Senate Dem Thinks GOP Opposition To Jobs Plan Will Wear Down

By Andrea Salazar

After a Republican filibuster put an end to President Obama’s jobs package as a whole, Senate Democrats are breaking it up into separate bills. 

The first component to make it to the floor will be a bill to protect and create jobs for teachers and first responders, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) told reporters during a conference call Wednesday.

The Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act would set aside $35 billion for job creation and protection in education and emergency services. As Brown told TRNS, the wording in the legislation requires state and local governments to use the proposed grant money only to retain or hire employees in those areas by September 2013.

The bill would be paid for by a 0.5 percent surtax on individuals with incomes of more than $1 million. Senate Democrats expect the bill to protect and create 400,000 jobs in education.

“A small number of people pay this and the benefit is community-wide all over the country,” Brown said. “We’re not asking for much sacrifice from them, and it will mean so much to the public interest, to public safety and our education.”

Brown had a teacher, fire chief and sheriff as guests on his conference call to discuss the need for the bill. All three agreed that there was not enough funding for the work required of them. 

“If we wait another year, this is kids that aren’t taught and people that aren’t hired with middle class salaries and fires that can’t be responded to as quickly and sheriffs and police departments not responding  as quickly as they should be able to,” Brown said.

More bills are forthcoming breaking down the president’s jobs bill, Brown said.

Senators Urge House To Pass China Currency Bill

By Andrea Salazar

A day after the China currency bill passed the Senate, a bipartisan coalition of senators urged House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the White House to join them against China’s currency manipulation. 

“China has a callous disregard for the rule of law,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said. “They cheat at every turn. They steal intellectual property, they counterfeit goods affecting our defense industries and they manipulate their currency. We don’t have this kind of discussion with normal nations. We don’t have this kind of discussion with democracies. You’re having this kind of discussion with a communist dictatorship with a command and control economy that’s acting like the mob.”

Graham echoed those sentiments and dismissed worries about China’s reaction to the currency bill.

“I’m not worried about the Chinese response because at the end of the day they need us as much as we need them, if not more so,” Graham said. “I’m worried about the idea that American politicians are going to let threats coming from China stop what, I think, is a rational approach to dealing with this.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he expects the bill to pass, despite opposition from leadership.

“We have tried to keep this as non-political, frankly, as possible,” Schumer said. “That’s because we believe in this. I just believe in my bones that this is one of the five ways… to keep America number one over the next several decades.”

Ohio Democrat Promotes China Currency Measure

By Andrea Salazar

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), described his Chinese currency manipulation bill as the most important jobs bill in Congress this year.

“China manipulates its currency so Chinese companies can make and sell Chinese products cheaper, much cheaper than U.S. companies can,” Brown said during a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.

To change that, Brown introduced the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Bill with co-sponsors from both parties. Pointing out that U.S. workers are losing their jobs to China, Brown said that “Uncle Sam’s turned into Uncle Sap, and it’s time we fight back.” 

A vote is expected in the Senate within the next week.  

“This bill doesn’t cost tax payer dollars, it actually will help reduce the budget deficit. So other than those who want to stand with companies that outsource jobs to China, I don’t see where any real opposition to this bill should come from,” Brown said. 

However, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) dismissed the need for the bill.

“I think its pretty dangerous to be moving legislation through the United States Congress forcing someone to deal with the value of their currency,” he said earlier this week.

Democrats Schumer, Brown Trumpet Merits Of Public Option

By John DuBois - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

During a news conference on Wednesday, Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) expressed their belief that a public option insurance plan would create competition in the marketplace and would lower healthcare costs for Americans.

Liberal Democrats, like Brown and Schumer, who support the public option have argued that the plan would help small businesses stay in business and provide health insurance for their employees.

Said Schumer, “Small businesses want to provide the coverage. They know it’s good for their workers, good for morale and good for keeping. They just can’t afford [health insurance] any longer and that’s why we need a public option.”

Brown argued that,“the public option will not use pre-existing conditions, [it] won't discriminate against women who have had c-sections or women who have been victims of domestic violence and call that a pre-existing condition.”

“We are changing the rules, we are also going to have the public option there to help those small businesses to compete to keep prices down,” he added.

Ohio Senator Advocates Climate Bills That Include Border Adjusted Carbon Fees

By Julianne LaJeunesse - University of New Mexico

The Economic Policy Institute held a briefing Thursday with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), environmentalists, and members of industries that would experience financial and physical changes under proposed climate change bills like the House-passed Waxman-Markey bill and the Kerry-Boxer "Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act."

During the briefing, Robert Scott of EPI talked about his recent report "Climate Change Policy—Border Adjustment Key to U.S. Trade and Manufacturing Jobs." He found an audience in Brown and Leo Gerard, President of the United Steelworkers, when he suggested that U.S. jobs and a competitive U.S. industry presence can be recognized through stronger bill language on "border adjustments" as found in the Waxman-Markey bill.

Border adjustments are fees that are charged to countries who use an unregulated amount of carbon to create exported products. That charge is used as a way to level the playing field for countries whose emissions are regulated.

Brown said he appreciated Waxman-Markey's included adjustments, but said the allowed level of presidential discretion in the bill is questionable.

"This needs to be done in a way that is automatic... not allows a president, whoever the president is in the years ahead, to have discretion on this," Brown said. "Because we know how presidents don't move very aggressively on protecting our national interests on manufacturing and trade."

Gerard agreed, saying the amount of presidential authority afforded in the Waxman-Markey needs to be brought back to Congress.

"We've had a terrible experience with presidential discretion for eight years with President Bush," Gerard said. "He exercised his discretion and it cost America tens of thousands of jobs."

In his report, Scott said that if Congress does not support legislation that maintains and improves U.S. competition for energy-intensive and trade-intensive manufacturing, the country could lose as many as 4 million jobs to countries like China and Asia.

Opponents of increasing government control of carbon emissions say that the United States isn't financially ready to divert its money toward greener jobs, particularly in energy-intensive industries such as steel, pulp and paper, glass and clay and nonmetallic mineral products.

According to the Americans for Tax Reform website, their reason for opposing the Waxman-Markey bill in particular, are because the bill "raises taxes on American families, increases the cost of energy, and eliminates American jobs."