Pass one of the damn bills. JUST ONE! It won’t hurt. I promise.
When the Republicans voted in unison to avoid even a debate about President Obama’s American Jobs Act, President Obama told us he would not be giving up.
And true to his word, he hasn’t given up, even as it becomes increasingly apparent that Republicans will do nothing that might fix the economy, because fixing the economy could lead to the reelection of President Obama. (The horror! The horror!)
Yesterday, Republicans filibustered the Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act, the portion of his jobs bill which would have sent 35 billion dollars to the states to save the jobs of teachers, firefighters, and police.
Two bills came up for vote, two bills were blocked by Republicans. President Obama asked the Republicans, “Hey, how do you feel about a bill that will create two million jobs?” In response, the Republicans flipped Obama the bird.
President Obama then said, “well, ok — what about this portion of the bill that will create 400,000 jobs? Jobs for people we like! Teachers, and firefighters, and police! (Oh my!)” In response, the Republicans farted in President Obama’s general direction.
And now, it’s on to the third bill — The Rebuild America Jobs Act, which is all about infrastructure, baby:
The Senate will hold a vote the first week of November on the $60 billion infrastructure portion of Obama’s Jobs Act, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Friday.
The bill contains $50 billion for direct spending on transportation projects and $10 billion in seed money to start a National Infrastructure Bank. The spending would be paid for by a 0.7 percent tax on annual income above $1 million.
Republicans love infrastructure! Even so, they will likely block this bill, too. Here’s Steve Benen on the subject:
Will Republicans once again refuse to even allow a vote on the legislation? Probably. But infrastructure investments are another element of the Democratic jobs plan that enjoys broad national support, and which many GOP officials have conceded publicly creates jobs.
If Republicans are serious about giving the economy a boost — and I realize there’s some skepticism surrounding the assumption — there’s really no excuse for GOP senators to simply reject this measure out of hand. We have unemployed workers eager to help rebuild American infrastructure; we have a massive number of projects (roads, bridges, ports, runways, rail) that need repair; we have public demand for both jobs and improved infrastructure; and we have a bill that’s fully paid for through a popular financing plan.
Hell, the idea for the infrastructure bank was co-sponsored by Republican lawmakers.
Are there any GOP senators willing to do the right thing on this? We’ll find out for sure next week, but the answer still appears to be no.
Greg Sargent at The Plum Line adds some interesting context to this continuing jobs saga. First, Reid called out Republicans for their pathetic fealty to Grover Norquist and his abominable “no tax increases, no matter what” pledge:
“The Senate GOP has had a love affair for many years now with Grover Norquist — they will not touch any new revenues,” Reid said. “They are not in touch with reality or their own constituents. But they are in touch with Grover Norquist.”
Second, and perhap the most interesting bit about the conference call Reid held with reporters is the ass-backwards reaction by the reporters to President Obama and the Democrats’ decision to split up the American Jobs Act and cram each portion up the GOP’s cramhole:
In a particularly interesting moment, reporters repeatedly pressed Reid to explain why he was going to force Republicans to vote this way, given that they have already said they’ll never support raising taxes. (It would be nice to see these reporters question Republicans as aggressively on why they won’t back policies that even GOP voters like, but that’s probably expecting too much.) But Reid refused to give ground, again and again pointing out that the public is on the side of Dems, and against Republicans, on this issue.
Got it? The media expects the Democrats to kneel before Zod Grover as well: if Democrats know that Republicans will never support raising taxes, why are they wasting our time? Gosh! Democrats are a bunch of stoopidheads. (I would not be surprised if Chuck Todd is among those who asked that question; the man is a bowl of useless.)
This sort of sentiment is ludicrous and symptomatic of a syphilitic media that is incapable of assigning the labels “ass” and “elbow” to the proper body parts.
Why isn’t the media haranguing Boehner, Cantor, McConnell and every single Republican who stalwartly refuses to even permit president Obama’s jobs act to be debated? Why isn’t the media demanding that Republicans explain why unseating President Obama is a priority paramount to creating jobs for Americans? Why isn’t the media asking Republicans why they seem more interested in installing tiny dictatorial governments in women’s uteri than in putting unemployed women back to work?
Silly rhetorical questions, I know. The “liberal” media is far more determined to figure out why the President doesn’t just give up and stop doing his job for the next twelve months. It’s like, what the hell is wrong with him? Who does he think he is? The Republicans have obviously chosen to sit around and play grab-ass all day — the real question is why won’t President Obama and the Democrats join them? What does President Obama have against rousing games of grab-ass? Is he unwilling to stand up to grab-ass? Is he caving to grab-ass?
These are important questions, and the American public demands answers.
Jesus take the wheel and drive me into a tree.
[via The Political Animal; via The Plum Line]
[cross-posted at Balloon Juice]
