Senate Democrats are teeing up yet another vote next week on a provision of President Obama’s jobs bill. This time with a twist — they’re not going to ask that it be paid for with a surtax on millionaires.
They’re calling this one the “Vow to Hire Heroes Act of 2011.” A version of it passed the House on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis last month. It would offer a tax credit to companies that hire out of work veterans and increase an existing credit that already goes to companies that hire veterans with service-related disabilities. Dems propose to cover the $1.6 billion cost of the bill by delaying fee reductions that are scheduled to apply to mortgage loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
They also plan to attach the bill to separate, House-passed legislation to repeal a requirement that the IRS withhold three percent of payments from major contracts, in order to encourage compliance with the tax code.
It won't get a single Republican vote, of course. Republicans know that if the economy improves even modestly at this point after going all in on efforts to sabotage it, they are absolutely done. There's nothing left for them to do but continue their efforts to ruin the economy and blame Obama by obstructing every possibly beneficial piece of economic legislation, period.
The question is when both sides know exactly what the GOP's move will be, will the Democrats take advantage of it? So far they've done a much better job of that in the last three months and it shows in the latest poll numbers for both the President and for Democrats in Congress, as the President's numbers have started to improve and Democrats are now ahead on the generic congressional ballot among registered voters.
That means 2012 will of course come down to turnout versus GOP voter suppression efforts. Know the registration information and voter ID laws in your state, then fight them. They are there to keep you from voting, period.
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