The Senate, in a move that sparks hope for more bipartisan cooperation, passed the $15-billion jobs bill by a vote of 70 to 28. The bill is aimed at providing tax breaks for businesses that hire the unemployed, retain workers and purchase new equipment.

According to the Associated Press:

The jobs legislation would also extend highway and mass transit programs through the end of the year and pump $20 billion into them in time for the construction season. Economists say the tax breaks could create perhaps 250,000 jobs. It's the first of several job-creation measures promised by Democrats, who also want to give cash-strapped states further help with their budgets and give subsidies to people who make their homes more energy efficient.

Newly elected Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown may have set the tone when he broke from his party and voted to allow the bill to reach the Senate floor. Four other Republicans followed suit, and the bill gained greater bipartisan support during the final vote.The vote was not without some controversy.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

Before the Senate voted on final passage, lawmakers defeated an attempt by Republicans to block the bill. Sen. Judd Gregg (R., N.H.), the top Republican on the budget panel and a renowned fiscal conservative, said the bill would add to federal spending at a time when the deficit is already running at historical highs.

It would help if Republicans cared about the deficit while the head of their party, George W. Bush, was proposing tax cuts for the wealthy that helped raise the deficit to unprecedented levels.

Maybe this is a step in the right direction. The bill still has to be reconciled with the House version. Opposing bills that could help Americans based simply on politics seems to be the strategy that the GOP has adopted ahead of mid-term elections. Instead of moving to work on serious issues such as health care reform and jobs, it seems the push is to oppose everything without offering any alternative solutions.

In other words, create gridlock and then blame Democrats.

That only works if people's lives aren't hanging in the balance. With 46 million Americans without health care and 8.4 million jobs lost since the economic downturn, Americans don't need gridlock. Republicans have been unable to confuse Americans on jobs like they have with the health care debate.

Brown has faced criticism from conservatives for his vote. He's been labeled a traitor and called a "Benedict Brown." A few weeks ago, he was the savior of the Republican party. What are critics going to say now that more Republicans have decided that action is better than politicking?

More Americans should demand that the politics be put aside and that solutions to these serious problems are given consideration.