Democrats Seek Small Wins for Obama Jobs Plan

President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan is dead on arrival with Republicans in Congress. But Democrats such as New York Sen. Chuck Schumer are putting together smaller elements that could draw bipartisan support, Politico reports.

Schumer is trying to get senators on both sides of the aisle to back a combination of a Republican plan for a tax holiday for corporations repatriating profits from abroad and a Democratic idea for a national infrastructure bank. Democrats also are thinking about trying to push through Obama’s idea to continue the payroll tax cut.

Some Democrats have dismissed the tax holiday as a giveaway to big business, and some Republicans reject an infrastructure bank as one more wasteful program of big government.

Schumer has the support of at least one Republican — freshman Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk. “Common sense is if you lower the tax rate below the rate in Argentina, China or Japan, then it makes sense for those employers to bring those profits home,” Kirk said. “And that can help fund more infrastructure development.”

Schumer has been able to win over some liberal Democrats too, including Sen. Barbara Boxer of California. To bring more liberals to the party, he plans to include a stipulation for the infrastructure bank backed by unions that contractors pay a prevailing wage to workers as specified under the Davis-Bacon Act.