Note:
The Republican Party did all it could to wreck the
economy from 2010-2012 in a failed attempt to regain
the White House. As a result, they have completely
abandoned any appearance of being job creators and
have returned to garnering the support of morons by
pushing emotional buttons on issues such as abortion,
gays, and guns. Therefore, I will no longer be updating
this site but it will yet remain in all its snarky,
pristine glory as a monument to the most useless, hypocritical,
and unAmerican Congress this country has ever had to
endure.
-------
11-7-2012: The
2012 election is finally over and Mr. Obama remains
in office. Unfortunately, the GOP still contols the
House
of Representatives
so that means Republican Job Creation will continue
on. Look for a minor revamp of this
site once Congress is back in session in early 2013.
We'll
see
what Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell considers his most
important task for the next two years. (He's up for
reelection in 2014, heh-heh-heh.)
----------------------
During
the 2010 mid-terms the GOP campaigned fiercely on the
platform of job creation and, as a result of such promises,
the GOP gained the majority in the House of Representatives.
As new
Speaker
of
the House,
John Boehner
made
the
welcome claim that the primary goal of the Republican
Party was to increase employment in the U.S.
His exact
words were: "We're going to have a relentless focus on
creating jobs."
Those were welcome words, except that a week before
the 2010 elections Republican Senator Mitch McConnell
revealed the GOP's true intent: "The single
most important thing we want to achieve is for President
Obama to be a one-term president."
The following, therefore, is a list of legislation by the GOP beginning 2-10-2011,
a list which I began purely for my own amusement. That it has reached its current
imposing length without one anecdotal citation of new employment as a result
of Republican legislation is simply shocking. Shame on these useless hypocrites.
There are those who choose to place the blame for the relatively high rate of
unemployment on Mr. Obama's shoulders, but keep in mind that it is the House
that both enacts legislation and controls the governmental purse-strings, not
the President. The American Recovery and Investment Act passed by the Democrats
in 2009 no doubt aided the economy but it would have been more effective if the
GOP hadn't limited much of it to more than tax breaks for the rich.
Update 6-18-2012: It's officially clear to everyone,
even the foreign press, that the GOP will do
nothing to help the economy, betting that bad finanacial times
will help Mitt Romney in the upcoming presidential elections. In
addition, thinkprogress.com offers five ways the GOP has actively sabotaged
job growth.
Non-Job Creation Legislation of 2011
1-7-2011: Proposed to repeal the
Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. (Obamacare)
1-18-2011: Proposal to limit mandatory printing
of bills by the Government Priting Office for the use
of the House or Senate.
1-25-2011: Voted to provide Capitol-flown
flags for recipients of Medal of Honor and to extend
the authorization of certain Small Business Administration
programs... until May 31, 2011.
1-25-2011: Voted to "reduce Federal spending
and cut the deficit" by terminating taxpayer financing
of presidential
campaigns
and party
conventions.
2-8-2011: Attempted to extend provisions
of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization
Act of 2005.
2-9-2011: Named a courthouse in Yuma, Arizona
and attempted to take back money allocated to the United
Nations.
2-15-2011: Considered Defense appropriations.
2-28-2011: Votes to amend rules regarding
litigation of Federal employees.
3-2-2011: Voted unanimously to extend Highway
Authorization bill. Also voted to repeal reporting
requirements for payments more than $600 to corporations.
3-8-2011: Passed bill to enhance roles of
dentists in national disasters, and added veterinarians
to the Public Health Service Act. Neither bill passed
by the Senate.
3-9-2011: Passed bill to rescind the unobligated
funding for the FHA Refinance Program and to terminate the program.
3-14-2011: The House agreed to put a statue
of Gerald Ford in the State Capitol.
3-15-2011: THe House voted to give itself a
two-week holiday from 3-18 to 3-29.
3-16-2011: The House voted to rescind the third
round of funding for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and
to terminate the program.
3-17-2011: The House attempted to de-fund Public
Radio, and voted down a bill to remove U.S. armed forces from
Afghanistan.
3-30-2011: The House voted to alter taxation
for the Airport and Airway Trust Fund.
