Job Killers

Why aren't Republicans interested in creating jobs, the best stimulus for America's recovery? There are three reasons -- take your pick.
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Unemployment is still high -- five people compete for every job!

This country needs jobs badly if we are to come out of this devastating recessionary event.

The 'Great Recession' has been unprecedented, destroying lives and families. It has been especially destructive on hard-working people; the middle class.

Restoring jobs is the most important issue to reinforce an economic recovery. Housing is also a drag on the recovery, but jobs will help housing begin to rebound.

When the Tea Party swept the Republicans into the majority in the House of Representatives and handed the gavel to Congressman John Boehner, he promised job creation would be one of the new House majority's priorities.

Has it been?

The Republican House has not produced a single job. With the help of the obstructionist Republicans in the Senate they've actually destroyed job growth.

Last week Republican Senators blocked the American Jobs Act, a plan economist Mark Zandi estimated could generate 1.9 million jobs and add two percentage points to GDP.

Why aren't Republicans interested in creating jobs, the best stimulus for America's recovery?

There are three reasons -- take your pick.

First on their agenda is a dead economy with high unemployment. They believe this will bring Obama down and are willing to destroy the country to achieve that, and hopefully regain power.

They're only interested in helping the rich and are in lock-step for lowering taxes on their biggest donors at the expense of 99 percent of the population.

Or, they're too stupid to see what their destructive ideology of low taxes and austerity does to the economy and the country.

I would like to think it's the first two but we can't rule out the third.

The American Jobs Act would put long idled construction workers back to work, would stimulate hiring of long-term unemployed, help small businesses begin to hire, and put returning veterans -- a portion of the population that has been unpatriotically ignored by corporations and businesses -- back to work.

The seriousness of the need for jobs falls on deaf ears, evidenced by the insidious issues brought up and discussed on the House floor.

Job creators, which Republicans' speak so passionately about, have failed to create jobs despite all the benefits they've received -- low taxes, easy credit, bailouts, low interest rates.

That's because the problem is demand and demand comes from jobs and the only way that is going to happen is with help from government. Republicans' insistence on austerity -- spending cuts -- adds to the problem. Every lost job, even government jobs, is a decline in demand.

Occupy Wall Street is also about jobs and lingering high unemployment. And it's about trade agreements that have, historically, facilitated off-shoring of jobs.

Since 1994, everything Republicans' have advocated has destroyed job growth in this country. Those policies are the main cause of the 'Great Recession' and our struggling economy.

On October 11 Republicans voted against bringing the AJA to a vote. Every Republican voted against job creation including the eight pairs who represent states with higher unemployment than the 9.1 percent national unemployment figure.

Of the fifteen states that have two Republican Senators, eight of them have unemployment of 9.2 percent or higher.

Two of the more vocal and critical Senators, Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina represent a state with 11.1 percent unemployment -- a state that needs jobs badly. South Carolina has the 4th highest unemployment in the nation and unemployment rose by two-tenths last month.

Extreme obstructionist, Mitch McConnell, and his trusty side-kick, Rand Paul, represent Kentucky with 9.5 percent unemployment. Georgia is at 10.2 percent and Alabama is at 9.9 percent and all four Republican Senators voted down the bill that would bring jobs to their states.

Job creation is the most important political issue to millions of Americans. It would stimulate employment and begin to heal the country, especially the middle-class. And Republicans loathe recovery of the middle-class.

Yes, without a doubt, they are job killers.

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