March 05, 2010 07:01 AM UTC

What is Jared Polis Thinking? (Part 732)

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• by: ThillyWabbit

(Mr. Hyde (R) strikes again!-ColPols–I just updated with Jared’s response – promoted by Danny the Red (hair))

Update with Jared’s response

I voted against the HIRE Act along with 35 members of the Congressional Black Caucus and Progressive Caucus on grounds that it was simply too little, too late: its tax cuts will not bring about real job creation, and it did not include adequate funding or allocation methods for infrastructure projects or initiatives to help the poor.  

Jared Polis

FRIDAY POLS UPDATE: Details emerge, from the New York Times:

Though the measure attracted bipartisan support when approved by the Senate last week, House Republicans were dismissive, saying it was cobbled together by Democrats for political purposes and would do little to spur new employment. And many Democrats, even though they backed the measure, considered it far too limited in scope…

House Democrats wanted several changes. They adjusted the bill to cover its costs more completely, to satisfy Democratic fiscal hawks. To attract liberal lawmakers who contended the measure was too meager, they added a provision to generate business for minority contractors. The revisions mean the measure will have to be reconsidered by the Senate, where it was unclear whether Republicans would seek to slow its progress.

The centerpiece of the legislation is a plan to exempt businesses that hire people who have been out of work for at least 60 days from paying the 6.2 percent payroll tax on those employees through year-end. It also grants a $1,000 tax credit if the workers are kept on for a full year.

Opinion is divided on whether the approach is effective or simply gives businesses a break on workers they would have hired anyway. But lawmakers said that given the dismal unemployment picture, they were willing to give it a try, and estimated the tax breaks would put 300,000 people to work.

That was not enough for some Democrats. “We should stop calling it a jobs bill, and instead acknowledge this is about business tax cuts,” said Representative Barbara Lee, a California Democrat and chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus. She voted against the bill and said much more needed to be done to reach the chronically unemployed.

Original post follows–was it too much for Jared Polis, as he said about health care? Or not enough, as some members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus apparently decided? We retract our “Mr. Hyde (R)” crack above, but only long enough to get an explanation–which, given Rep. Polis’ erratic record on Democratic legislative goals, should have been immediately forthcoming after last night’s vote. As it is, people coming away with the “wrong impression,” assuming it was wrong, of this vote can’t be blamed for doing so.

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There are no new stories that I can find, no floor statement, and no press release.

But Congressman Jared Polis (R?-Boulder) voted with Doug Lamborn and Mike Coffman against the $15 billion jobs bill.

Since Rep. Polis has not issued any statements, and I would think that such a vote would justify one, I have to assume it’s because he hates America and doesn’t want anybody to get jobs.

What say you?