WLS Radio’s Bill Cameron Reports
CHICAGO (WLS) - On Tuesday, President Barack Obama tried to keep the pressure on Congress to consider his nearly $450 billion jobs bill, saying it had been two weeks since he sent the bill to Capitol Hill "and now I want it back."
"I want it back, passed, so I can sign this bill and start putting people back to work," Obama said Tuesday.
So why have Democrats delayed action in the U.S. Senate on President Obama’s stimulus bill?
WLS Radio’s Bill Cameron reports his own party has delayed action in the Senate and talked with Senator
Dick Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate, about the reason why.
“The oil-producing state senators don’t like eliminating or reducing the subsidy for oil companies, “ Durbin tells WLS Radio, “There are some senators who are up for election who say I’m never gonna vote for a tax increase while I’m up for election, even on the wealthiest people. So, we’re not gonna have 100%
Democratic senators. That’s why it needs to be bi-partisan and I hope we can find some Republicans who will join us to make it happen.”
But so far, Durbin concedes Democrats don’t have the votes in the senate to pass it, “Not at the moment, I don’t think we do but, uh, we can work on it.”
There has been no clear sign that his campaign for his bill is winning over Republicans in Congress whose support he needs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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