Yeah, We Have A Jobs Plan! We Have Pictures! | The Republican Culture War

Republicans are opposing the American's Jobs Act that President Barack Obama presented to the Congress. The plan calls for $448 billion in job creation, infrastructure and spending cuts for the middle class. The president's plan calls for tax increases on the high end earners. The Republicans oppose the tax increases and just about everything the president wants. We're in gridlock right now and people are suffering. The overall job approval is 15% and Americans are really fed up with the way Congress is acting.

The America's Job Creator Plan is a ten page plan in which includes tax cuts, deregulation and the repeal of the Affordable Health Care for America Act (Obamacare). 

Key Republicans want to pass a clearly partisan bill in which they know President Obama will reject upon its passage.  Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas) once again prove that even if they wanted to try they fail at doing so!

President Barack Obama jobs plan is 200 pages. The Republicans have ten pages. There's something wrong here!

Opinion: The job crisis: Solved in 10 pages?

GOP’s Plan for America’s Job Creators is empty of any real solutions

By Michael Veldman

STAFF COLUMNIST

June 3, 2011

House Republicans, led by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), recently released their Plan for America’s Job Creators. The document, as well as a shortened summary version, can be accessed from http://majorityleader.gov.

When I first opened the full document, I thought I had chosen the summary by mistake. As Paul Krugman notes, it “has to rely on extra-large type and lots of pointless pictures to bulk it out even to 10 pages.” Indeed, the equivalent of four pages of the document consists of images of cars at the gas station, scissors cutting red tape, and the like. Another page is a platitude-ridden introduction that could be substituted by manic repetition of the phrases “common-sense,” “pro-growth,” “job creators,” and “remove Washington” to the same effect.

But what of the other five pages? Surely there is some substance in there! Let us explore the House

Republican eight-pronged approach to job creation.

First we must deal with the problem of “burdensome regulations.” (I only use quotes because “burden” is mentioned no less than five times in half a page.) House Republicans offer the sensible first step of passing “legislation that requires a congressional review and approval of any proposed federal government regulation that will have a significant impact on the economy.” If you are as impressed as I initially was, take note of which regulations House Republicans have singled out for the chopping block: EPA-mandated limits on greenhouse gas emissions, the FCC’s net neutrality proposal, and restrictions on pesticide use. Of course.

Next on the agenda is the quixotic yet admirable task of fixing the tax code once and for all. Their proposal is a flat federal tax rate of 25 percent for businesses and individuals. If this proposal sounds ridiculous to anyone with concern for the poor and the working class, be comforted by the fact that Republicans only want to “ensure that everyone pays their fair share.” Never mind the fact that such a change would actually raise the effective income tax rate for the vast majority of Americans. As a benchmark for comparison, a married couple filing jointly with a taxable income of $282,000 currently pays about 25 percent income tax. House Republicans’ goal to cut taxes solely for the wealthiest Americans is abundantly clear.

The third proposal — to pass free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea — has apparently been blocked by Democrats’ posturing for three years. Well, one politician’s posturing is another politician’s attention to human rights abuses in Colombia or the well-being of auto workers in America.

The fourth step is fostering entrepreneurship by reforming the U.S. patent system. This proposal has received broad bipartisan support and collaboration. The House Patent Reform Act of 2011 was passed in the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 32-3 on April 14. In short, it is not a solely Republican solution as the document declares.

The next two opportunities for improvement are visa reform and the reauthorization of the FDA user fee programs, through which the FDA collects money from companies seeking drug or medical device approval in order to test said products. I don’t have much to say about these proposals, mostly because they are hardly even proposals. House Republicans do not make plain exactly what they plan to do, but they do make it apparent that they will be Creating American Jobs. Indeed, I’m not sure what the purpose is of the page allotted to these two topics. I wonder whether Eric Cantor and his ilk are hoping that if they repeat the phrases “job creation,” “job creators,” “create American jobs,” etc. — which they did 31 times in the 86-sentence document — they will ingrain in the reader a subconscious association between Republicans and job creation.

