Tester joins GOP in halting jobs bill

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is criticizing Republican senators in the wake of the failure of his jobs bill to survive a crucial test vote. But he says that vote, in his words, “is by no means the end of this fight.”

All 46 Republicans in the Senate and two Democrats voted against advancing the jobs bill Tuesday night. One of the two Democrats was Sen. Jon Tester of Montana.

In a statement after the vote, Obama said his bill contains proposals Republicans have supported in the past but that the GOP had obstructed the Senate from moving forward on the jobs bill.

Obama says he will work with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to see that individual proposals in the bill gain a vote as soon as possible.

Obama says that each vote will lead to lawmakers having to explain their positions.

Tester released the following statement after voting against the $447 billion American Jobs Act:

“The things I support in this bill are outweighed by the things I can’t support.  We shouldn’t be sending billions of dollars in bailout aid to states.  And I can’t support tax gimmicks that do little to create jobs and fail to address a much bigger underlying problem: The need for a big, broad and bipartisan plan to cut the deficit and to make sure we can pay our bills and rebuild our economy.”

Tester said, “We need to focus on investing in the things that create jobs in this country: Our critical infrastructure, education, and research and development.  We need significant but responsible cuts to government spending.  We need a wholesale reform of our tax code to make sure that millionaires and corporations pay their fair share, and to make taxes more fair for working families.  And we need to ensure that critical initiatives like Social Security and Medicare are built to last.”

Tester said, “This measure does none of those things.  It is an expensive, temporary fix to a problem that needs a big, long-term solution.”