President Barack Obama¹s jobs bill will have difficulty getting through the Democratic-controlled Senate intact, even Majority Leader Harry Reid acknowledges.
When asked whether he had the votes to pass the American Jobs Act as is, Reid would say only: "We'll see, probably at later time,"
Fox News reported.
"I don't know exactly what I'm going to do yet with the president's jobs bill, but we're going to have a full caucus meeting on it on Thursday,” he said.
The president’s bill is thought to have virtually no hope of getting through the House unscathed. Reid’s assessment of its chances in the Senate leave it closer to life support even as Obama campaigns for it in swing states, including GOP House Speaker John Boehner’s home state of Ohio, as well as Virginia and North Carolina.
Parts of the $447 billion bill have won support among members of both parties, but the sticking point with Republicans is the manner in which it would be financed. Obama has called for tax increases on wealthier
Americans, coupled with changes in assessing tax for investment fund managers, the end of subsidies for oil companies, and alterations in the way depreciation is assessed on corporate jets.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is certainly in no mood to help it out. “This proposal is really not credible,” he said of the president’s funding proposal.
McConnell berated Obama for stuffing the bill with ideas that have “been around the track.”