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Demonstrating a remarkable burst of bipartisanship that appeared to surprise even committee members, a Senate committee unanimously passed a bill Wednesday to repair the nation's infrastructure that they pledge will do more than a failed measure proposed by President Obama.
The Senate bill will spend $85 billion over two years, compared to Obama's legislation, which would have spent $57 billion over 10 years. Senate lawmakers predicted the measure -- which is all but paid for -- could create as many as 1 million jobs.
Everyone from liberal Democrats to conservative Republicans praised the new bill as well as each other. The only discussion point not meriting the same camaraderie was Obama's plan, which stalled in the Senate last week.
Calling it "a political exercise, essentially designed to fail," Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said the reason for success this time around is "this is a jobs bill. This is an infrastructure bill which is designed to succeed and can succeed."
Not a single Democrat spoke up for Obama's plan. which he used last week to blame Congress and Republicans for blocking job creation.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., noted that the current bill has half the pages of the last highway bill and one other claim to fame.
"The last bill had 6,000 earmarks, and there are none in this one," he said.
...even though the president was campaigning on the slogan "we can't wait," much of his proposed spending would not have come for years.
"According to the CBO, less than one tenth of the funds in the Democrat proposal will be spent next year," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., "and roughly 40 percent won't be spent until after 2015, after 2015
