Keeping Score

Your do-nothing Rethuglican House of Representatives score board:

Number of jobs bills passed: 0

Number of symbolic bills passed to repeal Obamacare: 33

Cost to taxpayers of Rethuglicans' symbolic Obamacare repeal bills: $50 million

Non-reaction of media: priceless

Bad Jobs Numbers? Here's Looking at You, Rethuglicans!

Jeff Spross at Think Progress has this list of the ways the Rethuglicans in Congress have sabotaged job-creation efforts:

"1. Filibustering the American Jobs Act. Last October, Senate Republicans killed a jobs bill proposed by President Obama that would have pumped $447 billion into the economy. Multiple economic analysts predicted the bill would add around two million jobs and hailed it as defense against a double-dip recession. The Congressional Budget Office also scored it as a net deficit reducer over ten years, and the American public supported the bill.

"2. Stonewalling monetary stimulus. The Federal Reserve can do enormous good for a depressed economy through more aggressive monetary stimulus, and by tolerating a temporarily higher level of inflation. But with everything from Ron Paul’s anti-inflationary crusade to Rick Perry threatening to lynch Chairman Ben Bernanke, Republicans have browbeaten the Fed into not going down this path. Most damagingly, the GOP repeatedly held up President Obama’s nominations to the Federal Reserve Board during the critical months of the recession, leaving the board without the institutional clout it needed to help the economy.

"3. Threatening a debt default. Even though the country didn’t actually hit its debt ceiling last summer, the Republican threat to default on the United States’ outstanding obligations was sufficient to spook financial markets and do real damage to the economy.

"4. Cutting discretionary spending in the debt ceiling deal. The deal the GOP extracted as the price for avoiding default imposed around $900 billion in cuts over ten years. It included $30.5 billion in discretionary cuts in 2012 alone, costing the country 0.3 percent in economic growth and 323,000 jobs, according to estimates from the Economic Policy Institute. Starting in 2013, the deal will trigger another $1.2 trillion in cuts over ten years.

"5. Cutting discretionary spending in the budget deal. While not as cataclysmic as the debt ceiling brinksmanship, Republicans also threatened a shutdown of the government in early 2011 if cuts were not made to that year’s budget. The deal they struck with the White House cut $38 billion from food stamps, health, education, law enforcement, and low-income programs among others, while sparing defense almost entirely."

With the Rethugs, it's always "Party First!"

Quote of the Day

"Tragically, the more entrenched the jobs shortage becomes, the more paralyzed Congress becomes, with Republicans committed to doing nothing in the hopes that the faltering economy will cost President Obama his job in 2012. Last week, for instance, Senate Republicans filibustered a $60 billion proposal by Mr. Obama to create jobs by repairing and upgrading the nation’s deteriorating infrastructure. They were outraged that the bill would have been paid for by a 0.7 percent surtax on people making more than $1 million." -- New York Times editorial today. The next fight, over extension of unemployment benefits, will further sharpen the picture of the Rethugs as deliberately trying to tank the economy and protect the wealthiest among us.

UPDATE: And the American people have caught on.

The Job-Killing Rethuglicans

Now that the Rethuglicans control the House, they'll need to cope with the fact that their political proposals will be analyzed and examined. Number one on their agenda is the repeal of the health insurance reform legislation. So when the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said that repeal would add $240 million to the deficit in the next ten years and far more after that, the Rethugs shrugged and said "Doesn't matter." Then, there's their mantra that the health insurance reform is a "job killer." Never mind the fact that the jobless rate dropped from 9.8 to 9.4 percent last month, and that 1.1 million jobs have been created in the private sector since last March when the bill was passed. And an estimated 400,000 jobs would be lost per year over a decade with repeal. "Doesn't matter."

Their failed philosophy is impervious to facts and reality. Their disinformation campaign in the last election succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, thanks to millions in contributions from the likes of the "U.S." Chamber of Commerce and wealthy wingers. But now they have governing to contend with, and unless the mainstream media continues to give them and the teahadists a pass on facts, they're going to have to get real. Don't hold your breath.