Finally, a grown-up:
Retiring Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) said he plans to help push a package of small-business incentives through the Senate next week, a move that would give President Obama and congressional Democrats a key victory on the economy in the final weeks before the November midterm elections.
In an interview, Voinovich said he could no longer support efforts by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to delay the measure in hopes of winning the right to offer additional GOP amendments. Most of the proposed amendments “didn’t have anything to do with the bill” anyway, Voinovich said, and amounted merely to partisan “messaging.”
“We don’t have time for messaging. We don’t have time anymore. This country is really hurting,” Voinovich said. If a single amendment to reduce paperwork for business owners is considered on the floor, Voinovich said he told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that he would add his vote to that of 59 Democrats. That would give the majority party the 60 votes needed to overcome possible a GOP filibuster and move the package to final passage when Congress returns to Washington next week.
Of course, Sen. Voinovich is retiring, so it’s easy for him to stand up to the rabid right-wing nut-jobs who are intimidating the crap out of the Republicans.
Maybe going to Cleveland payed off for the president?
Interesting, good news. Barring the possibility that Voinovich is being sincere about his motivations for changing his stance (which, you know, is possible), I wonder who pushed the right button.
Looks like he’s going to try to help with the highway bill too. Excellent.
very exciting indeed!
“Finally, a grown-up:”
Bull. Voinovich announced his retirement a year ago, and this is his first time he’s ever done right. He made an entire career of pretending to oppose his party’s worst excesses, only to faithfully vote the way they told him to in the end. Good riddance.
Exactly. The man is a sham. He’s been awful for Ohio throughout his tenure in office. He played at being the kind of “work across the aisle” moderate that Obama is in real life, except that Voinivich never believed it was anything but a con to get votes. He would always loudly decry the idiocy of his party and then line up and vote for it anyway.
I would guess that Voinivich has looked at his job prospects post-Senate and has decided that he needs to be listening to business interests instead of the GOP loudmouths if he wants a job down the road. Because in all his tenure in office, for all the lip service he’s given to “working for Ohio”, the only thing that George Voinivich has ever looked out for is his own career.
Probably the case. Silver before he became part of the dead tree media, and found now link between retirement and moderation.
So we are reduced to applauding Reaganesque supply-side business tax cuts?
That’s what Obama proposed.
Yes…because they work.
The most effective strategy proposed is to extend the ability of businesses to fully expense investments.
That will create vastly more jobs than Obama’s 50 Billion Dollar pay-off-labor-so-I-can-rally-my-base Son of Stimulus.
If only he could adapt more Republican ideas…(hint: payroll tax holiday would have had a truly explosive impact.)
or the prelude to another premature capitulation.
this is really out of character for senator v….l wonder what the quid pro quo is. perhaps the “temporary” extension of the uber riche tax cuts?
tune in same time next week for the next exciting installment.