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This shows you just how partisan and dysfunctional the congress has become. At least four of the Republicans who voted against this bill that would have helped veterans find training and jobs were co-sponsors. All the Democrats voted for it. This is just sickening.
WASHINGTON -- President Obama’s proposal to create a Veterans Jobs Corps to stem high unemployment among recent military veterans was shelved Wednesday after Republicans in the Senate balked over the five-year $1-billion cost, giving both sides fresh ammunition for the November election.
The measure had been on Obama’s to-do list for Congress, a modest set of initiatives aimed at boosting the nation’s sluggish economy that Republicans have largely rejected. The jobs bill would have hired veterans who served in the military since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to work on federal public lands projects and would have established a network of job training centers.
The jobless rate among those veterans was 10.9% in August, compared with a rate of 8.1 % in the broader population.
PHOTOS: Obama on the campaign trail
Republicans objected to the projected price tag of the jobs bill as well as the administration’s plan to pay for it by imposing penalties on Medicare providers and suppliers who are delinquent on taxes, and by collecting back taxes from others.
“No veteran who fought for our nation should have to fight for a job at home, but Republicans in Washington are blocking a common sense plan to create the Veterans Jobs Corps and put tens of thousands of veterans back to work,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.
The proposal was among a series of Democratic and Republican measures in both the House and Senate this week that are expected to gain little traction as Congress wraps up its work so members can campaign full time for the November election.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-veterans-jobs-corps-senate-20120919,0,5826957.story
WASHINGTON -- President Obama’s proposal to create a Veterans Jobs Corps to stem high unemployment among recent military veterans was shelved Wednesday after Republicans in the Senate balked over the five-year $1-billion cost, giving both sides fresh ammunition for the November election.
The measure had been on Obama’s to-do list for Congress, a modest set of initiatives aimed at boosting the nation’s sluggish economy that Republicans have largely rejected. The jobs bill would have hired veterans who served in the military since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to work on federal public lands projects and would have established a network of job training centers.
The jobless rate among those veterans was 10.9% in August, compared with a rate of 8.1 % in the broader population.
PHOTOS: Obama on the campaign trail
Republicans objected to the projected price tag of the jobs bill as well as the administration’s plan to pay for it by imposing penalties on Medicare providers and suppliers who are delinquent on taxes, and by collecting back taxes from others.
“No veteran who fought for our nation should have to fight for a job at home, but Republicans in Washington are blocking a common sense plan to create the Veterans Jobs Corps and put tens of thousands of veterans back to work,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.
The proposal was among a series of Democratic and Republican measures in both the House and Senate this week that are expected to gain little traction as Congress wraps up its work so members can campaign full time for the November election.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-veterans-jobs-corps-senate-20120919,0,5826957.story