In the 33 days since President Obama proposed the American Jobs Act of 2011 to reduce the nation’s painfully high unemployment, Republicans have attacked the initiative while offering no alternative to create jobs now, a performance they repeated today when they refused to allow the U.S. Senate to even vote on the president’s plan.

By invoking the filibuster, the GOP once again sided with the wealthy and multi-national corporations rather than with the middle class majority, which would benefit from the jobs act.  “It is unconscionable that during this time of economic distress, Republicans would deny millions of Americans job opportunities in order to advance the GOP quest to un-employ one man – President Obama,” said United Steelworkers (USW) International President Leo W. Gerard. “The middle class majority needs help from Congress, not the wealthy few,” he added.

The jobs act would give tax breaks to the middle class and small businesses and create an estimated 1.9 million jobs, reducing unemployment by as much as 1 percent. The $447 billion cost would be offset by a 5.6 percent surtax on millionaires. 

Seventy-five percent of Americans support the surtax on millionaires at a time when the average big corporate CEO hauls in $9.6 million a year but the average family of four scrapes by on $50,000. According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll, 75 percent of independents, 57 percent of Republicans and 55 percent of Tea Partiers favor higher taxes on millionaires ... more