Priorities

Today, the Senate invoked cloture on a jobs bill that provides states with $26 billion in funding for Medicaid and to prevent mass layoffs of teachers. It decreases the deficit by $1.3 billion over ten years through cuts to food stamps and closing corporate tax loopholes. Two Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) — voted to invoke cloture and end the ongoing filibuster. The rest of the Republican caucus, however, voted no. That’s 38 Republican senators who voted against a deficit reducing jobs bill.

So basically the entire GOP senate caucus tried to kill a bill that would give desperately needed medicaid money to the states and prevent mass layoffs of teachers, police officers and firefighters, because it paid for itself by closing some tax loopholes for companies that offshore. Even after they demanded the Democrats cut the pittance that was in there for food stamps. Unreal.