Following up the last post:Keep in mind —

More than two-thirds of all Americans back higher taxes on the rich and even larger numbers think Medicare and Social Security benefits should be left alone, according to a Bloomberg-Washington Post national poll conducted Oct. 6-9.

Even more than half of Republicans think the rich should be paying more taxes, this poll says.

So we have a jobs bill that should do a lot to pump the economy, and the CBO says it should pay for itself and even reduce the deficit, and it can be funded by a surtax to the rich that is popular with a large majority of voters.

And there is real concern that enough Senate Dems will refuse to vote for it that it will get less than 50 votes.

According to Chis Good at The Atlantic, the Dems likely to vote no are:

• Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who asked on Sept. 17, “If spending money would solve our problems and crisis in America, we wouldn’t have a problem right now because we sure did our share of spending money in the last few years. It’s just common sense to me. If some of the recommendations that are out there hadn’t worked in the past, why would we do them over again?”
• Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who said last week he would filibuster the bill. His office told The Atlantic today that Nelson has not yet decided how he will vote.
• Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who said last week he will not support the bill unless it’s changed to include more infrastructure projects.
• Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), who has not spoken publicly in favor of the bill after criticizing its deficit offsets initially, despite Reid’s changes.

Manchin is a flat-out idiot who should be drummed out of the party. I think we’ve all had it up to here with Nelson, too. I don’t know what to make of Tester, but this kind of grandstanding isn’t helpful. Looks like Webb is a question mark.

Also, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) probably will miss the vote, although she supports the bill. Thanks loads.

Now, I have to say that four or five our of 53 Senate Dems is a small minority, and perhaps I shouldn’t tar the whole party, but one does wonder what some Dems are using in place of brains sometimes.

See also If moderate Dems vote No on jobs bill, they’re only hurting themselves.

Recently the Congressional Budget Office released an analysis of President Obama’s jobs bill. The CBO says the bill really would stimulate the economy, create jobs, and reduce the deficit. It could be fully paid for by a relatively painless 5.6 percent surtax on millionaires.

In a sane world, Congress would be tripping all over itself in a rush to get the bill passed.

However, we expect no Republican would vote for it, because the GOP is now the party of pathological plutocracy, and Republicans would rather send their own grandmothers to the Soylent Green factory than ask the wealthy to cough up so much as a tarnished silver spoon for the good of their country.

In a semi-sane world, Democrats would be tripping all over themselves in a rush to paint Republicans as obstructionist. We can fix the economy if Republicans would get out of the way! So vote them out in 2012!

In a semi-sane world, there would be headlines about Republicans scrambling to save face. Instead, the Hill tells us that Democrats are scrambling to save face on the jobs bill.

Democratic leaders in the Senate are scrambling to avoid defections on President Obama’s jobs package, which appears headed for defeat on Tuesday.

A lack of Democratic unity on the president’s bill would be embarrassing for the White House, which has been scolding House Republicans for refusing to vote on the measure.

It would be embarrassing to congressional Democrats, too, although apparently some are too thick-headed to see it.

Democrats who will vote no or are leaning no include Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Jon Tester (Mont.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.), who all hail from red states and are up for reelection next year. …

…If there are substantial Democratic defections, “Republicans will be able to point out in the media that this plan hasn’t got enough support on either side of the aisle and argue it wasn’t thought through,” according to Ron Bonjean, a former communications director to Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

I say again, if Franklin Roosevelt had had Barack Obama’s Congress, FDR would be remembered today as an ineffectual one-term president.