Burr defends vote on jobs bill

North Carolina U.S. Sen. Richard Burr defended his vote against a bill last week that was estimated by its writers to create or save 400,000 jobs in the ranks of teachers, firefighters and police officers by laying blame for the lack of generation of those jobs at the feet of state governments.

“The bill we voted on last week amounted to little more than a government bailout for states funded by taxing the very businesses and job creators we are relying on to spur economic growth and put Americans back to work,” Burr said in an email to the R&L in referring to legislation known as the Teachers and First Responders Bill.

The legislation was a re-worked portion of a larger jobs package, which was heavily promoted by President Obama, that the Senate killed earlier this month. 

Burr added, “Instead of calling on states --- who have still not spent all of the money that they have received from Congress for this purpose already --- to become more fiscally responsible, this bill would further subsidize their unsustainable spending.”

Under the plan that the U.S. Senate killed by virtue of a 50-50 tie on a motion that would have brought it to the floor for discussion, a one-half of 1 percent surtax would have been imposed on all incomes above $1 million.

For example, a person whose annual income is $2 million would pay an extra $5,000. The bill’s proponents --- most notably Vice President Joe Biden --- claim the move would have raised an additional $35 billion, the lion’s share of which was earmarked for education and the rest going to hire more firefighters and police officers.

In years past, Biden --- as vice president --- could have broken the tie in favor of the bill’s passage. But recently, for a bill of virtually any consequence to pass in the Senate, a 60-vote minimum is needed to override the seemingly automatic threat of a filibuster.

Despite the fact that every Republican voted against the measure, Burr did not mention that his no vote was inspired by partisan solidarity but was rather a move toward forcing states, counties and municipalities to get their own houses in order.

“The federal government is facing an historic deficit and debt crisis,” he said. “It cannot even pay its own bills, much less those of state and local governments.”

Though the matter never made it to the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Virginia Foxx was asked by the R&L how she felt about the bill and her comments reflected Burr’s sentiments.

“Permanently raising taxes on American entrepreneurs to pay for temporary spending programs is a perfect example of what is wrong with Washington,” Foxx said in an email to the R&L. “The federal government has a runaway spending problem, not an under-taxing problem. The Senate was right to reject these tax increases on a bipartisan basis.”

Two Democratic senators --- Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas --- joined all 47 Republicans in voting against the bill, as did Connecticut Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman.

“President Obama’s ‘stimulus junior’ is not going to jump start our economy,” Foxx added. “We simply won’t spur economic growth or job growth by raising taxes and pursuing class warfare, as President Obama seems intent on doing.”

Foxx said the House --- which has a Republican majority --- has passed 15 bills aimed at stimulating the economy and creating jobs that don’t “involve tax hikes and more federal spending.”

She added, however, that “unfortunately, the Senate has yet to pass any of them.”