Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) accused Republicans today of attempting to block legislation that would encourage businesses to bring jobs back from overseas.
The Bring Jobs Home Act, which the Senate will vote on Thursday, provides companies with a 20 percent tax credit for expenses related to shipping production back to the U.S.. The cost of the legislation is offset by stripping tax deductions for businesses that re-locate — or outsource — to other countries.
Though the measure has little chance of attracting the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate, Reid and other Democrats are using it to paint the GOP as the party of outsourcing. Reid took to the floor Thursday morning to challenge Republican lawmakers to drop their filibuster of the bill.
“This obstruction tactic is unfortunate, but it’s not surprising,” he said. “After all, Republicans’ nominee for president made a fortune working for a company that shipped jobs overseas.”
Reid was referring to Mitt Romney, the former CEO of Bain Capital, a private equity firm that the Washington Post called a “pioneer” in the outsourcing movement.
Romney and his supporters have denied his involvement in that practice, saying that he left the firm in 1999, prior to a series of investments the firm made in companies that moved jobs overseas.
The plan represents yet another Democratically-backed tax bill designed with Romney in mind.
