I’m not really thrilled with how they plan on paying for it but late this afternoon the Senate finally agreed to have a vote on part of the president’s jobs bill. They needed 60 votes to invoke cloture and they got ninety-four. It seems that McConnell’s steal curtain of obstruction melted when it came time to deny veterans a chance at employment.
Aimed at helping unemployed veterans, the bill gives employers tax credits of up to $5,600 for hiring those who have been unemployed longer than six months. It would also give employers a tax credit of up to $9,600 for hiring long-unemployed disabled veterans.
The October unemployment rate for veterans who left the military after 2001 was 12.1%, leaving about 240,000 veterans out of work, according to the White House. The measure to help veterans is one small piece of President Obama’s job package.
This bill will probably pass both houses of Congress, get signed by the president, and become law. And that means that the president’s persistence in demanding that Congress do something about high unemployment will finally pay off. Nothing pretty is going to get through this Congress, and this bill is paid for by making it harder to qualify for Medicaid, making it easier for contractors to evade their tax obligations, and charging veterans more for their mortgages. But any progress on the jobs front is welcome.
