On Thursday US House Speaker John Boehner stood before reporters and, in an attempt to deflect growing pressure on his party’s obstruction of President Obama’s jobs plan, demanded the President help pass 15 so-called Jobs bills passed in the House and stuck in the Senate. The bills that Boehner defines as “job bills” have nothing to do with actual jobs. The bills only help the 1% by gutting EPA rules and allowing more environmentally suspect oil drilling.
VIDEO: Mr. President, to build on common ground #4jobs, help pass #forgotten15 #jobs bills stuck in Dem Senate
“We owe it to the American people to find common ground. Repealing this tax is another step in that effort in finding common ground. Another example would be our efforts several weeks ago on the free trade agreements, again part of our Plan for America’s Job Creators and part of the president’s. But we should build on all of this by beginning to focus on the ‘Forgotten 15.’ On the back of our card, we’ve got the 15 bills that have been passed by the House and continue to sit in the United States Senate. Many of these bills passed the House with bipartisan support, 15 common-sense bills that will help get our economy moving again. The president says ‘we can’t wait’ to take action on jobs, and I agree. Mr. President, help us with the United States Senate to pass these bipartisan, common-sense bills that will get our economy moving once again.”
Speaker Boehner: Mr. President, Help Pass ‘Forgotten 15’ Jobs Bills Stuck in the Senate
The so-called “Forgotten 15” has 7 bills to reduce EPA rules that protect our health and safety, 4 bills to restart and increase off shore oil drilling, and one bill each that would reduce or eliminate rules against fracking and Internet providers. One bill would create an “Oversight Council” that could simply set aside “harmful” federal regulation and one bill that “Seeks to guarantee private companies the flexibility to develop their businesses in the state that offers the best opportunities for growth, job creation and stability.” – whatever that means. More than likely since it was offered by Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC) it’s probably a hit against the NLRB as retaliation because they filed a complaint against the Boeing Company for moving union jobs to South Carolina as retaliation for a strike in Washington state.
None of the bills directly creates jobs. Again the GOP is focused on the same people who have gotten the focus for the last 30 years – the corporate elite. We’ve done the tax cuts and budget cuts. In the last budget deal Boehner said he got 98% of what he wanted yet the economy hasn’t improved. Unemployment still hovers at 9% and the real rate is close to 16%.
We cut banking regulations which led to the banking meltdown in 2008 and the Bush bailouts. That killed thousands of jobs but none of the actors that made the mess went to jail.
The recent budget cuts actually cost jobs.
You know who needs help – the majority of us who want Congress to spend some money and create some actual jobs and stop giving the money to bail out the corporations. Those companies are sitting on a couple of trillion dollars instead of investing and hiring.
Of course Speaker Boehner and the Republicans continue to ignore the public and the economists who say budget and tax cuts and ending regulations is not the way to get the economy out of its funk.
Talk about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic…
