What the Broken Senate Rules Mean For Working Families

• No Employee Free Choice Act
• No jobs bill
• No appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, because they won’t be confirmed.
• No consideration of 435 bills passed by the House in the last session of Congress.

And the Latest Senate Rules Outrages

Jobs

With a series of filibusters and blocked votes, Senate Republicans are keeping President Obama’s jobs plan from ever coming to the Senate floor. At a time of 9 percent unemployment, Senate Republicans are refusing to even debate the merits of the plan.

President Obama initially proposed a $447 billion jobs plan, to save jobs of teachers and firefighters, rebuild crumbling bridges and highways and help get our economy moving. Even when the Senate tried to consider just portions of the bill, the super majority rules prevented debate.

Tax increase for working families

Unless the Senate acts in time, come Jan. 1, working families and small businesses will be hit with a payroll tax increase. What’s the hold up? Senate Republicans, again, are refusing to let a measure extending the “tax holiday” that was passed a year ago come to the floor for debate and a vote. Why? Because it would be paid for by increasing taxes on incomes above $1 million.

Senator Jon Coryn of Texas said the payroll tax cut has a “detrimental” effect on the economy. Mitt Romney, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, opposes extending the tax cuts because they’re just a “temporary little Band-Aid.” Apparently some Senators and others think tax increases are okay as long as working families pay them, not millionaires.

For a family earning $50,000 a year, this would mean a tax increase of about $1,000.