4-1-2011: Approved defunct funding for failed
religious schools.
4-6-2011: Attempt to destroy Medicaid.
4-8-2011: Attempt to destroy Planned Parenthood.
4-11-2011: Planning on shutting down the government
4-13-2011: Attempt to destroy the EPA.
4-15-2011: Attempting to eliminate financial
counseling.
4-18-2011: Passed a House budget that gives $4 trillion in
tax cuts to the rich.
4-20-2011: Spent $500,000 to discriminate against gays.
4-22-2011: Continued
toadying for the rich.
4-25-2011: Pretending the deficit is to blame for slow
job growth.
4-27-2011: De-funded SETI.
(ARGH!!!!!!!)
4-29-2011: Tried to kill Chrysler two years ago... which is
now going to pay
back all its government loans.
5-2-2011: The Judicial Branch of the GOP, the Supreme Court,
votes 5-4 to deny
consumer class-action suits.
5-4-2011: Redefining
rape. Yes, redefining rape.
5-6-2011: Pushing for spending
caps tied to GDP. (That's a really, really REALLY bad idea.)
5-9-2011: Claimed credit for dropping oil prices because they passed
a bill.
5-11-2011: Refuse to reduce
oil subsidies.
5-13-2011: Stood helplessly and watched as Senator
John Ensign made Bill Clinton look like a Carmelite nun.
5-16-2011: Attempt to retool Rep. Paul Ryan's Medicare-killing
bill.
5-17-2011: Prevented the raising of the federal debt limit.
Let the catastrophic job loss begin.
5-18-2011: Watches Rome
burn with their Wall Street pals.
5-19-2011: Filibustered bill to repeal
oil subsidies.
5-20-2011: Rejected Goodwin Liu for judge simply because Mr.
Obama nominated him.
5-23-2011: Abortion. Abortion. Abortion.
As in "restrictions".
5-27-2011: Spent five hours debating
NPR, five minutes debating Afghanistan.
5-27-2011: GOP releases their jobs plan. Hilarity
ensues.
5-30-2011: Continue to hold the debt limit hostage in order
to make more money for billionaires.
6-1-2011: Brought to the House floor a bill specifically blaming
President Obama's 2012 budget for raising the statutory
debt limit by $2.4 trillion dollars, a budget the very same
Republican-led Congress earlier passed.
6-6-2011: Pulled from the floor a Democratic resolution
to remove
soldiers from Libya, because it just might have passed.
6-3-2011: Conceived a plan to replace
three federal employees with just one federal employee. Yes,
they're now actually reducing jobs.
6-9-2011: Nothing. They did absolutely nothing to create jobs.
Not a damn thing.
6-13-2011: Nothing, though they're jabbering a lot about privatizing
Social Security. Again. Sigh.
6-15-2011: Attempts to cut billions from needy seniors and hungry
children in order to raise the defense budget... again.
6-17-2011: The GOP is censoring
Democratic congressional newsletters because they're using
the GOP's own words to define the excremental Ryan Budget. Nice.
6-20-2011: The GOP held a convention in New Orleans and hired
an Obama
look-alike to stand on stage and tell racist jokes. So +1
to the GOP for giving a man a job but -1,000,000 points for the
kind of job it was.
6-22-2011: I'm sad to report that the GOP didn't do a dang
thing to create jobs today, but I'll give them credit for not
using senior citizens for skeet shooting practice.
6-24-2011: Yesterday the Democratic Congress stood up on its
back legs and finally barked out what so many of us have been
saying for the past six months--- that the Republican Congress
is actively
trying to stall
the economy. There, was that so harrrrrrrd?
6-27-2011: The Republican Congress voted to raise the debt
ceiling EIGHTEEN times for President Bush. Now the the GOP is
holding collective their breaths and pitching fits, perfectly
willing to cause
world economic collapse just because that darned old spendthrift
Obama wants to eliminate the corporate jet depreciation tax credit
for their rich friends. Oy vey.
6-29-2011: Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) spent $9 million dollars
of his own money in his race for a senate seat in 2010 but afterwards
had his own company pay
him back to the tune of $10 million in "deferred compensation".
