Mon Sep 27, 2010 at 05:04:41 AM PDT
SEN. HARRY REID IS PREPARING FOR A PROCEDURAL WAR AGAINST THE REPULICANS
What: Live Quorum Call, Motion to Proceed to Consideration of "The Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act." Needs 60 votes to allow bill to be debated.
When: September 27, 2010 (tonight), 7:00 p.m. EST (barring usual delays)
Where: Senate, C-Span 2
Who: Majority of Senators (Distinguished and Not So Distinguished)
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I am hoping that Nancy Pelosi will be able to break the impasse over voting on the Bush tax cuts. In the meantime, the Senate will vote tonight on an equally powerful wedge issue: outsourcing of jobs. Republicans will be on record for their votes.
So far, little attention has been paid to this event. For such a defining issue, it leaves me wondering - but not puzzled.
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Live Quorum Calls are rare. The last one, on March 25, 2010, was to get Republican Senators to vote on extension of unemployment benefits. The live quorum call forces a majority of senators to come to the floor to debate and vote on a bill. "If a quorum fails to vote, the Senate can, by motion, direct its sergeant at arms to compel the attendance of absent Senators or even to arrest absentees in order to establish a quorum." - CRS Report for Congress
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The Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act (S. 3816)
Sponsors: Introduced by Sen. **** Durbin, and Co-Sponsored by Sens. Barbara Boxer, Sherrod Brown, Byron Dorgan, Harry Reid, Patrick Leahy, Sheldon Whitehouse and Charles Schumer.
THE BILL creates a payroll tax break for companies that hire U.S. workers in place of foreign workers. It would also raise taxes for companies that move jobs and plants overseas.
This issue distinguishes, with precision, differences between Democrats' and Republicans' economic goals and beliefs. What more of a wedge issue could be divined? As well, outsourcing is an hugely populist issue. It was the number one item of voter interest under the jobs section of an infamous Republican website:
‘America Speaking Out’ Against Republican Proposals On Republican Website
House Republicans have proudly touted their America Speaking Out website — which allows visitors to suggest and vote on various policy prescriptions — as a new and innovative way to involve the American people in the democratic process and the creation of federal policy ... But Republicans might want to look at what’s garnering interest on their own site, as the proposal receiving the most "interest" (and the second highest number of overall votes) in the job creation section is to "stop the outsourcing of jobs from America to other countries that do not pay taxes into the U.S. and stop the tax breaks that are given to these companies that are outsourcing.
Think Progress
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http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/9/27/905502/-There-Will-Be-War-Tonight:-Against-the-Republicans
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Though I can't find the source, I've also heard it reported (on TV, I think) that outsourcing American jobs polls higher in disapproval than tax cuts for the wealthy.
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THE BILL HAS THREE BROAD OBJECTIVES:
1. Incentive to Create American Jobs
Encourage businesses to create jobs in the United States. It provides businesses with relief from the employer share of the Social Security payroll tax on wages paid to new U.S. employees performing services in the United States. To be eligible, businesses must certify that the U.S. employee is replacing an employee who had been performing similar duties overseas.
2. Disincentive to Moving American Jobs Overseas
Ends Subsidies for Plant Closing Costs. The bill eliminates subsidies that U.S. taxpayers provide to firms that move facilities offshore. It prohibits a firm from taking any deduction, loss or credit for amounts paid in connection with reducing or ending the operation of a trade or business in the U.S. and starting or expanding a similar trade or business overseas.
3. End Tax Break for Runaway Plants
The bill ends the federal tax subsidy that rewards U.S. firms that move their production overseas. Under current law, U.S. companies can defer paying U.S. tax on income earned by their foreign subsidiaries until that income is brought back to the United States. This is known as "deferral." Deferral has the effect of putting these firms at a competitive advantage over U.S. firms that hire U.S. workers to make products in the United States. The bill repeals deferral for companies that reduce or close a trade or business in the U.S. and start or expand a similar business overseas for the purpose of importing their products for sale in the United States.
Link: No Job News
Full Text of Bill
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Since live quorum calls are rare, there is a chance it may even get media coverage [hold breath here]. Strategically, forcing votes on this bill serves the same purpose as voting on the Bush tax cuts - to distill and crystallize the differences between the parties. In addition, the bill was only recently reported out of committee - on September 22, 2010 - and therefore, the GOP has not had much time to formulate its recitation of lies against it.
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