Three members of the Senate Democratic Caucus — Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) — voted 50-50 to block a debate on the package, which would have been funded by a 0.5 percent surtax on those earning more than $1 million. ‘It seems all we care about is scoring political points to be used in the next election,’ said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). ‘Shame on us if the blame game is the best thing that we can do.’

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“It’s very clear that private sector jobs have been doing just fine, it’s the public sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers, and that’s what this legislation is all about.” Asked if he disagreed with Reid’s comments by MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough this morning, former Obama administration economic advisor Austan Goolsbee said, “I guess I would disagree a little.”

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While the nation’s unemployment rate remains stubbornly high at 9.1%, government workers unemployment rate is at a booming 4.7%! And to add insult to injury, the top income in the United States is, you guessed it, in the Washington D.C. area.

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The Southeast Missouri Pachyderm Club will conduct a straw poll for the 2012 Republican Presidential campaign and US Senate primary.

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And in 2009, President Obama promised of his nearly $1 trillion stimulus bill, “It’s a plan that will save or create up to four million jobs over the next two years … And the jobs of firefighters, teachers, nurses, and police officers that would otherwise be eliminated if we don’t provide states with some relief.”

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The Cincinnati Enquirer reported, “Smart Papers, the Hamilton-based paper maker, said last Thursday it has begun winding down operations while it seeks a potential buyer for all or part of its nearly 120-year-old paper business. Competition from Asia, rising costs of raw materials and uncertainty surrounding new federal pollution rules contributed to the decision.

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The Hill notes, “CLASS is by far the biggest piece of healthcare reform to meet its end, and also the first to collapse entirely on its own. Republicans successfully repealed one much smaller provision, and the individual mandate could be struck down by the Supreme Court. But HHS officials acknowledged that CLASS fell apart simply because it was too flawed to salvage.”

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AP reports today, “Democratic unanimity is not assured. Moderates like Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. — both are up for re-election next year in states where Obama figures to lose — may abandon their party, even as oil-state Democrats have been assuaged by a decision to get rid of an Obama proposal to have oil companies give up tax breaks.

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Last night, in an unprecedented move to help Democrats avoid voting on tough amendments, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) changed the rules and precedents of the Senate with a simple majority vote.

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And despite Democrats’ latest political posturing, it’s not clear that many Democrats will support the president’s stimulus bill, even with their new tax hike proposal. In 2009 some Democrats warned that a similar surtax would “negatively affect small businesses.” Meanwhile The Daily Caller reports that Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) “is a ‘no’ vote right now with either the surtax or offsets on the table.” And Politico’s Manu Raju reports Democrat Nebraska Senator “Ben Nelson says he’ll vote against cloture

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