Is this illegal? Very probably, though it oddly resulted in one
new American job: Senator Ron Johnson. So way to go, GOP! Only
ten
million more jobs to go.
7-1-2011: The GOP is on vacation until the 7th of July, even
though a world-altering problem with the debt ceiling is looming.
But don't worry, Democratic Senator Harry Reid and his left-wing
pals are
staying in Washington to get some real work done.
7-4-2011: The GOP was off for the 4th of July holidays.
7-6-2011: No new jobs to speak of but the GOP is working
diligently to keep their true constituency, Wall Street fat cats,
rolling in simoleons
by attempting to roll back the financial
reforms passed last year.
7-8-2011: Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's bright
idea is to close tax loop holes.... and then give the accumulated
monies back to the rich in the form of reduced taxes. That's our
little non-job-makers!
7-11-2011: Speaker of the House
John "Weepy-Boy" Boehner
admits that not raising the debt limit will
cost jobs. Ahhh, that explains everything. Atta boy, GOP!
7-13-2011: The GOP claims they passed 9 bills that would create
500,000 jobs. Except they
didn't create jobs. They really, really didn't.
7-15-2011: Finally. The GOP is doing
some investigating, but it's not about
Wall Street or Rupert Murdoch. The target
in their
cross hairs this time is <groan> Planned
Parenthood. Again. This is the official definition of insanity,
you know.
7-18-2011: Not only does the GOP continue to insist on slashing
federal spending, which will cost jobs, jobs and more jobs, but
now they want to hack
the Constitution.
7-20-2011: Are you ready? The GOP today passed
a bill that would "amend
the Securities Act of 1933 to specify when certain securities
issued in connection with church plans
are treated as exempted securities
for purposes of that Act." Ooooh, I'm all a-tingle.
7-22-2011: While unemployment
claims are rising again the GOP is putting the screws to small
airports in order to kill union labor.
7-25-2011: Speaker of the House John Boehner walks out of
a debt ceiling meeting because that mean old pwesident Obama
wouldn't knife
his health care plan. Poor widdle John.
7-27-2011: No new jobs but at least 4000 workers have hit
the bricks as a result of the GOP's jihad against airport
unions.
7-29-2011: The GOP wasted the past two days on its version
of a debt ceiling bill that even its own party won't
vote for. John Boehner is a miserable failure as both the Majority
Leader and as a shepherd for these hard times.
8-1-2011: The GOP breaks out the
fiddles while the economy burns. The
tune they favor is the "Screw The Poor and the
Elderly" polka, and they're hitting the coda HARD.
8-3-2011: The GOP is screwing everyone over by refusing
to fund the FAA. As a result, airlines owners are currently
pocketing millions in taxes that should go to the government.
8-5-2011: GOOD NEWS! The GOP has a plan to create 300,000
jobs.... no, wait. That's eliminate
300,000 jobs. Sorry.
8-8-2011: The GOP is on vacation but their henchmen continue
to usurp the voting process by sending out phony
absentee ballots.
8-10-2011: The GOP is proposing something called the REINS
act which essentially gets rid of safety inspectors. So less
jobs and more poison in your children's food. It's win-win, uh,
lose-lose, uh, whatever!
8-12-2011: Employees
of Boeing had their jobs illegally pulled out from underneath
them. Guess which political party is doing their best to see that
these employees don't have their day in court. Bingo!
8-15-2011: Yayyyy! Republican Darrell Issa, Chairman of the
House Oversight Committee (which
investigates government corruption) is keeping his home district busy
by securing millions of dollars for road and public works projects.
I guess it was just a complete coincidence that most of the work
is planned
near properties Mr.
Issa owns. Uh-oh.
8-17-2011: Republicans Darrell Issa and Dennis Ross introduced a
bill in July that would accelerate the destruction
of the USPS and put all of its employees, hundreds of thousands of
good Americans, out of work.
Damn Darrell Issa and damn Dennis Ross! Fuck 'em until their ancestors rise
from the dead and beg forgiveness for ever having sired the malevolent little
bastards.
