Unemployment bill dealt Senate defeat

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans and a dozen Democratic defectors in the Senate dealt a defeat to President Barack Obama today, just days after he pressed Congress to renew pieces of last year's economic-stimulus bill.

A catchall measure combining jobless aid for the long-term unemployed, aid to cash-strapped state governments and the renewal of dozens of popular tax breaks for businesses and individuals failed to muster even a majority in a test vote, much less the 60 votes that would be required to defeat a GOP filibuster.

Now, Obama's Democratic allies have been forced back to the drawing board in their efforts to pass the measure, which also would protect doctors from a looming cut in Medicare payments and raise taxes on investment fund managers. A new, scaled-back version of the measure is likely to be revealed later today.

Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said after the vote that "Plan B" is to do some "shuffling, rearranging of some of the provisions" of the bill but not making wholesale changes.