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President Barack Obama is thanking lawmakers --
and Republicans especially -- for their help sending him a jobs bill.


      The Senate passed the bill on Wednesday with 11 Republican
votes. It contains about $18 billion in tax breaks and a $20
billion infusion of cash into highway and transit programs.


      Obama told reporters that the bill marks the beginning of
Congress' efforts to put the unemployed back to work.


The bill will give a temporary payroll tax holiday to companies that hire unemployed workers.


      The bipartisan 68-29 vote in the Senate sends the legislation to
the White House for Obama's signature. 


     It will be the first of several election-year jobs bills
promised by Democrats to be enacted into law, though there's plenty
of skepticism that the measure will do much to actually create
jobs. 


Optimistic estimates predict the tax break could generate
perhaps 250,000 jobs through the end of the year, but that would be
just a tiny fraction of the 8.4 million jobs lost since the start
of the recession.


      The measure is part of a campaign by Democrats to show that they
are addressing the nation's unemployment problem, but that message
was overshadowed by Congress' feverish final push to pass health
care overhaul legislation by this weekend.


      The bill which passed Wednesday contains about $18 billion in
tax breaks and a $20 billion infusion of cash into highway and
transit programs. 


Among other things, it exempts businesses that
hire the unemployed from paying the 6.2 percent Social Security
payroll tax through December and gives employers an additional
$1,000 credit if new workers stay on the job a full year. Taxpayers
will have to reimburse Social Security for the lost revenue.


      "This is just the first, certainly not the last, piece of
legislation that we will put forward in relation to jobs," said
sponsor Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "If we don't create jobs, the
economy will not move forward."


      It also extends highway and mass transit programs through the
end of the year and pumps in $20 billion in time for the spring
construction season. That money would make up for
lower-than-expected gasoline tax revenues.
      

The measure is modest compared with last year's $862 billion
economic stimulus bill, and the bulk of the hiring tax breaks would
probably go to companies that were likely to hire new workers
anyway.


      Much of the bill is financed over the coming decade by cracking
down on offshore tax havens, though it would add $13 billion to the
debt in the coming three years.


      "When are we going to stop spending money around here as if
there's no tomorrow?" said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. "Because
pretty soon there's going to be no tomorrow for our children as we
add this debt to their backs."


      In addition to the hiring tax incentives and highway funding,
the bill extends a tax break for small businesses buying new
equipment and modestly expands an initiative that helps state and
local governments finance infrastructure projects.


      A far larger measure that would extend health insurance
subsidies and jobless checks for the unemployed is in the works but
has hit slow going. 


That measure has passed both House and Senate,
but is hung up as the rival chambers wrangle over how to partially
finance the legislation, which also would extend a variety of tax
breaks for individuals and businesses.


      As a result, it may require a third temporary extension of
unemployment benefits, which would otherwise expire at the end of
this month.


      The Senate vote comes as the House Ways and Means Committee is
scheduled to vote on a bill Wednesday that lawmakers hope will
generate jobs through infrastructure spending and tax cuts for
investing in some small businesses. 

The bill would exempt long-term
investments in certain small businesses from capital gains taxes,
and would expand the Build America Bonds program, which subsidizes
interest costs paid by local governments when they borrow for
construction projects.


      The bond program would be extended through June 2013, at a cost
of $7.6 billion. The entire bill would cost about $17 billion over
the next decade.


      Much of the bill would be paid for by limiting the ability of
multinational corporations to avoid U.S. withholding taxes by
shifting assets among foreign countries. The bill would also make
it easier for the federal government to withhold payments from
government contractors that owe back taxes.

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President Barack Obama is thanking lawmakers --
and Republicans especially -- for their help sending him a jobs bill.


Senate passes jobs bill for Obama's signature

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