Grassley Rejects Baucus Jobs Bill

A few weeks ago, Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the leaders of the Senate Finance Committee, came together in rare bipartisan fashion to propose an $85 billion bill designed to tackle the nation’s employment crisis.

Don’t expect the same cooperation surrounding the latest jobs proposal.

Just moments after Baucus took to the Senate floor this afternoon to outline the Democrats’ latest stimulus bill, Grassley blasted the proposal for being too large and not targeted enough. “Don’t let this package be mislabeled as the Baucus-Grassley package,” he said, adding that it “dramatically differs in cost, balance … and intent” from the original bill. Grassley blamed Democratic leaders — i.e., Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) — for “arbitrarily” scrapping the original proposal and replacing it “with a bill that skews toward their liberal wing.”

Looks like Democratic leaders will be relying again on Scott Brown & Co. if they want to get this thing through the upper chamber, as they hope to do this week.