“It’s both shocking and shameful that Republicans today chose to kill a bill to put America’s veterans back to work.  At a time when one in four young veterans are unemployed.  Republicans should have been able, for just this once, to put aside the politics of obstruction and to help these men and women provide for their families.”
~Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) 

This is how desperate Republicans are to block any jobs bill from passing that could give the appearance of an improving economy.  That’s their modus operandi and they’re sticking to it.  Republicans claim that they can’t vote for this bill because as a “revenue bill” it must pass the House of Representatives first.  And what’s stopping the House of Representatives from taking this up?  And what’s stopping these Senators from voting in favor of the waiver that they’re allowed to vote for?  And should their be the need to send it to the House and then revote – what would stop them for voting for something they wanted to pass twice?  The answer is simple – they don’t want to pass the bill.

You can see the roll call vote HERE; 40 Republicans blocked it with another 2 abstaining from voting.  Every Democrat in the Senate moved forward to proceed.

You can read the text of the bill HERE; here is what it basically proposes to do:

Establish a veterans jobs corps to employ veterans–

(1) in conservation, resource management, and historic preservation projects on public lands and maintenance and improvement projects for cemeteries under the jurisdiction of the National Cemetery Administration; and

(2) as firefighters and law enforcement officers.

The NY Times explains the vote HERE:

Eager to shoot down President Obama’s legislative agenda just weeks before the election, Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a measure that would have provided $1 billion over five years to help veterans find work in their communities.

The measure, which would have potentially created jobs for up to 20,000 veterans, was blocked on a procedural point by Republicans, who argued that the bill was unpaid for. Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat and the bill’s main sponsor, said the bill would have covered the costs in part with fees on Medicare providers and suppliers who are delinquent on their tax bills.

The procedural vote was 58 to 40; 60 votes would have been required to waive Republican objections.

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