Reid Tosses Bloated Bipartisan Jobs Bill For Something Leaner

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The Senate’s bipartisan jobs package, which had robust support from the White House and the GOP, but was packed with corporate giveaways, lasted less than a day.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) emerged from a Democratic Caucus meeting Thursday afternoon to announce that he had decided to scrap it, in exchange for a much-simplified package. The decision left aides to members of both parties scratching their heads, but there may be a smart political rationale behind it.

The new bill drops disaster assistance and extensions of unemployment insurance and COBRA helath-insurance subsidies, all Democratic priorities which will need to be addressed before they expire within the next few weeks.

But Reid also ditched one of K Street’s highest priorities, an extension of soon-to-expire tax breaks that are highly beneficial to major corporations, known as tax extenders, as well as other corporate giveaways that had been designed to win GOP support.

Reid didn’t mince words. “We’re going to move this afternoon to a smaller package than I talked about in the press,” he told reporters following a meeting with his Democratic caucus. “We’re going to do a bill that has four things in it.”

One is to expand the Build America Bonds program, which allows state and local governments to borrow at lower costs for infrastructure projects and other jobs programs. “We’re going to do the highway-bill extension for one year, which will save a million jobs,” he said.

The bill will also include an extension of a small-business tax break under section 179 of the Tax Code, Reid said. The final element is a payroll tax scheme cosponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

Reid Tosses Bloated Bipartisan Jobs Bill For Something Leaner.