McCain: Obama "In Full Campaign Mode"

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) shot back at Obama Tuesday after the President charged that Congressional Republicans lack a legitimate jobs plan.

“I think thats very unfortunate to mock serious proposals. I think it really indicates he’s in full campaign mode,”  McCain, who co-authored the GOP’s jobs proposal, told reporters.

The Jobs Through Growth Act, which was introduced by Senate Republicans last Thursday, does not contain provisions from President Obama’s stalled jobs package. Instead, it focuses on repealing the healthcare reform law and adding a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. 

McCain levied additional criticism at the President’s decision to host a three day bus tour through North Carolina and Virginia.

“Going down their on the tax payers dime, calling it not a campaign event and then attacking Republicans is probably the worst overreach I’ve observed in the years that I’ve been in the Congress,” McCain said.

Senate Rejects Obama's Jobs Plan

UPDATED: As expected, the Senate rejected President Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan Tuesday, ending its legislative life as an assembled package. 

The bill fell well short of the 60 votes needed to proceed, garnering support from only 50 members while 49 members opposed it. 

Sens. Bob Nelson (D-Neb.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) joined Republicans in opposing the bill, but centrist Democratic Sens. Jim Web and Joe Lieberman, who voted in favor of debating the bill, said they’d vote against the bill in a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ situation. 

Obama’s jobs plan may be dead as a unified deal, but Democrats will continue to push to pass the bill piece by piece. A proposal to extend payroll tax cuts could be the first among many smaller provisions to be passed. 

The Senate is also expected Wednesday to pass three lingering trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia that have been touted by both Republicans and Democrats as job creators. 

This story was updated at 8:21a.m. EST…

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has hit the road in recent weeks, using more than a dozen public appearances to push Congress to vote on and pass his American Jobs Act as a whole. 

The Senate will be the first body to act on the president’s jobs bill, with a vote expected Tuesday evening. However, the effort led by Obama to label congressional Republicans as obstructionists could put vulnerable Democrats facing tough reelections in a bind. 

Sen. Chuck Schumer tiptoed around questions from NBC’s Chuck Todd over the amount of Democratic support the bill would receive in the upper chamber, only saying that “you are going to see the overwhelming majority of Democrats vote for a jobs bill.”

The third-ranking Senate Democrat expressed little optimism on the jobs bill’s chances of surviving a Senate vote.

“We are not going to get their votes today,” Schumer said of a number of moderate Senate Republicans.

President Obama indicated late last week in a news conference with reporters that he would pursue a piece-by-piece approach to getting his jobs bill through Congress should Tuesday’s vote be shot down. It seems as though Democrats in the Senate have taken that notion to heart as rumors of a “Plan B,” which breaks the bill into smaller provisions with a higher probability of garnering bipartisan support, have already begun taking shape. 

Meanwhile, labor leaders are literally praying for the bill to pass. A small group of labor leaders, including members of the Service Employees International Union, are expected to hold a prayer vigil on Capitol Hill just before senators are expected to vote. 

DC Rep Intro's Bill To Bring New Income To Nation's Capital

By Janie Amaya

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) is expected to present Congress with the National Disaster Insurance Protection Act this week, making D.C. an international financial center for catastrophic insurance reserve, if passed.

The bill would amend federal tax law to make the District a special tax jurisdiction exempting catastrophic insurance reserves and the investment income from federal taxes while creating jobs and boosting the District’s economy, according to a statement released by Norton.

“My bill is particularly timely considering the earthquakes and hurricane that caused billions of dollars in damages this summer, and the record number of natural disasters throughout the U.S. this year,” Norton said. “Retaining funds here in the U.S. would fuel both the local and U.S. economies, would provide the protection of U.S. laws for individuals and businesses with property and casualty insurance and would protect U.S. taxpayers, who would otherwise likely have to pick up the tab if there were a failure in reserve fund availability.”

According to Norton, by requiring companies to have offices in the District, jobs would become available for residents which would then, in turn, to increased income and sales and property tax revenue.

“The District has become an international city and destination,” Norton said. “Why wouldn’t the country prefer those billions in reserves to be held here rather than offshore? Especially today, when the U.S. economy is suffering from global placement of jobs outside the U.S.”

Pelosi Calls For Immediate, Bipartisan Action On Jobs Bill

By Andrea Salazar, Janie Amaya, Adrianna McGinley

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged both Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and fellow Democratic leaders Friday to take immediate action addressing key points in the president’s jobs proposal.

Calling the president’s jobs plan a “masterful” proposal, Pelosi stressed the urgency to pass legislation with bipartisan support, noting that other ideas are welcome depending on public response.

“One thing that we were very happy about is that [the President] would be taking it to the public,” Pelosi said. “Their feedback on it would further validate the need, or other proposals they may have on it, but at the end of the day, which is a short day, we will have legislation passed that addresses many of the proposals that the president put forth.”

President Obama, in a speech to a joint session of Congress Thursday, laid out a $447 billion plan to create jobs. He emphatically pushed legislators to take action, saying over a dozen times, “pass this jobs plan.”

Pelosi reiterated the president’s call to action, noting the lack of effective legislative action so far.

“What I do know is that the ideas that have been put forth thus far in the nearly 250 days that the Republicans have had the majority have not created one job,” she said.

Pelosi also acknowledged the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11 and the reported terror plot but was unable to comment on details of the briefing.

Hecklers Disrupt Joint Deficit Reduction Committee Meeting

As members of the Joint Deficit Reduction Committee met Thursday to make opening remarks and consider proposed committee rules, hecklers outside the hearing room raised their voices high. 

The 12-member committee was dedicated to their looming task at hand - to reduce the federal deficits by $1.5 trillion by Thanksgiving - but a group of protestors outside the hearing room caused the meeting to come to a temporary halt as they shouted their imminent need for jobs.

In addition to the protestors outside the hearing room, three protestors garbed in bold, pink outfits touted “Tax the Rich!” signs and sat front and the center in the audience of the committee hearing room. 

As protestors raised their voices louder, committee co-chair Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) instructed staffers to close the door and for committee members to speak louder.

And that is exactly what they did. 

As each committee member addressed the need to reduce the deficit and create jobs for Americans, they all agreed that compromise would be a critical component of the committee’s task. 

“A successful final product that comes from this committee must include compromises on both sides,” committee co-chair Senator Patty Murray declared. 

“If this committee fails, it won’t be for lack of ideas. It will be for lack of political will,” Rep. Christopher Van Hollen (D-Md.) stated. “We need to bite the bullet and put our country first. Compromise is not a dirty word.”

The next committee meeting is set for Tuesday, September 13. 

Click here and here to see photos from today