COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama, stymied by the Senate's rejection of his $447 billion jobs bill, embarked Monday on a three-day bus tour to promote the bill to voters in North Carolina and Virginia. Along with touting the merits of the struggling legislation, the president will be campaigning for himself to an electorate which has many that disapprove of him and his job performance.
According to the New York Times, Obama, speaking at the regional airport in Asheville, N.C., decried the Senate's repudiation as a refusal to put teachers and construction workers back to work and a denial of much-needed infrastructure improvement. Pointedly, the president said "they said no to (the American people)." But Obama needs to look toward Senate Democrats for more answers about the bill's failure, too.
As reported by numerous news sources, including Fox News, Senate Democrats attached an amendment to the bill that called for a tax on people with incomes over $1 million. Though popular with many segments of the electorate, the amendment amounted to a poison pill for the bill, which required 60 votes to pass Senate procedural hurdles.
It is tempting to believe Senate Democrats, toeing the party line, wish for millionaires to "pay their fair share." But the fact the Republican reaction was a given suggests a far more insidious motive to the amendment's introduction -- one that should concern the president deeply.
The amendment indicates Democrats are not aligned with the president and are attempting to distance themselves from him. Three Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., chose to vote the bill down due to expected election difficulty or to "reconsider a vote in the future," which makes little sense.
Most politicians, regardless of affiliation, favor retaining their jobs above all else. An Oct. 7 Gallup poll reveals President Obama's job approval rating in September remained at 41 percent, down from a high of 66 percent in January 2009. Given the president's declining ratings, it seems likely that vulnerable Democrats are deserting him like the proverbial rats from a sinking ship.
It is possible the president's bus tour will generate voter support for his jobs bill. From the tea party protests to the Occupy Wall Street movement, it is clear there is a great deal of anger and concern regarding the employment situation, even if voters disagree about the causes.
But the hidden message of the bill's refusal suggests his biggest problems may be in his own house, and that the bus tour would do well to make a stop at the Capitol.
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