8-19-2011: Hey, look! Good old Darrell Issa, Republican, has hired a guy
named Peter Haller to help effect new regulations for banks, like Goldman Sachs.
Unfortunately, Mr. Heller used to be called Peter Simonyi when he was a vice
president for (wait for it) Goldman Sachs. Oh, you can bet you boots there's
nothing underhanded about hiding behind another name. Not a thing. Nada. Zip.
Zero.
8-22-2011: The GOP has a new job-creation plan... to have one rammed down
their throats. You see, the Democrats want to include a job-creation
trigger in the new Super Committee that will require the Republican Party
to vote either for or against it. To vote against it would be, uhhh, dumb but
I wouldn't put anything past our little conservative pals. Stay tuned.
8-24-2011: The GOP has been quiet on the job front lately so I have a request
of Republican Presidential candidate Rick Perry...
Re-invest in your porno
companies, Rick.
It doesn't have to be a large investment but at the very least you'd put a
few porn stars back on the cock, uh, I mean clock. Heck, if you're lucky they
might
even name a new position after you, one that no doubt involves the same anal
lube that keeps your hair in place.
8-26-2011: Hey! It's our old pal Darrell Issa again, and he's hired a very
nice man named Kurt Bardella to work for him on the Oversight Committee...
only it's the same Kurt Bardella he fired five months ago for breach
of trust. Guess this leopard found some really effective spot remover.
8-29-2011: Suppose you have a job but you need help with your mortgage.
There's still $30 billion in the Troubled
Asset Relief Program but the GOP wants to re-route that money to the federal
deficit. This means more people will lose their homes and perhaps become homeless.
Eventually jobless. Nice work, GOP.
8-31-2011: When the GOP returns from vacation they plan on voting every
week to gut every government regulation within arm's reach because, you know, "regulation
costs jobs". What they refuse to acknowledge is that regulation
has been proven to actually create
jobs.
9-2-2011: After unbridled "success" wrecking the economy once again with
their "debt-ceiling" stunt House and Senate Republicans are starting to mumble
about
stalling the upcoming Highway
Bill, costing Americans almost 2 million jobs. (These bills have traditionally
been passed by overwhelming margins.)
9-3-2011: A recent CNN
poll reveals that those who self-identify as Republicans would rather the
president focus on jobs, not the deficit, by a margin of 54%-44%. So why has
the Republican Party not proposed one, single jobs bill in nine months?
Because they're not Republicans! They're shills for their corporate masters who
they can't WAIT to get another Republican stooge in the White House so they can
screw the American people all over again like they did from 2001-2009.
9-5-2011: The GOP is on a Labor Day break, which is sort of like atheists
enjoying Christmas services with the Pope, so not much in terms of job creation
is happening. For now, we'll just have to thank presidential candidate Mitt "Magic
Underpants" Romney for hiring all of the workers who will be laboring to
quadruple the size of his California beachfront
mansion.
9-6-2011: Michelle
Bachmann has a brilliant new answer for lots of high-paying jobs... slash
the corporate tax rate to zero.... except corporate America is already paying
an effective rate of zero. Even so, job creation is down the dumper. Back to
the Etch-A-Sketch, Michelle.
9-8-2011: Presidential candidates Jon Huntsman, Mitt Romney, and Herman
Cain have just announced their jobs programs. It's tax cuts for the rich, tax
cuts
for the rich, and tax cuts for the rich.
Why
didn't
we
think
of this
before?
9-9-2011: Rick Perry wants to kill Social Security. He also wants to eliminate
the FDA, the FCC, the U.S. Post Office and just about all other federal employees
except the military, the Supreme Court and himself. It's kind of a jobs plan
if
you
long for 12th century feudalism.
9-11-2011: On Friday President Obama outlined a job's plan that is seen
by economists as win-win. The Republican response to the program is to whine
about it.
9-12-2011: Not much governance today so I think I'll just make a little
comparison... which two types of professions do you think result in more jobs?
Wall Street
commodity speculators, or educators? And which group do you think the GOP is
doing
its darndest to reduce in numbers?
