By AJ Swartwood
Senate Democrats failed to advance the “Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act” Tuesday after falling 7 votes short of the 60-vote minimum needed to overcome a Republican filibuster.
The final vote came in at 53-45, with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) siding with the Republicans.
Supporters said the legislation, aimed at eliminating tax breaks for American companies that outsource their jobs, would spur job creation in the U.S.
“One of the major reasons why the middle class in this country is disappearing and the working class is being decimated, and why real wages are going down for millions of workers, is that for a number of years we have been hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs, ” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said during a press conference prior to the vote. “This bill uses the tax code to begin to bring more manufacturing jobs back to America.”
When asked by a reporter for his thoughts on the Manufacturer’s Union and Chamber of Commerce’s objection to the bill, Sanders replied that he was not surprised.
“They much prefer paying people in Vietnam 20 cents an hour then American workers a living wage,” Sanders said.
GOP leaders have accused Democrats of bringing up the bill to simply play politics in the run-up to the midterm elections.