Repugs Work Diligently at NOT Creating Jobs

How stupid do the rethuglicans think their voters are?

karoli at Crooks and Liars:

I see our elected representatives are hard at work, representing their constituencies. Not that those constituencies even vaguely represent voters, you understand. No, they would like to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 28 times. In 11 days, no less. What busy little beavers they are!

SNIP

I thought it might be interesting to see what Democrats did in their first 11 days after assuming control of the House in 2006. Well, lookee there. All sorts of interesting bills in those first days. Everything from gun show loophole closures (David Dreier's baby) to First Amendment protections, to small business assistance to alternative energy.

But for Republicans and their keepers, this Congress is all about sticking it to Obama. Nothing more, nothing less.

Steve Benen on Wednesday:

HOUSE GOP EYES PLAN TO GUT EPA, CLEAN AIR ACT.... This afternoon, Nancy Pelosi and the House Democratic Steering & Policy Committee will host an event focused on job-creating proposals.

Around the same time, House Republicans will unveil their latest legislative priority, which, you guessed it, isn't related to reducing unemployment.

Zandar:

So no, Republicans couldn't really give a damn about Americans being in trouble, or the unemployment rate, or stagnant wages, or apparently rising health care costs, or anything else.

They want to refight the health care debate because they lost. That's all that matters to them. That's the goal, to waste as much of the next two years as possible on this petty garbage and blame Obama when nothing happens.

That's the plan for the next two years, folks: nothing. The Party of No marches on, bravely not doing a damn thing about America's problems.

Benen again:

But Slate's John Dickerson had a good piece late yesterday, noting that as far as the GOP is concerned, their top economic priorities -- taking money out of the economy, ending public investments, putting more public-sector workers out of work -- are about jobs.

The two parties are making opposite bets about what the public really thinks about the deficit. The president is betting that people don't see an iron connection between reducing the deficit and increasing the number of jobs. When they judge who is doing more for them -- the GOP or the president -- they will pick the person optimistic about the future, not the guys preaching pain.

Republicans get this, so they're working hard to reiterate that their deficit agenda is a jobs agenda: Jobs will be lost if the deficit isn't reduced drastically. They've produced 222 economists who make this case. They'll have to do better than that, because the White House can bus in their own fleet of economists.

Short and sharp is what is needed to rebut Captain Win the Future. So far, the message needs some work: "By running up the spending money we don't have, running up the huge budget deficits, we create more uncertainty in the private sector," says House Speaker John Boehner, who then becomes almost tautological. "This is where cutting spending will create jobs because it is going to bring greater fiscal responsibility in Washington, D.C., end some of the uncertainty, and allow jobs to be created in America."

Finally -- and this is the kicker -- the best way to reduce the deficit in a hurry is to create jobs and grow the economy.

I'm glad there's an actual thought pattern to the Republican economic agenda. I'd be even more pleased if it made sense.

What makes even less sense to me is why the GOP is so terrified of the voters in their "base" when the GOP obviously thinks those voters are dumber than rocks.