Immediate failure

You may or may not have noticed two things yesterday. One: you still didn't have a job. Two: Congress still wasn't doing anything to make it more likely that you could potentially find the job.

Well, you're probably used to the first one by now. You come to terms with it daily down at the bar as you beg for spare change from college kids and more successful panhandlers to "Help a poor man out" and buy you a shot or two or twelve of Vladimir. You might be a little more surprised at the second one. Not that surprised, this is the US government we're talking about after all, but our elected betters have been talking a good game recently about getting something done and in a fit of despair and cheap Russian vodka you might have been inebriated enough to place hope in these vague promises.

Well after having their initial attempts at getting a bill passed derailed by snow, they finally hunkered down to hammer out and pass a jobs bill... for a good, hard 15 minutes or so.

This afternoon, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus announced he'd reached accord with ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). They unveiled what was supposed to be a final jobs package.

Oh goodie, they did such a bang up job with the health care bill I'm so glad they were able to get their hands on a jobs bill. I think you see where this is going.

But the agreement didn't sit well with many Democrats, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has pulled it out of their hands, and announced he'd move ahead with a smaller bill.
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Liberal Democrats were not pleased with the Baucus-Grassley compromise. Among other things, Baucus and Grassley said that jobs could only move forward if the Senate agreed to take up a bipartisan "reform" (a.k.a. slashing) of the estate tax.

Yep, certainly the critical pillar of getting Americans back to work and encouraging businesses to hire again is providing a massive tax break to multi-millionaires so that when they die they can leave those millions to their rich kids without Uncle Sam wetting his star-spangled beak. I'm glad someone in Congress valiantly stood up to fight for this trenchant economic theory that so many respected economists have claimed is the major reason unemployment is hovering around 10%. I mean why can't Paris Hilton collect as much as she's entitled to? Those extra millions could add a few more jobs in the economical ravaged small dog handler sector.

But good on the Democrats for showing that it is possible for them to learn. Sure they did the same old thing they always do: listen to Lucy say she's gonna let them kick the football, line up and then start running full bore at the football. But this time, perhaps due to the help of a beagle or chattering yellow bird, they realized on the run-up that pain and suffering was imminent and pulled up. Maybe there's hope for them yet.