9-14-2011: I gotta hand it to the GOP. In this bleak economy they've found
a way to increase jobs... in hospital emergency rooms. What they're doing is
trying to cut funding in the transportation bill for bike
paths and pedestrian walkways, thus ensuring more mayhem on our streets and
guaranteed employment for EMT workers. It's pure gee-nyuss I tells ya!
9-15-2011: Today the GOP-led House passed
a bill that would make it easier to fire union workers, union organizers,
or simply move jobs overseas in order to bust a union. In essence, an anti-jobs
bill.
9-16-2011: The government has provided loans that help the auto industry
create jobs, loans that helped keep the assembly of the Ford Focus and the Nissan
Leaf
right here on American soil. Republican Majority Leader Eric
Cantor plans to strip half that money to repair damage from Hurricane Irene...
in HIS district.
9-16-2011: President Obama is trying to fast
track job creation for a company called LightSquared and Republicans are
pissed, evidently because the owner of the company had the audacity to donate
to
the
Democratic
Party. He, uh, ahem, also donated equally to the Republican Party.
9-19-2011: Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor is back
with a pithy statement
about Mr. Obama's jobs bill: "While an all or nothing approach might make
sense to some communicators, I hope the President realizes it would be better
to work together." This from a man whose stated job it is to say, and I
quote, "No" to
anything the president proposes. I hope he gets a painful boil on his uvula.
9-21-2011: The leaders of the Republican Party just sent a letter to the
Federal Reserve saying "Keep
unemployment high." Honestly, the letter says, in essence, "Hey,
those guys out there in the ocean are drowning. Hide the life-preservers."
9-23-2011: Look! It's Darrell Issa, Republican chairman of the House Oversight
Committee, creating jobs. He's stumping for a huge loan package on behalf of
a company, Aptera, which makes electric cars. This is great news, especially
for the green economy, although I wonder if Mr. Issa would be so ecstatic if
the company in question wasn't a major
contributor to his campaigns.
Oops.
One more thing... the day after sending the glowing recommendation to the Energy
Department Mr. Issa conducted a hearing entitled "How Obama’s Green
Energy Agenda is Killing Jobs." Double-oops.
9-26-2011: The GOP is being suspiciously quiet so I want to take this opportunity
to show you just how badly the Bush administration fucked-over the American people.
Here's a chart of the GNP for this country over the past 60 years:

See that massive drop in 2008, the only drop in over 60 years? That's the Bush
administration shedding jobs in this country hand over fist, just so the GOP
could
have the corporate-owned media blame Mr. Obama.
As you can see the GNP has recovered and business in this country is doing fine
but they're not hiring and they're not going to hire until Mr. Obama is gone.
It's not enough for the Koch's of this world to reap absurd
profits. They want it all.
9-30-2011: Here's a novel way that the GOP creates fewer jobs; Refusing
to appoint
federal judges. Only 62% of Mr. Obama's choice of judges (A record glacial
pace) have been approved so far and some have had to undergo the process for
over a year. As far as the GOP is concerned, the only good activist judge is
a Republican-appointed activist judge.
10-3-2011: Does it come as a surprise to anyone that the GOP is trying to slash
job-training programs?
10-5-2011: Today was the day the president's jobs' bill was introduced.
It was blocked by not one, not two, but three parliamentary
roadblocks by the GOP. They, of course, have the right to do that but the
least the little bastards could do is create a jobs plan of their own as a counter-move.
But they can't do that as it would expose them for the progress-blocking charlatans
they are.
10-7-2011: The Republicans are thumping their chests in response to the President's
jobs bill,
hooting
about the six jobs creation bills that they've passed and which are currently
stalled
in
the
Senate. But, y'see, there's good
reason for them to be stalled. As in, they don't create jobs.
10-10-2011: Here is what the GOP is trying to get you to believe: As long
as the country continues to shed
jobs it will eventually create jobs.
The GOP isn't really that stupid and they don't think the public is really that
stupid, they're just not going to do anything that might help the economy.
