollen is right, the Dems din't have a choice at all on this.  But the piddlingly small bill will only help funding for the rest of this year.  It's 2011 where the real economic damage is going to be.

Democrats spent three months trying to pass a bill that originally was five times larger and could have made a real difference.  Even with this bill that's too small to help, many Blue Dogs are going to try to kill it.  If that happens, I really don't have any hope that the Dems will be able to hold the House.