Pelosi Blasts Boehner Ahead Of House Vote

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) responded today to criticism over her decision to call her chamber back into session to vote tomorrow on a bill that aims to help states avoid making layoffs.

“Why wouldn’t House Republicans want to keep 310,000 teachers, first responders and private sector workers on the job instead of on the unemployment lines?” Pelosi rhetorically asked.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) commented on NBC’s Meet The Press yesterday that the $26 billion measure is another example of Democratic over-spending.

“The American people are screaming at the top of their lungs to Washington, ‘Stop, stop the spending, stop the job-killing policies,’ and yet Democrats in Washington refuse to listen to the American people,” he said.

Pelosi, however, said Boehner is ignoring the fact that the legislation would not add to the nation’s debt, and accused her GOP counterpart of “opposing a fully paid-for jobs bill that reduces the deficit and keeps teachers in the classroom and police officers on the beat.”

The House will convene tomorrow at 10:00 am, with a final vote on the bill expected to take place in the afternoon.

President Sees Positive Results In Recent Labor Stats

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released some arguably disappointing employment numbers for July, but President Barack Obama touted the progress that the private sector is making and acknowledged that Americans need faster relief.

“July’s job numbers reflect in part expected loss related to the Census winding down,” Obama said. “But the fact is, we’ve now added private sector jobs every month this year instead of losing them.. that’s a good sign.”
 
The president also credited progress to the addition of 183,000 jobs to the manufacturing sector. Obama said the recent revival of Ford, GM and Chrysler, two of which were on the verge of bankruptcy, is testament to continuing progress in the industry.

“All three U.S. automakers are posting a profit for the first time since 2004,” Obama touted. “Since they emerged, the auto industry has added 76,000 jobs, that’s the good news.”

Obama acknowledged the notion that, although progress is increasingly evident, change is not materializing fast enough for American families. He praised the Senate for passing legislation Thursday that boosts aid to states in an effort to keep teachers and other public officers on states’ payroll.

“Speaker Pelosi said she’s going to bring the House back in session to pass this bill, and as soon as they do, I’m ready to sign it into law,” Obama said. “[We] need to speed our recovery so it reaches the people and places who need relief not a year from now, not six months from now, but now, right now.”

Pelosi Scolds GOP For Stalling Economic Agenda

By Benny Martinez

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) scolded Republican Senators at her weekly press conference Thursday for refusing to cooperate with a stalled jobs bill.

“Show us the jobs,” Pelosi said.

After countless attempts to advance the bill and create more jobs, Pelosi said Republican Senators need to recognize that the American people want and need more opportunities to succeed.

“What did middle-class families ever do to Republicans in the Senate that they would snuff out every opportunity for job creation that has been sent to them,” the Speaker said.

Despite relentless GOP opposition, the Speaker said that “we are on the path to create more jobs this year than eight years of the Bush administration.”

Pelosi also lauded middle-class tax cuts saying they served as a means to “inject demand into the economy.”

Jobs Bill Will Help Reverse Deficit, Say Senate Democrats

The Senate continued to look for ways on Wednesday to muster the votes needed to pass a jobs bill filled with tax breaks, unemployment benefits and aid packages to states.

With the House having passed a jobs bill before the Memorial Day recess, Senate Democrats this week have proposed making changes to their bill, such as restoring $24 billion in Medicaid funds, money that was dropped from the House’s package. Additionally, in a move designed to court moderate support, the Senate bill now features a softer approach on taxing investments than does its counterpart legislation.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) called on both parties to put aside their differences and bring relief to folks struggling to make ends meet.

“Families are going through an emotional roller-coaster...and everyone knows around here that nothing is done in the Senate anymore without a filibuster, or two or three...It’s pretty outrageous.”

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said the bill would extend provisions within other bills -- most notably the Recovery Act -- that have “already changed the direction from a huge hemorrhaging of jobs...to several months of job growth.”

"We’ve gotta keep the pedal to the metal, we can’t now pull back,” Reed added.

At stake are several programs that need funding legislation to stay alive. In addition to the Medicaid dollars for states, there are matching $23 billion initiatives to prevent education layoffs and to reimburse physicians that accept Medicare. Stabenow said she supports the so-called “Doc-Fix,” and added that she plans on putting forth an amendment to extend COBRA benefits for the unemployed. She also downplayed concerns that the bill, totaling over $100 billion in cost, would add to the nation’s already-massive deficit.

“The reality is that this legislation is part of turning things around and I would argue lowering the deficit,” she said. “When people are working, they are paying taxes...and that’s part of how you lower the deficit.”

Republicans, however, say Americans should be skeptical of Democratic attempts to spark economic recovery and take on the ballooning budget. In an email to Talk Radio News Service on Wednesday, Parish Braden, a spokesman for the RNC, took aim at Reed, calling him an irresponsible steward of his struggling state.

“Senator Reed isn’t up for reelection and has the luxury of not having to match facts to his rhetoric," Braden said. "It’s odd that the Senator would hold a news conference on the Democrats’ efforts to cut taxes and create jobs seeing as Rhode Island has lost over 18,000 jobs since the ‘stimulus’ became law and unemployment has jumped from 9.9% to 12.6% in the same period.

According to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor, Rhode Island and Michigan possess two of the nation's four highest state unemployment rates.

Senate Must Extend Medicaid Assistance Within Jobs Bill, Say Democrats

By Benny Martinez
University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

The newly-unveiled jobs bill includes legislation that would extend funding of the states’ Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) by six months, said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.).

FMAP legislation is next in line in a series of initiatives for the Senate jobs agenda. According to a press release, the legislation will help states with the cost of Medicaid programs to help preserve critical health care assistance for millions of Americans.

In a conference call with reporters on Friday, Rockefeller, along with Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm (D), said that passing the FMAP extension is necessary to preserve jobs and it must be done quickly.

“We have to act swiftly to pass this because if we don’t, it’ll cost the economy up to 900 thousand jobs lost and we can’t have that,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Levin said that he doesn’t believe a filibuster will be able to stop the bill from passing.

“There was a lesson learned [with] Senator Bunning,” Levin said. “It was clear that the public outcry was strong [then], and I think that kind of outcry will also be strong here, so I will be optimistic that we’re going to be able to get this bill passed with its FMAP provisions.”

Rockefeller said the six-month extension of FMAP is the second of its kind. The first was included in the legislation of the original stimulus package in 2009.