10-12-2011: Hey! Look at that! The GOP voted down President Obama's jobs
bill. Good thing they had another jobs bill of their own ready to.... Oh,
they didn't? Really? What a shock.
10-14-2011: The GOP wasted the day voting on a redundant anti-abortion bill
that would doom pregnant women to a horrible
death. They took this purely symbolic vote just to waste more time.
On the bright side, the GOP unveiled a jobs
bills... if by "jobs" you mean destroying the environment, excising
unions, off-shoring jobs, and making the rich even richer. This bill, according
to many, would
actually
result in the loss of existing jobs.
I don't like imagery to get in the way of facts on this site but the following
comic by Matt Bors was too beautifully on-target to keep to myself.

10-17-2011: Amtrak, for all its faults, carried a record number of riders
last year, indicating an undeniable need for its service. Naturally, the GOP
wants to cut
its funding off at the knees, possibly resulting in killing it altogether.
But who cares, right? Rich people don't ride public transportation.
10-19-2011: The House is on vacation this week so the Tea Party Nation is
rising to the challenge of job-creation by, uh, demanding that businesses
stop hiring. In their constipated little minds they feel that this will teach
President Obama a lesson for being a socialist, or a dictator, or.... something.
10-21-2011: The Washington Post is firmly in the Conservative pocket but
even they came right out and called the Republican jobs bill "ludicrous" today.
Oh, snap!
10-24-2011: The GOP is still on vacation but that doesn't stop Republican
congressman Paul Ryan from rolling up his sleeves and trying to cut
Pell Grants. He thinks they're a scam even though he himself used government
money to put himself through college. Thanks a heap, ya hypocrite.
10-31-2011: A new report revels that GOP "job-creating" spending
cuts resulted in the loss of 370,000 jobs. Gosh, who'd-a-thunk?
11-2-2011: According to the AP the Republican
jobs plan would create no jobs.
So what does the GOP spend the day doing? They voted to reaffirm that "In
God We Trust" is the national motto, just in case someone missed the
point that they no longer give a crap about doing anything useful.
11-4-2011: Yay! It's a GOP jobs bill! No, wait... sorry, they're just deregulating
securities and calling it a jobs bill. My mistake.
11-7-2011: While the GOP stood around with their thumbs up their rumps
the Democrats introduced an unemployment
extension bill.
11-9-2011: One of the first things the GOP did after gaining the House
after the 2010 mid-terms was change
the schedule so that they'd work fewer days, only 109 days the entire year.
The average sucker (That's you!) works 258 days a year. The House will be in
session
only
16 more days the rest of the year. Now you know why nothing gets done.
11-11-2011: The so-called "Super Committee" is supposed to be
trying to find ways to cut the deficit, but the Republicans on the Committee
are only interested in making
the Bush
tax cuts permanent, which would only hurt the economy. Nice going, ya pinheads.
11-14-2011: The House and Senate are on hiatus but presidential candidates
Gingrich, Bachmann, and Perry want to, respectively, start a war against Iran,
make America like China, and turn nuclear regulation over to the equivalent of
McDonalds.
11-16-2011: The House is wasting your time pushing a bill that makes it
even easier for people to carry
concealed weapons from state-to-state. Can you say "Raw-Meat-Dog- Whistle?".
Can you also say "Gabrielle Giffords?"
11-18-2011: The House is once again considering the "Balanced Budget
Amendment", which sounds almost reasonable until you learn it could cost
millions of jobs. Oy vey.
11-21-2011: The Republican half of the Supercommittee refuses to give up
the Bush tax cuts. As long as the 1% keeps raking in the dough everyone else
will suffer, and the rich just LOVE that.
11-23-2011: Though Newt Gingrich couldn't be elected dog-catcher, much
less Chief Executive, he's shedding light on the next Great Frontier in GOP job
creation... child
labor. Yes, according to dear old Newt the little bastards have had it too
easy all these years. That's nuclear class-warfare, folks.
11-25-2011: Rick Santorum, candidate for president, succinctly reminds
us why the GOP isn't interested in creating jobs. It's because poor people are supposed
to suffer, and making people suffer is the Christian thing to do.
