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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: joseffy who wrote (654246)	5/8/2012 11:33:51 PM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 1578177

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a bill that would have frozen student loan interest rates before they are set to double on July 1. In a partisan vote of 52 to 45, the Senate failed to reach the 60 votes needed to begin debate on the Democratic bill. Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) was the lone Republican to vote "present." A Snowe spokesman told The Huffington Post her vote was related to her practice of voting "present" on legislation that contains the potential or appearance of association with the private business activity of her husband. The vote wasn't much of a surprise: Republicans have been signaling they would filibuster the bill because of its cost offsets. Democrats would cover the $6 billion cost of keeping student loan interest rates at 3.4 percent for another year by raising Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes on certain high-earners. By contrast, Republicans have called for nixing a preventive health fund to pay for it. Ultimately, the vote gives Democrats another chance to try to frame Republicans as favoring the wealthy over the middle class in the midst of election-year politicking. During debate on the bill, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said Republicans were "afraid" to agree to let it come up for debate because they would be forced to choose between helping college students and protecting the rich. "Some of my friends on the other side of the aisle maybe will think that students are more important than a few wealthy people in this country not paying their fair share of taxes" if the bill were allowed to come up for debate, Harkin said. "That's what this vote is ... Republicans don't even want to proceed to go there."

To: joseffy who wrote (654246)	5/9/2012 1:01:50 AM
From: THE WATSONYOUTH	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578177

2012 Senate Election Interactive Map 270towin.com would be interested in everyone's prediction for the 2012 Senate races. .........my prediction is for the Senate to flip from 53/47 Democratic to 53/47 Republican with hopefully 27 true conservatives in the Republican majority.