Calfornia Senate Candidate Carly Fiorina Would Have Voted Against Jobs Bill

The bill to extend unemployment benefits that was voted down by Senate Republicans is devastating to California.

Hundreds of thousands of jobless residents will see their unemployment checks cut off. The deficit-plagued state budget stands to lose billions of desperately needed dollars. And a tax credit for research and development, long prized by the tech industry, appears to be on life support.

Even so, Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina says she would have voted with the GOP against the measure.

Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, who is running to unseat Boxer in November, said through a spokeswoman that she would have sided with Republicans in blocking the measure.

“While there are some worthwhile programs that are funded under this legislation,” the spokeswoman, Julie Soderlund, said in a statement, “it needs much more work to ensure that it does not further hinder job creation.”

Some of those “worthwhile programs”:

The bill would have provided about $1.8 billion in additional Medicaid payments to California,money that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislators have already factored into their budget proposals. The loss of that aid will force lawmakers to find other cuts or revenue to help plug the $19.1 billion deficit.

…

The bill also included provisions that directly affect Silicon Valley. A research and development tax credit long employed by high-tech firms expired Dec. 31 but would have been extended an additional year. It now could be lost for good, said Ralph Hellmann, a senior vice president at the Washington, D.C.-based Industry Technology Industry Council.

Tech firms “rely on these incentives to keep and expand research and development here in the U.S.,” Hellmann said

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.