Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

(Credit: Getty Images/Karen Bleier)

"We are going to make sure there is a vote on our bill this week," Reid said. "To make sure that we do that I'll protect ourselves by filing cloture tonight unless we work something out and have a vote. "

At this point the vote would most likely occur on Friday unless Democrats could reach an agreement with Republicans to vote late Thursday.

Reid's remarks came at a boisterous jobs rally attended by several hundred teachers, fire fighters, police officers and union members on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon. Vice President Biden and Democratic Senators also addressed the crowd.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama meets troops during a stop at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, in Hampton, Va, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011. Obama is on a three-day bus tour promoting the American Jobs Act.

(Credit: Susan Walsh)

President Obama rounded out the third and final day of his bus tour in Virginia urging passage of a piece of his $447 billion jobs plan that aims to help out-of-work veterans find a job.

"Even though so many companies who are here today have committed to hiring our nation's heroes, we want to make it even easier for the businesses that haven't made that commitment yet," Mr. Obama said in remarks to U.S. forces at the Join Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton, Virginia.

"We're saying to those veterans who fought for us, now we are fighting for you -- for more jobs, for more security, for the opportunity to keep your families strong, the chance to keep America competitive economically in the 21st century," he added.

The president has spent the past three days in North Carolina and Virginia, two states that will be key for him to win in his re-election bid.

The unemployment rate for men between the ages of 18 and 44 who served on active duty in the past decade - and have since returned to the workforce - was 13.4 percent in September, according to the Labor Department. That compares to a 10.1 percent unemployment rate for men in the same age bracket who did not serve.

The overall unemployment rate was 9.1 percent in September, reflecting about 14 million unemployed workers. The pool of veterans is relatively small compared to the overall workforce. Even if all 183,000 of those unemployed veterans found a job, the overall unemployment rate would not change, the department said.

(Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

The nation's widening income disparity is one of the issues driving the ongoing "Occupy Wall Street" protests -- and one of the issues Democrats have seized on to make the case that their party is better suited to help angry citizens. Now House Majority Eric Cantor plans to deliver a speech to emphasize that Republicans care about the issue as well.

Cantor -- who is often cast by Democrats as the face of Republican obstruction -- will talk about income disparity in a speech at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania this week. Cantor's office tells Hotsheet the GOP leader is likely to hit on points he made on "Fox News Sunday" over the weekend.

"We know in this country right now that there is a complaint about folks at the top end of the income scale, if they make too much and too many, don't make enough," Cantor said on Fox. "Well, we need to both go encourage those at the top of the income scale to actually put their money to work to create more jobs so that we can see a closing of the gap. You know, we are about income mobility and that's what we should be focused on to take care of the income disparity in this country."

(Credit: Associated Press)

Senate Democrats are aiming to vote as early as this week on part of Mr. Obama's $447 billion jobs plan, which gives $35 billion to teachers and first responders like firefighters.

Senate Republicans voted unanimously to block President Obama's $447 billion jobs bill last week, so Democrats plan to put the individual elements of the plan up for a vote one by one, figuring the specific measure will be harder for Republicans to oppose.

The recession "has threatened their ability to give our children the education they deserve," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Monday. Since 2008, state and local budget cuts have cost the nation 300,000 education jobs, he said. "State and local budgets could cost as many as 280,000 teacher jobs next year unless we do more."

Occupy Wall Street protesters march in front of the Chase Manhattan Bank headquarters on October 12, 2011 in New York City.

(Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Occupy Wall Street protesters have been camping out in cities and parks around the country for nearly a month. They are expressing the frustration of those who feel angry that the people who helped create the economic mess - killing jobs and diminishing the well being of the middle class - are prospering today. 

They have an ally in former President Bill Clinton, who said during an appearance on David Letterman Wednesday, "The country is not working for ordinary folk."

Polls suggest that blaming Wall Street and the super-rich is resonating. That's due in part to the simple fact that while many Americans have struggled, the rich have gotten richer - CEO pay increased 300 percent since 1990, while average hourly earnings (adjusted for inflation) have been stagnant for the last 50 years.

