Today on a press call with bloggers, in response to the impending Republican filibuster of the jobs bill, Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan said that Senate Republicans "want the economy to fail." She additionally said that it was the most cynical political move she has ever seen, likely because Republicans stand to gain from the economic pain they will cause.
Senator Stabenow also said that the moderate Republicans she was negotiating with--such as Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Scott Brown--were negotiating in bad faith. Democrats satisfied all of their concerns, Stabenow said, but "they kept changing what the concerns were."
Sounding extremely frustrated, Stabenow said that "we have no choice but to move on," and drop the bill. The votes simply are not there for it right now, and other legislation needs to be addressed. She did urge calls to Senators as a last ditch attempt to pass the bill.
When asked if using the reconciliation process was a possibility, Stabenow noted that would require the Senate to pass a budget resolution that contained reconciliation instructions. And, she noted, all of that would take quite a bit of time, and face obstruction of its own.
When asked if Democrats should employ the nuclear option in response to this bad faith negotiating, Senator Stabenow said they are still looking at changing the Senate rules at the start of 2011, not right now.
Finally, Senator Stabenow noted that the White House had been involved in the negotiations, and were forcefully advocating to get the bill done.
|
STATE BLOGS
