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The Senate has passed a jobs bill that extends unemployment benefits up to 99 months in many states, renews popular tax breaks, and keeps doctors from having to absorb a 21% cut in Medicare payments, with Nebraska's Ben Nelson one of the few Democrats voting against it.
It's not that Nelson opposed the bill itself...in fact, he liked most of its provisions. What he didsn't like was the more than $100-billion dollars of additional deficit it would bring to the federal budget over the next year and a half.
Nelson tried to trim the bill's impact on the deficit Wednesday by using $35 billion dollars of unspent Stimulus Bill money to help pay for it, but Senate Republicans refused to let his amendment go to a vote.
Nelson says his amendment would have simply applied the Senate's renewed "pay-as-you-go" rule that requires cuts in existing spending to offset new spending.
It was targeted at specific provisions that he sees as important, but not ones that could properly be called emergencies or jobs-related...such as additional Medicare and Medicaid funds for Nebraska and other states.
The 62-36 vote Senate vote sends the measure into talks with the House, which passed companion legislation last year but is wary about some Senate provisions included to reduce its impact on the deficit.
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