Mark Warner watchers, whether supporters or skeptics must be scratching their heads wondering why Mark Warner repeatedly chooses GOPHERS of the far right wing with whom to work. Yes, there is another Dem on the list of sponsors. Yes, one needs to build coalitions to achieve anything in Congress. And, yes, bills often have co-sponsors from opposite parties. But Warner falls all over himself to deal with the real wingers (can we say, Rubio) of the other side. Surely, there are other potential congressional pals. and surely there is a better partner than a possible VP candidate for Mitt Romney. But yesterday the following announcement came forth from the offices of Warner and his new buds. Today, was the “big” day for the launch of another Warner-GOP alliance. Here is the announcement from yesterday.
WASHINGTON – Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 22, at 10:30am, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) will unveil bipartisan legislation, Startup Act 2.0, aimed at jumpstarting the economy through the creation and growth of new businesses. This bipartisan legislation sets out to prove the critics wrong: Congress can get something done during an election year by coming together to strengthen the economy and create jobs.
The quote continues below the fold.
Startup Act 2.0 picks up where the JOBS Act left off by doing more to create an environment in which entrepreneurs can succeed. Research has shown that for close to three decades, companies less than five years old have created almost all of the net new jobs in America-averaging about 3 million jobs each year. Startup Act 2.0 creates new opportunities for American-educated, entrepreneurial immigrants to remain in the U.S. where their talent and ideas can fuel growth and create American jobs. The bill also alleviates regulatory burdens that make it more difficult for businesses to expand and create jobs, and seeks to more quickly move university-based research from the laboratory to the marketplace. Finally, Startup Act 2.0 makes changes to the tax code to encourage investment in startup companies.
Startup Act 2.0 builds upon the original Startup Act introduced by Sens. Warner and Moran in December, and it has been strengthened by including widely-supported provisions of S. 1866, the AGREE Act, introduced by Sens. Coons and Rubio in November. …
Warner wants to pick up where the jobless Jobs act left off? Alrighty, then. Maybe he would like to author an Actual Jobs bill! And the way to do that in a sluggish economy is for government to pick up the slack. But Warner missed that point. What he did learn is to play a one-track tune.: Be a kinda Demo-Republican like him. Then pat himself on the back for having his feet planted in mid air. #Historylessonfail.
I do not oppose the government seeding small businesses. But I am not sure anything Marco Rubio and the winger crowd support is the way to go. Why the scepticism? Were jobs to be the goal, incentives to actually hire people might be included in the legislation. Similarly, the definition of what constitutes a small business needs reform. Otherwise, any large corporation can spin off a unit and declare itself a small business in order to feed at the federal trough. And some of them do.
Additionally, as I have reminded before, as recently as this past weekend, Warner worked with Saxby Chambliss to push a version of the Catfood Commissions (Bowles-Simpson) austerity measures. How you can fill a budget gap with failed trickle-down escapes anyone who has followed thirty years of history. But never mind.
And now, what do we make of his forging an alliance with Marco Rubio? Why would Warner work to attempt the enhancement of Rubio cred at the very time when Rubio is being touted as a VP possibility for the other side? Or is it just more of the same so-called oxymoronic “radical centrism,” which in reality is to the right of Richard Nixon?
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