The Great GOP Charade: Corporate Welfare In A Job Creation Disguise

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.politicususa.com/en/gop-jobs





In the lead up to the midterm elections of 2010, Republicans repeatedly said if elected, they would fix the economy and get America back to work. Throughout the campaign and after the elections were over, Republicans didn’t reveal how they would fix the economy or create jobs, but the voters gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited to see their strategy and how fast they implemented the plan. It has been three months since Republicans took control of the House and it is becoming painfully clear that they either don’t know how to fix the economy and create jobs, or don’t want to. Either outcome is detrimental to the country.

Republicans in the House have spent their time passing legislation they knew would never reach fruition, but they gave the illusion that they were working to defeat President Obama’s agenda for their conservative and teabag supporters. Their time-wasting exercise of voting to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act excited their people but accomplished little else. They were not serious about repealing the health law any more than they were serious about creating jobs, but they did manage to get through a month without doing a thing. John Boehner made the rounds on talk shows bragging that the Republicans were serious about doing the will of the American people, even though the American people elected them to work with Democrats to fix the economy. It was a waste of time to vote to repeal the health law, because even if President Obama and Senate Democrats agreed to repeal the health law, it would not have created any jobs or helped the economy. It’s obvious that Republicans are not serious about the work they were elected to do, and people should be irate.

House Republicans finally got around to addressing spending cuts, but the cuts were aimed at poor Americans and women instead of defense spending or the wealthy’s tax cuts. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that Republicans’ cuts would eliminate approximately 700,000 jobs directly and another 300,000 indirectly to which Speaker of the House John Boehner notoriously replied, “So be it.” If the Republicans were serious about cutting spending, they would eliminate tax breaks and loopholes that allow corporations like GE, Citi Bank, and others to pay no taxes despite making obscene profits. Republicans had an opportunity to rein in oil subsidies as well as force the oil industry to pay royalties on the oil they take, but in a nod to their contributors, they refused to hold them accountable or pay their share.

If Republicans were serious about helping the economy and creating jobs, they would heed the advice of every economist that doesn’t work at the Heritage Foundation and raise taxes on the wealthy, cut defense spending, and increase government’s investment in infrastructure as well as research and development. Conservatives consistently promote the philosophy that free market capitalism and a healthy business model are keys to economic growth and jobs, but there is no possibility that spending cuts alone will create jobs or help the economy. Any business owner will admit that if a business cannot meet its expenses, they have to cut spending and increase revenue. Republicans enjoy spending cuts for the poor, but they take the savings and hand it over to the wealthy and corporations creating more deficits. Every time Republicans cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy, they add to the nation’s deficits, and to cover the deficits, they cut spending that creates job losses that lose precious tax revenue. Maybe Republicans’ business philosophy only works for corporations and cannot be applied to government economics, but that seems unlikely.

More at the link --

[L. Coyote]

1. 2012 Mantra: Fix the economy, Undo Republican tax cuts for the rich.

Simple enough!

[midnight]

2. This is what fraud looks like...