11-28-2011: Thanksgiving holiday. Lots of football and turkey, not so much
job-creation. See you Wednesday, amigos.
11-30-2011: The House did nothing today except postpone votes on suspension
bills. Atta boy, GOP!
12-2-2011: The GOP just killed the payroll tax roll-back, which means they
just raised taxes on anyone who gets a paycheck. This also means more money out
of the pockets of the Average Joe and fewer jobs as there's less money to go
around. I'll bet Speaker Boehner is just crying his eyes out.
12-5-2011: The GOP's idea to pay for the payroll tax cut is to cut food
stamps and unemployment benefits, pitching it as a way to punish people who make
over a million dollars. I
kid you not.
12-7-2011: The GOP is wasting time gearing-up to oppose the nomination
of Richard
Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, even though
Mr. Cordray will probably be appointed during congressional recess.
12-9-2011: The U.S. Postal Service is going to cut 28,000
jobs because the Republican Party passed
a law in 2006 requiring the PO to fund 75 years of retiree benefits in just
ten years.
It's times like these that I wish there really was a Hell so I could damn the
Republican Party to it.
12-12-2011: Nearly 15% of workers are projected
to be unemployed at some point in 2012. Way to keep that laser-like focus
on jobs, GOP.
12-14-2011: The House spent the day passing a payroll tax-cut extension
bill which, because it's packed to the gills with poison pills, has no chance
of escaping the Senate alive. The little bastards knew it and passed the bill
anyway just so they can say the Democrats vetoed a payroll tax-cut bill.
12-16-2011: Today the House wasted time debating the excremental SOPA bill,
but it was ultimately tabled until the 16th of January. Call your congressman
now
and
demand
he oppose this wretched bit of legislation.
12-19-2011: The GOP is getting the hell out of Dodge for the holidays,
but a quick accounting of their first year in charge of the House reveals they
voted a record 191 times against
environmental protection laws. That's almost one vote for every day they
were in session. Yuck!
12-21-2011: Today the House leadership rejected without vote a Payroll
Tax Cut bill that the Senate and House would have overwhelmingly voted for. If
you need any further proof that the only thing the GOP cares about is how badly
it can ruin the economy, this is it.
Wow. Just... wow.
Addendum: House Democrats today tried to force an up-or-down vote on the Payroll
Tax bill but the Republican Speaker Pro-Temp ignored them. When Democrats protested
John Boehner had C-SPAN cut
the video and audio feed of the proceedings. The video, however, can be seen
here.
Double Wow.
12-25-2011: Our government is in recess for the holidays.
------------------
Non-Job Creation Legislation
of 2012
1-2-2012: Congress will return to session
on January 17th. They will work for six whole days this
month. Must be nice. Don't expect much Federal job creation
during this period.
1-18-2012: Here we GO!
On Tuesday, the 17th, the House selected a new as-yet-unnamed Sergeant-At-Arms.
On the 18th the House will attempt and fail to vote down Mr. Obama's request
for a debt increase. The House will then adjourn until Monday. No jobs were created.
1-23-2012: Not much today. Just a panel discussion on doing
business with the military, plus some GOP shenanigans called the Legally Binding
Budget Act of 2011. Simply put, it's an attempt to make the president culpable
for lousy budgets. No jobs were created.
1-25-2012: Speaker of the House John Boehner claims that the
GOP
passed
30
jobs
bills
in the past session of Congress. Well, they passed 30 "somethings" but
they certainly had little to do with job creation. Follow the link and laugh.
1-27-2012: The House held hearings on Wednesday trying to cut
retirement benefits for federal employees. They also redefined what an "aircraft" is.
They then took Thursday off. No jobs were created.
1-30-2012: On Friday, the 27th, the House was in session for
a whole four minutes. No jobs were created.
1-31-2012: Today the House voted on a motion to consider the
repeal of the CLASS Program, part of the Affordable Health Care Act aimed at
helping low-income citizens get health care. It passed on party lines. Don't
expect it to escape the Senate. No
jobs were created.
