Obama's jobs bill: Is it dead or more alive than ever?

The $447 billion jobs bill has become a wedge issue in the 2012 election.

Barack Obama’s dimming prospects for re-election just got worse, said Patricia Murphy in TheDailyBeast.com. The $447 billion jobs bill he proposed to ward off a double-dip recession hit a major roadblock this week when Senate Republicans—with the help of two Democratic defectors—blocked it from even coming to an up-or-down vote. The bill would impose a 5.6 percent surtax on annual income over $1 million and pump money into the stagnant economy through payroll tax cuts, infrastructure spending, and aid to save the jobs of teachers, police, and other public workers. The Republicans’ unified opposition meant the chances of passage were always slim. But the White House still sees the bill as a wedge issue in the 2012 election, offering hard proof that Obama is doing more to revive the economy than the “do-nothing” Republicans in Congress. Obama will now break his bill into pieces and resubmit them to both houses of Congress. If Republicans continue to block his proposals, he’ll frame the campaign as a choice between a party that’s trying to help the middle class and one that cares only about the rich.

That’s a smart political strategy, and it’s true, said Steve Benen in WashingtonMonthly.com. Leading economists predicted that the president’s plan would have added 1.9 million jobs, raised economic output by 2 percentage points, and lowered the unemployment rate to 8 percent. The bill included Republican-supported tax credits for business, an extension of the payroll tax, and other bipartisan proposals with wide voter support. So why have Republicans opposed it from the start? It will now be obvious to voters that the GOP is determined to keep the economy weak “for the express purpose of undermining the Obama presidency.”

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