Now, what do House Republicans have to say about energy? They first make it clear that the problem is rising energy costs and point out that, since President Obama took office, the price of a gallon of gas has doubled. This is a facile and erroneous observation and an obvious attempt to falsely pin blame to Obama.

Gas prices fell dramatically after the record-setting summer of 2008 because of the global economic meltdown.

The fact that they started to rise afterward has nothing to do with the president.

To suggest that we should prefer an economy in shambles over $4-per-gallon gasoline is ridiculous. What’s more, the primary method that Republicans have suggested to lower gas prices is “Drill, baby, drill.” They don’t seem to realize that feeding an addiction is nothing more than a short-term solution.

And House Republicans don’t stop there. They go on to fault Obama and congressional Democrats for our largest-ever budget deficits. As ignorant of history as ever, they overlook the budget surpluses of a decade ago and the catastrophic effects of the global financial collapse.

With the way they continue to insult the American people with these so-called “solutions,” it’s obvious House Republicans do not take us seriously, and we have every reason to respond in kind.

Bohener Tosses Out "WHERE THE JOBS" Theme Once Again!

My congressman, Speaker of The House John Boehner (R- Ohio) continues his foot in his mouth leadership tour!

If spending cuts kill jobs, ‘so be it’: Boehner

By Sahil Kapur

WASHINGTON – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Tuesday showed little concern for the federal job losses that could result from the GOP's proposed spending cuts.

"In the last two years, under President Obama, the federal government has added 200,000 new federal jobs. If some of those jobs are lost so be it. We're broke," Boehner told reporters, according to Talking Points Memo.

"The biggest danger to our country is if we do not act," the speaker added. "The status quo is shackling the future for our kids and grandkids – that's why we have to act."

Republicans have proposed a slew of budget cuts worth $32 billion to a multitude of federal programs.

GOP lawmakers have long insisted that federal spending cuts and job growth go hand in hand, portraying heavy government spending as a prime cause of the economic downturn.

"Where are the jobs?" was an oft-repeated slogan by Boehner during the 2010 midterm election cycle, as he and his colleagues attacked Democrats' stimulus and other spending programs.

But Boehner's remarks not only reveal that Republicans accept those two goals may be contradictory, they suggest that the GOP considers spending cuts a higher priority.

As the unemployment rate remains high at well above 9 percent, surveys consistently show that jobs are the top concern on voters minds.

President Barack Obama unveiled his budget this week, also calling for across-the-board cuts to various programs, receiving criticism from progressives and being dismissed as insufficient by Republicans.

So Much For The Job Pledge By The Republicans!

GOP-led House is moving to restrict funding of abortions

By William Douglas | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The battle over abortion takes center stage in Congress this week as two House subcommittees hold hearings on separate bills that would expand restrictions on federal funding of abortions.

The "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" would eliminate tax breaks for abortions. The "Protect Life Act" would restrict use of federal funds for abortions under the new health care law. While both may pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, their prospects of passing a Democratic-held Senate or escaping President Barack Obama's veto pen are slim to none.

"They can't expect this legislation to go beyond the House or Representatives," said Steve Smith, a political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis. "It allows the House Republicans to do something symbolically important for their coalition base."

Still, the bills have alarmed abortion-rights advocates, who say they are attempts to attack legalized abortion — federally funded or not — through the tax code and measures to deny women access to the procedure.

"These bills represent a new front in the abortion war," said Donna Crane, policy director for NARAL Pro-Choice America. "The idea...of using the tax code to impose political views, that's extremely alarming."

Opponents of legal abortion, emboldened by powerful support in a Republican-controlled House, say the bills are just the beginning.

"The Republicans in the House are definitely following the promise they made to undo the damage that's been done," said Kerry Brown, a spokeswoman for Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group.

The "No Taxpayer for Abortion Act," designated H.R. 3 and sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), seeks to codify provisions of the so-called Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for abortion but must be renewed by Congress annually.

In addition, Smith said his bill would "permanently end any U.S. government financial support for abortion whether it be direct funding or by tax credits or any other subsidy." A House Judiciary subcommittee will hold a hearing on it Tuesday.

