Senate Republicans Outline New Jobs Plan

By Kaeun Yu

Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) and Freshman Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) shared details of Senate Republican jobs plan on Thursday.

“This should be a bipartisan issue… We think this is a blueprint for success in a sense that it would make our country more competitive; it would increase certainty in the business community, therefore increasing private investment in jobs,” said Portman during a briefing with reporters.

Here are some main points of the plan:

• Reduce business and individual tax rates to spur economic growth
• Prohibit EPA from regulating greenhouse ages under the Clean Air Act
• Require greater access to federal lands for exploration of resources to produce jobs and stabilize energy prices
• Ratify three pending export-opening agreements (Panama, Columbia and South Korea) to open up U.S. market

Alexander and Portman also compared their plan to other budget proposals that are currently being weighed on Capitol Hill.

Regarding Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget, which the House passed in April, Alexander said “I’ll vote for it, because I think it is such an urgent problem. I don’t expect House Republican budget to be the final result that we have, but as an effort to move the ball down the field, I would vote for it.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) indicated last week that he’ll likely allow a vote on it.

“For me, I’m gonna try to support almost any serious proposal that has a fair chance of stopping long term debt and stopping Washington from spending so much from what we don’t have,” Alexander added.

Portman seemed a bit cooler on the Ryan plan. “On a budget, you can never agree with every single part of it because it tends to be comprehensive,” said Portman. “This urgency is upon us and we’ve gotta figure out a way to come together, Republicans and Democrats, to solve the problem,” Portman added.