"This balanced bill would have asked millionaires to pay their fair share to help get our economy get back on track. Americans want us to create jobs by cutting middle-class taxes, hiring veterans, and putting Americans back to work building roads, bridges and schools. Democrats will continue to advance these job-creating policies, and Republicans will have to explain to the American people why they oppose common-sense, bipartisan solutions for putting Americans back to work. With millions of Americans unemployed, and millions more struggling to make ends meet, we need to act now. I hope Republicans start listening to the American people."
Senator Reid issued a separate, more lengthy statement today (October 12) and said in part, "Republican obstructionism has once against cost this nation millions of jobs. Last night, Republicans blocked the American Jobs Act, President Obama's plan to create 2 million jobs by giving tax cuts to business and middle-class families and investing in modern roads, bridges and schools. . . Last night, a majority of the Senate voted to take up this bill. But Republicans won't put politics aside for a moment, even when the price of their stubbornness is struggling families and failing businesses. But I'll say it again: Democrats will not give up on creating jobs in America. We will introduce the American Jobs Act piece by piece. . ."
U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) issued a statement on the Senate Floor on October 11, prior to the vote saying in part, ". . .later today, the Senate will vote on President Obama's second attempt to address our nation's ongoing jobs crisis with a stimulus bill. And Republicans welcome the opportunity. "If voting against another stimulus is the only way we can get Democrats in Washington to finally abandon this failed approach to job creation, then so be it. "The President's been calling for this vote for weeks; and in my view, we can't have it soon enough. . .
". . .by proposing a second stimulus, Democrats are showing the American people that they have no new ideas for dealing with our jobs crisis. Today's vote is conclusive proof that Democrats' sole proposal is to keep doing what hasn't worked — along with a massive tax hike that we know won't create jobs. So it's hard to overstate the importance of this vote. The President's first stimulus was a legislative and economic catastrophe. Nearly three years after passage, we're still learning about its failures and abuses. We knew it was a bailout for states. We knew about all the absurd projects it funded. And over the past several weeks, we've also learned that the Obama administration was doing the very thing with solar companies that it once rightly criticized many others for doing on Wall Street: gambling with other people's money. But there's really only one thing you need to know about the first stimulus to oppose this second one, and it's this: $825 billion later, there are 1.5 million fewer jobs in this country than there were when the first stimulus was signed. . .
"Democrats have designed this bill to fail -- they've designed their own bill to fail -- in the hopes that anyone who votes against it will look bad for opposing a bill they misleadingly refer to as a 'jobs bill.' . . . So I've got a better idea: how about we get this vote that Democrats already know won't pass behind us, so we can focus on real job-creating legislation that we actually know is worthy of passing with bipartisan support? . .
"Over the next weeks and months, Republicans will continue to press our friends on the other side to work with us on legislation that will actually do something to create jobs in this country. Our first criterion for any proposal is that it would actually lead to more jobs, not fewer. I know that may seem crazy to some, but in our view it's not a jobs bill if it leads to fewer jobs. Our second criterion is that it doesn't add to the deficit. Republicans have been calling on Democrats to work with us on bipartisan job-creating bills for three years. . .
"Democrats like to point out that the second stimulus we'll have a vote on today is 'paid for' with tax hikes and that it contains a tax cut. What they don't tell you, of course, is that the tax cut lasts for about 13 months while the tax hike lasts forever. They hide the fact that over the next five years it will actually increase the deficit by nearly $300 billion dollars next year alone. Another thing the Democrat supporters of this bill fail to mention is that about four out of five of the people who'd be hit with their new tax are businesses, including thousands of small businesses across the country — in other words, the very people Americans are relying on to create new jobs. . ."
Senator McConnell issued a second statement today (October 12) indicating further, "Later today the Senate will show that Democrats and Republicans can, in fact, work together to make it easier for American businesses to create jobs. By passing free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea, we will help the economy and we'll put the lie to the ridiculous Obama campaign claim that Republicans are somehow rooting against the economy. The fact of the matter is, if President Obama were willing to work with us on more bipartisan legislation like this, nobody would even be talking about a dysfunctional Congress. There wouldn't be any reason to. But, as we all know, that doesn't fit in with the President's reelection strategy. The White House has made it clear that the President is praying for gridlock, so he has somebody – besides himself -- to point the finger at next November. . ."
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