As I wrote last week, it appeared that the President’s Cooper Union speech was setting up a game of chicken on financial regulatory reform.

Yesterday, the Senate had a vote on cloture to bring the Dodd bill to the floor. That motion failed with a bi-partisan group of 41 Senators voting against it. A second vote on cloture is expected this afternoon and it appears that a third one will be scheduled for tomorrow morning if it is needed. So far neither side has blinked.

To show how serious the game has turned, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is trudging up to the Capitol to twist some arms ahead of today’s vote.

One would hope that Senators Dodd and Shelby will continue to ignore the theatrics and negotiate a bill despite the political fireworks show going on around them. Since Senator Dodd assumed its Chairmanship, 90% of the legislation passing the Banking Committee has been bi-partisan. It just proves the point that financial regulation is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue.

Rather, capital markets provide the fuel for the job creation engine to operate. How those markets are regulated has been out of date for some time and the economy is now paying the consequences. We have a choice to let the negotiations continue and let a bi-partisan bill develop, or we can let the gamesmanship proceed and allow the economy continue to limp along.

It’s like having a choice of being constructive or fiddling like Nero as Rome burns.

To the person looking for a job the choice should be obvious. Unfortunately, having to call out the Union bosses to keep Senators in line seems like the game of chicken will just continue.

Let’s take the time to get a good bill to the floor and enacted into law this year. The next generation of entrepreneurs, business owners and workers deserve it.