Republican Party Senators block Obama jobs initiative

GOP Senators blocked the priority item on President Barack Obama’s congressional “to-do-list” on Thursday, refusing to allow a vote on a bill that would give tax breaks for companies that “insource” jobs to the United States from overseas while eliminating tax deductions for companies that outsource American jobs. The bill fell four votes short of the 60 needed to bring it to debate, with 42 voting against it. Four Republican senators, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Dean Heller of Nevada, voted in favor of the bill.

With outsourcing blamed as the big contributor to America’s high unemployment rate, Democrats saw the bill as an election-year winner. The Bring Jobs Home Act would provide a 20 percent tax break for the costs of moving jobs back to American soil and would repeal business expense deductions available to companies that are associated with the cost of moving operations overseas.