‘New’ GOP jobs plan: Same old ‘trickle down’ whine in a new bottle

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Oh, sweet Jesus! Hasn't this fool done enough to embarrass the state of Arizona already?

Sen. John McCain was selected by his leadership to roll out the "new" Republican jobs plan, which is exactly the same as the Republican jobs plan rolled out earlier this year, and every year prior. In other words, there is nothing "new" here, it's just the same old "trickle down" whine in a new bottle. Daily Kos: Senate Republicans unveil 'new jobs plan' identical to all previous GOP 'jobs plans':

With as much fanfare as could be mustered, which as it turns out is not all that much, Senate Republicans (in this instance, John McCain, Rand Paul and Rob Portman) have released their newest "jobs plan," this one called the "Real American Jobs Act," which is not to be confused with the American Jobs Act, because this one has the word "Real". The carefully crafted document is identical to every other Republican "jobs plan" proposed in the last few years:

[The plan] amounts to a conservative’s dream agenda: targeting labor and environmental regulations, enacting a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution, lowering corporate and individual tax rates, encouraging energy production and expanding free trade, according to a draft obtained by POLITICO.

So, their "jobs plan" is to cut taxes on corporations and the wealthy, gut regulations, drill for more oil and do a Balanced Budget Amendment, which is literally the exact same crap in every other Republican "plan" in existence. The difference is that this time, they're adding the word "Real."

Wait, it gets better. Here's John McCain blowing off the deficit while speaking at his big "new" Republican jobs plan unveiling. Joan McCarter writes at Daily Kos: McCain: Sure, we'll nullify debt deal law if Super Congress fails:

Yeah, the same deficit that has them all so worked up when they have a chance to take the country hostage.

If there is a failure on the part of the Super Committee, we will be amongst the first on the floor to nulify that provision. Congress is not bound by this. It’s something we passed, we can reverse it.

That means if the Super Committee fails because the Republicans refuse to consider tax increases, Republicans will nullify the whole debt ceiling deal in order to avoid the defense cuts in the automatic triggers.

So why in the hell did those colossal dicks put the country through a manufactured crisis over the debt ceiling if they weren't serious about the deficit? Oh, yeah, Mitch McConnell's priority number one.

Assholes.

John McCain always makes me think of what Oliver Cromwell said to the Long Parliament when he thought it was no longer fit to conduct the affairs of the nation. "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”

UPDATE: Steve Benen adds at the Political Animal – The truly farcical ‘Jobs Through Growth Act’:

McCain, who admits he doesn’t understand economic policy, told reporters yesterday he and his cohorts put this plan together in part as “a response to the president saying we don’t have a proposal.”

Senator, I’ve seen your plan. You still don’t have a proposal.

The intellectual bankruptcy of the Republican Party is just astounding. It has no new ideas, no constructive solutions, no creativity, no depth of thought, no intellectual consistency, no recollection of their own failures, no understanding of economic policy, and no access to calculators.

UPDATE: Jonathan Chait weighs in with The Republicans Have a ‘Real’ Jobs Plan, by Which I Mean, Not a Jobs Plan at All — Daily Intel:

The premise of Obama's proposal was that the two parties couldn't agree on their long-term vision of government, but the economic emergency was too severe to wait until the election to settle it, so they should act immediately on short-term ideas that have bipartisan support. The GOP response is to issue a series of exclusively long-term proposals lacking any bipartisan support. There's not much pretense of intending to address the current crisis when your plan has as its cornerstone the passage of a Constitutional amendment.

Politico dryly notes, "Senate Republicans are taking on a risk by putting their ideas in legislative language. They could open themselves up to criticism from Democrats if official budget scorekeepers show that the price tag could drive up the deficit and if economists are dubious on whether it would actually create jobs."

Let me put this a bit more clearly. There is zero chance that any independent agency or macroeconomic forecaster scores this proposal as either reducing the deficit or increasing employment over the next year. On the deficit, they may propose to cut tax rates, offset by spending cuts or closing tax deductions, but the latter will be totally unspecified. On jobs, the GOP simply will not engage with the premise of the entire macroeconomic forecasting field that the economy is suffering from a lack of demand. The purpose of this bill is to straddle that awkward divide, and provide a sound bite to answer Obama when he says he has a jobs plan.

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