On Thursday, the US senate was poised to cast a pro forma vote on final passage of a China currency bill when Senate Republicans attempted to use the rules of the Senate to attach a post-cloture amendment. The Republican amendment would have required a vote on President Obama’s jobs bill, forcing Democrats to vote on the plan the president has been blaming Republicans for blocking. Because there are insufficient votes among Senate Democrats to force closure or pass the bill, allowing the amendment would have blown up the charade that congressional Republicans are the lone roadblock to Obama’s jobs bill.
