Democrats Plan $190B Job Plan

Politico reports that Democrats are planning a $190 billion dollar jobs bill:

In a roll of the dice, Democrats moved Thursday to take up a roughly $190 billion-plus jobs and tax package next week, hoping to complete passage before Memorial Day and forestall threatened cuts that would affect the elderly and the unemployed.

An unwieldy amalgam of state aid, infrastructure investments, tax cuts and extended jobless benefits, the massive bill is a sleeping giant in this political year and uniquely captures the hard choices facing a government beset by record deficits and an uncertain economy.

Included are routine tax cut extensions but also landmark reforms and a quadrupling of the fees now paid by oil companies to cover damages for spills like the BP disaster in the Gulf. Going into November’s elections, the spending represents a huge, costly, almost defiant commitment by Democrats to preserve a safety net for the unemployed and restore stability to Medicare reimbursements — important to physicians and their elderly patients.