http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/on-the-record/2011/09/27/cain-blacks-are-over-first-african-american-president-thing#ixzz1Z9vQZqr3President Obama still is pressing Congress to pass his jobs stimulus bill immediately, but his own party leaders in the Senate, where Democrats have a majority, have pushed that vote off yet again.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said Monday night that when the Senate returns from a weeklong vacation, the chamber will work instead on a bill that would push to label China a currency manipulator, which would make retaliatory steps in order.
“I don’t think there’s anything more important for a jobs measure than China trade,” Mr. Reid said.
Late Monday, before he closed down the Senate, Mr. Reid locked in an early test vote for when senators return next week.
Mr. Obama two weeks ago sent Congress legislation he said would create jobs by extending and expanding temporary tax cuts and boosting infrastructure spending, which he offset by increasing taxes over the long term.
The president has been traveling the country demanding that Congress act immediately, but even his own party has not been keen to rush the legislation.
Mr. Reid is the Senate sponsor of the measure, but he said there are other priorities.
“We’ll get to that, but let’s get some of these things done that we have to get done first,” he said.
On the House side, GOP leaders, who control that chamber, have said they are waiting for an evaluation of the bill from the Congressional Budget Office and will then send the legislation through the committee process.
Republicans have said there are some ideas in Mr. Obama’s plan that they can accept, though they and some Democrats have rejected the tax increases Mr. Obama has called for — particularly the $400 billion he would raise over 10 years by limiting deductions for high-income taxpayers.
The China currency legislation, meanwhile, is sponsored by a bipartisan group of senators, and Mr. Reid said he’s confident it can pass the upper chamber.
“China trade is a jobs bill. It’s long, long overdue,” he said.
The legislation would push the Treasury Department to declare that China manipulates its currency in order to seek an edge in international trade.
