Sen. Blunt Votes Against Jobs. AGAIN.
Last night, the United States Senate held a vote on the Teachers, First Responders Back to Work Act which had a number of provisisions that would assist a large number of Missourians in getting back to work as well as allowed for large scale investments in critical public services that every American and Missourian relies upon.
Unfortunately, Sen. Blunt voted no. Here's some of what Blunt voted against:
- $30 Billion To Create or Protect Nearly 400,000 Education Jobs. Nearly 300,000 education jobs have been lost since 2008, and state and local budget crisis will put as many as 280,000 teacher jobs at risk next year.
- $5 Billion to Keep Thousands of Police and Firefighters on the Job. State and local budget cuts have forced thousands of cops and firefighters off the beat.
- Asking Millionaires to Pay Their Fair Share Without Adding a Dime to the Deficit. In order to create or save hundreds of thousands of teacher and first responder jobs, the Senate bill imposes a 0.5% surtax on modified adjusted gross income in excess of $1 million for both single filers and married couples filing jointly. The surtax is effective for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2012.
Not only did Sen. Blunt vote against teachers and education, firefighters and police, and working families, he did a 180 and went completely back on his word. In May, after hearing of critical cuts facing the Kansas City Fire Department for prepardness training, Sen. Blunt was quoted as saying, "We will continue working to call attention to this [funding] problem in order to ensure Kansas City receives the funding it needs." [Kansas City Star, 5/21/11]
If Sen. Blunt truly wanted to ensure that firefighters and other first responders in Missouri and around the country were receiving the funding they needed, he would have voted yes. Unfortunately, Blunt's republican colleagues in the Senate have said their "single most important goal" is to defeat President Obama. Apparently, Blunt is willing to go along as they try to carry out their goal, even at a devastating cost to our communities in terms of decreased funding for firefighters, police officers, first responders, teachers and other public servants. Missouri deserves better.
