On October 20, a portion of Obama’s jobs plan aimed at helping state and local governments hire teachers, police officers and first responders failed to earn the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster, despite popular support for federal action on the economy. It’s likely that Democrats will try to pass other aspects of the president’s plan in the coming weeks, but Republicans have their own, very different proposals.
In this week’s web chat with POLITICO, expert Gary Burtless discussed the various ideas for job creation, and the legislative wrangling that makes continued political gridlock a likely scenario.