President Obama today charged that Republicans don't have any ideas for job creation that match up to his own. Hours later, Senate Republicans unveiled a bill comprised of several of their major goals -- such as repealing Mr. Obama's health care overhaul and lowering the corporate tax rate -- that they say is their rebuttal to the president.

Introducing the "Jobs for Growth Act" today, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the legislation "will serve as a blueprint to bring our country back economically, create jobs and give Americans hope again for the future."

Democrats, he said, "believe they can create jobs through government spending. We believe we can create jobs through growth."

Along with repealing the president's health care laws, the "Jobs for Growth Act" would also repeal the Dodd Frank Act, the president's Wall Street reforms. It also includes a balanced budget constitutional amendment, and a moratorium on new regulations until the unemployment rate is lowered. It reduces the top corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent and would reduce individual income tax rates to a maximum of 25 percent with two marginal rates, among other things.

"Part of it is in response to the president saying we don't have a proposal," McCain said. "We've got lots of proposals -- and we've had lots of proposals. We've put them together now [in a bill], and that's our plan."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., accompanied by House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., attend a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday Oct. 13, 2011.

(Credit: AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Updated 11 p.m. ET

The House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that Republicans say is necessary to keep taxpayer money from funding abortions but that Democrats call "savage" to women and possibly deadly.

The bill, which passed 251-172, according to The Associated Press, would bar federal funding for abortions. It would also prohibit women from using tax subsidies acquired through President Obama's health care reforms to pay for health insurance that covers abortion, except in the cases of rape, incest or risk to the mother's health. Additionally, the bill would let health care providers refuse to perform an abortion if it violates their personal beliefs.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a press briefing Thursday that the legislation is a "savage" attempt to withhold health care for women. She called the provision allowing doctors to refuse to perform an abortion particularly dangerous and could result in a woman dying.

"One aspect of it could undermine the responsibility of hospitals to deal with women who come in a crisis situation where their lives and health are at risk, and hospitals may not be required to serve them under this bill," she said. "When the Republicans vote for this bill today, they will be voting to say that women can die on the floor of health care providers... it's just appalling."

U.S. Capitol

Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee Thursday unveiled their single recommendation to the congressional committee tasked with slashing spending--no new defense cuts.

California Republican Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, the panel's chair, said the so-called "Super Committee" must avoid adding more defense cuts to reach their $1.2 trillion dollar deficit reduction goal by November 23rd.

"We have gone overboard on the cuts," McKeon said, warning that defense officials are already scrambling to identify $469 billion in congressionally mandated spending cuts over the next ten years.

McKeon also said it is critical the committee members succeed in order to avoid automatic cuts of up to $500 billion in across the board defense cuts that would go into effect if the super committee fails or if Congress rejects the committee's proposal.

Updated at 3:40 p.m. ET

Republicans managed to block President Obama's $447 billion jobs bill in the Senate earlier this week, but the president charged today that the GOP has yet to offer any better ideas for job creation.

During a White House news conference today, the president said that independent economists have said the American Jobs Act -- which is comprised of tax cuts and investments in areas like education and infrastructure, as well as state aid -- would create up to 1.9 million jobs.

"Frankly, we have not seen a lot of ideas come forward from Republicans that would indicate that same kind of commitment to job creation," the president said. "If they do, if Sen. [Mitch] McConnell or Speaker [John] Boehner say to me, 'We want to get infrastructure built in this country, we think putting construction workers back to work is important,' I'll be right there."

(Credit: Getty Images/ Justin Sullivan)

Five House Democrats today asked Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate whether banks and their trade associations are violating anti-trust laws with their new, unpopular debit card fees.

Bank of America announced last month it will begin charging customers a $5 monthly fee to use its debit cards, and other banks are following suit.

The Democrats, led by Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont, said in a letter to Holder today that there's evidence to suggest big banks are coordinating their fee strategies. Bank of America's debit card fee announcement adds to the urgency of their question, they wrote.

"We are concerned that BOA's announcement may be a reaction to, and participation in, price signaling or collusion that has occurred among and between banks and bank associations," the letter said.