Smith's bill stirred a huge uproar among abortion-rights advocates by listing victims of "forcible rape" among those who would be exempted from the bill.

"Forcible rape" wasn't fully defined in the bill, but abortion-rights supporters warned that the term could be used to block access to abortion for rape victims who were drugged, unconscious or mentally ill.

A spokesman for Smith said the term was dropped from the bill Thursday after Smith concluded that the term was being "misconstrued." That wasn't enough to satisfy abortion supporters.

"The fact that it took weeks of public outrage before the new House leadership was shamed into giving up one if its efforts to redefine rape to deny women access to abortion shows how out of touch they are with the values of the American people," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "Simply put, the now discarded 'forcible rape' provision is just the beginning of what's wrong with Rep. Smith's bill."

Like Smith's bill, the Protect Life Act, or H.R. 358, sponsored by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), seeks to restrict the use of federal funds under the new health care law, but isn't as aggressive in terms of using the tax code. The House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, which Pitts chairs, will hold a hearing on it Wednesday.

Late last week, abortion-rights supporters turned their attention to Pitts' bill, saying it contains language that would allow hospitals to deny a woman an abortion, even if her life were in jeopardy.

Andrew Wimer, a Pitts spokesman, calls the accusation false. He said the language is an attempt to include in the health care law a "conscience clause" for doctors and hospitals that object to performing abortions.

"These are typical attacks that come up," Wimer said.

Abortion foes both in and out of Congress say they're undeterred by criticism. Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said that taking on abortion would be a House priority under his leadership.

"A ban on taxpayer funding of abortions is the will of the people, and it ought to be the will of the land," Boehner told reporters last month. "The current law, particularly as enforced by this administration, does not reflect the will of the American people."

One of Boehner's guests at Obama's State of the Union address last month was Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, D.C. The United States National Conference of Catholic Bishops has endorsed both bills.

Brown of Susan B. Anthony's List said that backing from Boehner and 80 of the 87 new House Republicans will improve their chances of getting legislation through.

NARAL's Crane looks at the diminishing numbers of abortion supporters in the House and the rising GOP numbers in the Senate and worries. While many experts believe a measure to restrict access to legalized abortion couldn't make its way from the Senate to Obama's desk, Crane isn't so sure.

She counts 40 senators who solidly support abortion rights, 46 who oppose abortion — and the rest of them sitting on the fence.

NARAL's strategy for dealing with the changing landscape: "Make sure the White House is the ultimate firewall," Crane said.

Hide The Jewelry, Cause The GOP In The House!

GOP leaders tout wins as referendum on the Democratic leadership

The Washington Post - Felicia Sonmez

Fresh off sweeping wins in Tuesday's midterm elections, House Minority Leader John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican Governors Association Chairman Haley Barbour said Wednesday morning at a Capitol news conference that their resounding victories were a referendum on Democratic leadership.

Democrats, meanwhile, cast their defeat at the ballot box as the result of Americans' continuing frustration with the pace of economic recovery as well as a flood of spending by outside groups.

Republicans' across-the-board wins "sent a very loud message" that voters want a "smaller, less costly and more accountable government here in Washington, D.C.," Boehner said.

McConnell told reporters that the election showed that "choosing the president over your constituents is not a good strategy," and that voters "appreciated us saying no to the things the American people indicated they were not in favor of."

Barbour added that even Tuesday's governors' races were a referendum on the way things are going in Washington.

The trio addressed reporters one day after Republicans captured the House with gains of more than five dozen seats. In the Senate, Democrats narrowly avoided the doomsday scenario of losing their majority, and in gubernatorial races, the GOP saw big wins, although the Democratic Governors Association managed to win the governor's mansions in Hawaii, Connecticut and Vermont.

In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen noted, as Republicans did, that Democrats' losses came about due to voter anger -- but he argued that voters were frustrated not with the Democratic leadership but rather with the still-struggling economy.

