Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
In a meeting with several reporters Wednesday afternoon, House Minority Leader John Boehner outlined the top three measures he'd pursue if he becomes Speaker of the House next Congress to create new jobs. But, those who thought he'd outline specific programs and how they would create jobs were disappointed with a familiar litany of wish-list items: repeal health care reform, eschew climate legislation, and renew the Bush tax cuts. Boehner's Recipe For Creating Jobs: Do Nothing:
In other words, repeal a program that largely hasn't yet taken effect; prevent new legislation that is also not in effect; and keep the current tax structure in place.
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He also argued that any unspent stimulus funds ought to be reclaimed.
So lets take stock. Republicans will create jobs by:
1). Rolling back comprehensive health care legislation. (Notably, Boehner also supports repealing financial reform).
2). Simply promising not to do something. An anti-initiative, if you will.
3). Keeping current tax rates in place.
Doing all of these things, which technically represent the status quopre-Obama, would apparently inspire companies to start hiring.
Let's break it down.
Every credible economist is on record as having said that the single most important item in the federal budget to rein in government spending is to contain health care costs. The Health Care Reform Act is a starting point to begin containing runaway health care costs. The Republican free market anti-regulation ideology would allow health care costs to continue rising unimpeded to levels that the average American will no longer be able to afford (millions have already reached this tipping point). This was Boehner promising the big health insurance companies that the GOP will protect their right to gouge customers and to protect their profits into the future. And federal spending on health care will continue to rise dramatically.
(Boehner has also promised to repeal the financial reform act signed into law Wednesday. This was Boehner's promise to the banksters of Wall Street that their looting of America through high-risk speculative casino capitalism will be allowed to continue unchecked.)
I have my doubts that the "cap and trade" carbon tax bill has the votes to pass Congress. I also have my doubts that a less ambitious clean energy bill has the votes to pass Congress, even after the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The energy lobby is even more powerful than the health insurance lobby on Capitol Hill. The "cap and trade" bill has yet to even be debated in the Senate. This was Boehner promising the energy lobby that things will be "business as usual," that troublesome spill in the Gulf notwithstanding.
Making the Bush tax cuts permanent, as I have demonstrated ad nauseum from credible economists complete with charts and graphs and figures, will explode the national deficit as wealth is further transferred from the middle class to the über-rich. No credible economist thinks this is a sane idea. Even Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board who once gave his blessing to the Bush tax cuts, now says the Bush tax cuts should be allowed to expire at the end of the year out of concern for the effects of the Bush tax cuts on the national deficit. This was Boehner promising the über-rich that their "New Gilded Age" will continue under Republicans.
What Boehner failed to mention is that the GOP is also quietly reviving the Bush idea of privatizing social security, and "reforming" Medicare into personal health savings accounts favored by the GOP. We told you about the "GOP's Roadmap to America's Future Ruin" earlier this year. The GOP Road to Ruin; Update: The GOP Road to Ruin; GOP's Roadmap to America's Future (Ruin): Plutocracy on Steroids.
Republicans are promising "Back to Bush," the failed conservative policies that created this economic catastrophe. They have learned no lessons. They do not accept personal responsibility for their actions and they are unrepentent. They are extremists committed to an ideology.
This is a reason to vote for Republicans?
This is a reason for hard working middle class Americans to throw these ideological extremists out of office en masse in November. "We won't get fooled again!"
UPDATE: It turns out that Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly has a similar breakdown. He adds this assessment of Boehner:
I have several concerns when it comes to John Boehner's role as a congressional leader, but near the top of the list is the fact that he doesn't seem to know anything about public policy. He's presumably had time to read up on such things, but he's chosen not to. Worse, Boehner seems to think he knows quite a bit about these issues, despite his apparent bewilderment.
I care that Boehner is wrong about practically everything, but at least one can have a reasonable debate with knowledgeable people with a different perspective. With Boehner, it seems he's just clueless, uninterested and ignorant about the basics of contemporary policy disputes. Can anyone think of a time they've heard John Boehner speak intelligently about any subject? Ever? Can anyone identify an issue where Boehner has demonstrated even the slightest bit of expertise? Or even knowledge?
If he's the best House Republicans have to offer, we're all in very deep trouble.