The Republican War Against Jobs

[babylonsister]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-heilbrunn/the-republican-war-agains_b_168971.html


Jacob Heilbrunn
Posted February 22, 2009 | 04:53 PM (EST)

The Republican War Against Jobs


Never has the avarice of the Republican party been more nakedly displayed than in the contemptuous disdain that Governors Haley Barbour and Bobby Jindal displayed in declaring that they will refuse to accept large portions of the unemployment package for fear that they would increase the employment tax paid by business. Usually, the GOP condemns the unemployed as shiftless, lazy slobs who simply need to get off their duff and find a job. Now that Obama is holding out the opportunity to help bail out the states and create jobs, these stone age Governors would rather condemn more workers to unemployment than run the theoretical risk, years down the road, of having taken on an increased burden in paying for unemployment benefits. The stimulus, they claim, will increase the deficit.

This isn't perverse. It's grotesque.

The stimulus will not increase the deficit. It will make it smaller. Not using the stimulus will make the deficit larger. If the unemployment rate continues to swell, imagine the costs of paying unemployment benefits to, say, 15 percent of the population. Is that what Jindal and Barbour would like?

If these Republican Governors carry through on their grandstanding, voters in their states should launch a recall effort--or contact their legislators to make it plain that the last thing they want is for their Governor to turn down the very stimulus that could help revive the sagging economy. In the past few decades, the GOP has come up with increasingly adventurous economic theories to justify slashing taxes on the wealthy, a policy that supposedly benefits everyone else, especially the poor. But now that eight years of laissez-faire has brought America to on the verge of a new Depression, who would have thought that it would actively embrace a policy that repudiates putting the unemployed back to work? The Republican party, then, is going to war again--against creating jobs.

[Warpy]

1. It's been a war against America

in which much of our wealth was sold off and shipped overseas, all in the name of paper profit.

We are now a poor country. We will need to rebuild our manufacturing infrastructure and enact enough protectionism to keep it here.

Empire has failed. We need to give up the illusion quickly. We can no longer afford it.

[ixion]

3. well said...I agree

We need to start making things here again, and stop listening to snake oil salesmen talking voodoo economics.

As one who has never cottoned well to the idea of American 'Empire' (or the concept of Empire, in general), I say good riddance to bad rubbish.

[Mind_your_head]

2. I haven't even read it yet.....the title ALONE is TRUE ENOUGH!!!

k & r

[fascisthunter]

4. Republicans have been waging Class Warfare for too Long

[Gregorian]

5. If it doesn't fit their ideology, it's wrong.

I want to know where Republicans got their ideology. It must be carved in stone somewhere. By the way, "stone age governors" has a nice ring to it. :)

How about teamwork? How about using those braincells for something good for everyone, and not just you and your business buddies real and imaginary?

[crikkett]

7. As far as teamwork is concerned, Mayor Nagin pledged to accept

any assistance that Jindal refused.

I had to giggle at that one. I hope he makes National News about it.

:)

[Gregorian]

9. Haha.

I'm still trying to find a way to be outraged that New Orleans was allowed to drown while magnitudes more in cash was simply handed out to bankers. Something is really wrong. But there isn't much of a connection.

[crikkett]

10. There's just no more outrage left in me.

My outrage was hurting me, and fear gets so boring. Time for a different strategy (it's more fun anyway).

In Aikido, you calmly and gently direct your enemy's momentum and strength to your will, and then laugh as they hit the wall.

In this case, I think that trickster Nagin will help Jindal see the error in his ways (or at least help the people of LA do so).

[Urban Prairie]

6. My Dem governor Granholm is on record as saying in effect...

that if some of the GOP governors will refuse the unemployment benefit funds, that she is more than willing to take up a portion of their refused share.

If Jindal or Barbour were in a car accident and their vehicle was on fire, with me being the only person who could rescue him, I would ask them how much they think that their lives are worth before I would try to help them. After all it is about the $$$ rather than the suffering and struggling of their constituents to them. Hey look America, I saved millions, and just had to sacrifice the health and economic survival of thousands!!

[midnight]

8. The Repbulican party is the party of war. They have to have

something to go to war against-now it is jobs. Time for them to get out of the way.