The demise of Obama’s $447 billion jobs package was expected, despite his campaign-style efforts to get the public behind it. The White House and leaders in Congress were moving on to alternative ways to address the nation’s 9.1 percent unemployment, including breaking the legislation into smaller, more digestible pieces and approving long-stalled trade bills.
The White House appears most confident that it will be able to continue a 2-percentage-point Social Security payroll tax cut through 2012 and to extend emergency unemployment benefits to millions of people - if only because, in the White House view, Republicans will not want to accept the political harm of letting those provisions expire.
White House officials are also hopeful of ultimately garnering votes for the approval of infrastructure spending and tax credits for businesses that hire unemployed veterans.
Democrats Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana - both up for reelection next year in states where Obama is likely to lose - broke with their party on last night’s vote. Every Republican present opposed the plan.
Earlier in the day, Obama capped his weekslong campaign for the measure in an appearance typical of the effort - a tough-talking speech in a swing state crucial to his reelection. It seemed aimed more at rallying his core political supporters heading into the election than changing minds on Capitol Hill.
“Any senator who votes no should have to look you in the eye and tell you what exactly they’re opposed to,’’ Obama said to a union audience in Pittsburgh. “I think they’ll have a hard time explaining why they voted no on this bill - other than the fact that I proposed it.’’
Democrats were not wholly united behind the measure. In addition to Nelson and Tester, Senators Jim Webb of Virginia, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who aligns with Democrats, said they oppose the underlying measure despite voting to choke off the filibuster.
