Bob Cesca of the Huffington Post blogged, “If you’re angry about the gloomy status of the economy, bookmark this post and remind yourself occasionally which group of politicians filibustered an iron-clad solution for job creation and economic growth”, angrily. I have a bone to pick with Cesca. Even though the majority of the votes against the bill were from Republican Senators, there were FOUR Democrats who voted against the bill. I am just as disgusted as Cesca is with how Republicans are notorious for disrupting negotiations in vital Congressional meetings, but he isn’t fair in blaming Republicans for the bill’s death. Also, Cesca uses 2/3 of his blog to inform his audience of how Republicans use clever deceiving names for bills that are disguised as beneficiary for the U.S. but are actually detrimental. He mentions the infamous Frank Luntz and his reputation of “popularizing the use of tricky opposite-day titles” for controversial issues such as, “’climate change’ instead of ‘global warming’”. As true as his statements are they do not focus on the filibustered bill or why it was filibustered. Cesca should inform his audience of why four Democrats voted against the bill and what the next step for the Senate is regarding the bill.
So why did the Senate dismiss the bill? In a related blog by Jennifer Bendry, she discusses two Democrats who voted against the bill, Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Jon Tester (Mont.) and two other Democrats who voted to debate the bill but voted against the bill itself; Senators Jim Webb (Va.) and Joe Manchin (W. Va.). According to Bendry’s blog Tester himself said, “The things I support in this bill are outweighed by the things I can’t support…It is an expensive, temporary fix to a problem that needs a big, long-term solution.” Before the vote Webb asserted “he couldn’t support the bill because of its proposal to offset costs by raising taxes on the wealthy….the real problem is that the bill would tax people’s ordinary income versus capital gains, where he said most wealthy people make their money” Even I can see how that is not a solution. These Democratic Senators have legitimate reasons for voting against the bill, which Cesca chose to omit from his blog.
There is hope, however. The Senate will dissect the bill after Obama chooses which areas of the bill he would like Congress to vote on. Bob Cesca failed to report that news in his blog as well; leaving his readers with the assumption that Republican Senators are always trying to completely deny any legislation in support of creating jobs. He is right, however that in the past Republicans have kept Congress in a rut and busy themselves with other issues instead of consuming all their time with job creation legislation. We will see how they vote when parts of the bill are presented later. Cesca’s blog is a rich example of how even Democrats (obviously who Bob Cesca is or favors) can mislead others; the exact action Cesca accuses Republicans of doing. If he wants to report such an important issue, he should report it with all the facts. This blog can be used to show students like me, they need to research an event which is blogged about to know the entire truth.
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