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Senate votes down Obama jobs measure By Josiah Ryan - 11/03/11 03:26 PM ET For the third time in four weeks, Senate Republicans on Thursday voted in unison to block a piece of President Obama's jobs package. The GOP senators were joined by one Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) in rejecting a procedural motion on legislation that would spend $60 billion on transportation infrastructure programs. The vote was 51-49. The spending was offset with a new tax on income earned above $1 million that Republicans oppose. Many Republicans, including Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), said...

A weekend of worldwide protest spilled over into Orange County on Monday as about 40 left-leaning activists protested House Speaker John Boehner's visit to the Pelican Hill Golf Club in Newport Beach. "He knows he can't go anywhere without the people going with him," said Rick Jacobs, founder of the Courage Campaign, a progressive group. "I hope that even while he's up there, raking in millions in cash, he knows there's people here and everywhere. We're going to make clear that this isn't a funny time anymore. This is a real time. It's time for him to get busy on...

Vice President Joe Biden lashed out at critics today who have claimed that his and the President's efforts to get a job's bill passed is mere "campaigning." "Are we campaigning?" he said. "Yes! We are campaigning to change this environment." Biden was in York, Pa., visiting the Goode Elementary School to argue that the American Jobs Act would support 400,000 education jobs. Because of budget cuts, the York School District has been forced to lay off 100 teachers. Waxing at times poetic, Biden stressed the importance of education in keeping the nation competitive. "If our students suffer, our future suffers,”...

Even though the United States Senate on Tuesday blocked President Obama's jobs bill, the legislation's specifics -- as well as the idea of taxing the wealthy to pay for it -- are popular with the American public, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. When asked simply if Congress should pass the legislation or not, 30 percent of respondents answer yes, while 22 percent say no; 44 percent have no opinion.

President Obama's $447 billion jobs bill failed to clear a procedural hurdle in the Democratic-controlled Senate Tuesday night despite a White House push that accelerated in the 11th hour. The bill received a simply majority of 51 votes but fell short of the necessary 60 to end debate. Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana were the only Democrats to vote against the bill. Both of them are facing tough re-election campaigns next year. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., had said earlier that although he intended to vote in favor of ending the Republican filibuster, he did not...

President Obama has made ending the Bush tax on incomes above $250,000 a year a top goal of his presidency. Republicans have predictably fought him at every turn, and used misleading statistics to characterize the plan as one that would cripple small businesses -- when in fact only sliver of the impact would fall on truly small businesses. Wednesday, those Republicans got a big, if unintentional, assist from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) -- a member of Democratic leadership, who has been a leading advocate for setting the threshold at $1 million in income. "There are people making 250, 300 [thousand...

Remember when Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress to introduce his American Jobs Act, exhorting them on national television to “pass this bill immediately”? Obama used that phrase in various forms 17 times despite the fact that he didn’t actually have a bill to present to Congress until a week later. And as far as all but two members of Congress are concerned, the bill itself may as well not exist. No co-sponsors have added their names to either the Senate or the House version even after more than a week ... We have a federal system, not...

On all the cables whenever His Majesty deigns to bless us with his presence.The topic is his latest plan to bash Republicans over the economy while actually doing nothing to help the economy.

The president has taken to the campaign trail to promote his "American Jobs Act." That's a good name for it: an act. "Pass this bill now!" he declared 24 times at a stop in Raleigh, N.C., and another 18 in Columbus, Ohio, and the act is sufficiently effective that, three years into the Vapidity of Hope, the president can still find crowds of true believers willing to chant along with him: "Pass this bill now!" Not all supporters are content merely to sing along with the prompter-in-chief. In North Carolina, a still devoted hopeychanger cried out, "I love you!" "I...

Obama promoted his jobs bill in North Carolina on Wednesday, the third stop on what White House Press Secretary Jay Carney called a "campaign" for jobs. Not for the first time, Obama called back to an audience member's shouted, "I love you" with "I love you back." On Wednesday he added, "But if you love me you've got to help me pass this bill." The Obama administration isn't holding back in its full court campaign to pass the American Jobs Act. The WhiteHouse.gov website now includes a banner that links to the bill. Obama's speech at the North Carolina State...

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