"Last night's election was a perfect political storm born out of the understandable frustration felt by the American people in response to high unemployment caused by the worst financial crash since the Great Depression," Van Hollen said. He added that "the record amount of secret money spent by right-wing outside groups turned this political storm into a category 3 political hurricane."

Boehner said that he spoke with President Obama Tuesday night and that the two "discussed working together." Boehner also said that he received a "very nice voicemail" from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and that he expects the coming transition in leadership to be "very smooth."

The Republican leader said that his party stands ready to work together with the president and Democrats when their goals align with the interest of the American people.

"We'll work with the administration when they agree with the people and confront them when they don't," Boehner said, citing spending, trade, debt and nuclear power as areas of possible bipartisan cooperation.

Notably absent from the news conference was Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who addressed reporters separately in a conference call earlier Wednesday.

"Last night was historic. It was important. But it was also sobering in many respects," said Steele, cautioning that "with this victory comes an enormous responsibility."

Steele, who is said to be considering a bid for a second term as RNC chairman despite a steady stream of calls for his ouster, also talked at length on the conference call about his own committee's role in the GOP's victories Tuesday.

But he also cast the party's wins as an "enormous moment" for the grass roots and that "no single person or committee does this alone."

Other party committees and conservative-leaning outside groups touted their respective roles in Tuesday's sweeping wins as well.

Guy Harrison, executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which saw the biggest gains of the day, told reporters on a conference call Wednesday morning that the NRCC's role Tuesday was crucial in the defeats of longtime Democratic incumbents such as Reps. Ike Skelton (Mo.) and John Spratt (S.C.).

"I think there are a lot of people who can take credit for this," Harrison said, adding that "the fact is, our candidates would not have won without the help of the NRCC." Harrison also credited Boehner in particular for helping Republicans make gains in suburban districts and throughout the leader's home state of Ohio.

Meanwhile, the leadership of American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, two conservative-leaning outside groups that played heavily this cycle, said in a roundtable with reporters Wednesday that their groups were instrumental in many big important GOP wins. The two groups raised more than $70 million total, much of which came from donors who opted against contributing to the beleaguered RNC.

American Crossroads Political Director Carl Forti said that the two groups had poured a total of more than $36 million into 13 Senate races and 18 House races since April. Forti noted that by being active in races such as the Kentucky and Missouri Senate contests, the groups freed up the National Republican Senatorial Committee to spend its resources on races in Democratic-leaning states such as Pennsylvania and Illinois.

Forti added that the groups "made a committed effort to expand the playing field in the House" by advertising in districts that were long thought to be safely in Democratic hands.

Asked whether the RNC could have done things differently this cycle, Mike Duncan, chairman of American Crossroads and a onetime chairman of the RNC, demurred.

"We're all part of a team," Duncan said, adding, "This is not about credit."

Learn to Speak Tea Bag - NPR catches flack for opinion video!

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Tea Party Boils over NPR cartoon.



Last year I attended the Tea Party in Dayton, Ohio back in April 2009. And it's likely I will appear at the next Tea Party in April 2010. The Tea Party Movement is seen more likable than the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The Tea Party wants to save freedom, acknowledge fiscal responsibility, and restore the policies of the Constitution.

The Republicans see the Tea Party Movement as the way for victory in 2010. And most notably is the "RINOs" (Republicans in Name Only) are an endangered species in the Republican Party.

National Public Radio is targeted by Media Research Center's Newsbusters and many other prominent conservative activists. The video that is on the NPR website as well as YouTube, criticizes Republican Representatives John Boehner (Ohio), House Minority leader, Eric Cantor (Virginia) and Michele Bachmann (Minnesota) for opposing health care reform.

If there was ever any doubt National Public Radio had a political slant, check out the animated video posted on the network's Web site. That should clear up any doubt. - Jeff Poor, Newsbusters January 4, 2010.

Opinion columnist and animator Mark Fiore made a video criticizing the Republicans and Tea Party Activists over their opposition to President Barack Obama.



Learn to Speak Tea Bag © Copyright 2010 Mark Fiore

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