2-3-2012: The House proposed a bill that keeps welfare
recipients out of strip clubs, casinos, and liquor stores. The actual purpose
of the bill was to have Democrats vote against it so that their Republican opponents
can claim Democrats are FOR such nonsense. The bill passed 395-27 but it will
die in the Senate, so ha-ha-ha, GOP. No
jobs were created.
2-6-2012: Last week House Republicans approved
language for debate on two bills that would gut Federal programs without
having to pass specific legislation. This would, essentially, equal more tax
cuts for big business. No
jobs were created.
2-8-2012: The consistent upward trend in employment numbers
would seem to be an excellent time for the GOP to bask in glory as good shepherds
of the economy. But even though they've done absolutely nothing to increase employment
for the past year all they can do is grumble that "More
should be done". For once, they're right. No jobs were
created.
2-10-2012: House Republican's are watering down the insider
trading bill so that Democrats will vote against it. Thus, come November,
our GOP pals can say that Democrats are actually for insider
trading. What more could we expect from these useless conservative sleazebags? No
jobs were created.
2-13-2012: Today there will be exactly one hearing about "exploring
all energy options." It should be called "exploring oil energy options." Meanwhile,
Senate Republicans are trying to kill the Violence
Against Women Act. No
jobs were created.
2-15-2012: So which party has introduced "the most partisan" and "worst
transportation bill that Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood has seen in
35
years"? Go on... guess. (Hint: It wasn't the Democrats.) No
jobs were created.
2-17-2012: The House will presumably vote on and pass the payroll
tax extension today. Then they'll leave town for ten days in order to celebrate
Presidents Day. Cushy gig. No
jobs were created.
2-20-2012: Congress is out this week on an extended Presidents
Day vacation. Between now and April they're going to take four weeks off. Who
the heck made this ridiculous schedule? (Hint: It was the majority party in the
House. The idea being, I suppose, that the less Congress is in session, the less
gets
done.) No
jobs were created.
2-27-2012: The Congressional Circus is back in action after
a
week
off for President's Day, and
today
they'll
be
considering
H.R. 4078, "The Regulatory Freeze of Jobs Act of 2012." It's worse
than it sounds as its intent is "to provide that no agency may take any
significant regulatory action until the unemployment rate is equal to or less
than 6.0 percent." Cue the sad trombone sound. No jobs
were created.
2-29-2012: The House failed to pass the Research
Works Act, which would have prohibited federal agencies from releasing the
result of taxpayer-funded research. No
jobs were created.
3-2-2012: Yesterday the House spent most of the day debating
and passing the San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act. Meanwhile, in the Senate,
Democrats, plus Olympia Snowe, fended off the execrable Blunt Amendment. In addition,
Speaker Boehner vows to continue contraception
fight. Because it's all about jobs, right? No jobs were
created.
3-5-2012: On Thursday, the 1st of March, the House unanimously
voted to allow itself to give oral histories of the civil rights era, then condemned
Iran for finding one of its citizens guilty of apostasy.
The House then took Friday off. No
jobs were created.
3-7-2012: On Monday the House spent two whole hours naming two
federal buildings and then adjourned. On Tuesday they shuffled paper all day
regarding a Bureau of Reclamation bill involving hydropower development. No
jobs were created.
3-9-2012: The
House spent all day Thursday debating H.R. 3606, the "Jumpstart Our Business
Startups (JOBS) Act". It is better known as the "Reopening American
Capital Markets to Emerging Growth Companies Act". What it actually is,
is a financial market deregulation bill. What it REALLY is, is a fake jobs bill.
No
jobs were created.
3-12-2012: Last Friday, March 9th, members of the House attended
a hearing in Saranac Lake, NY, to discuss a farm bill. No jobs were created.
Today, the
House has scheduled a single hearing on (Are you ready?) "Explosion of Federal
Regulations Threatening Jobs and Economic Survival in the West"... in Elko
Nevada. DAMN those regulations! No jobs were created.
3-14-2012: The House is in another recess until
Tuesday, the 20th of March. No jobs were created.
3-19-2012: The House is theoretically in session. They're back
in Washington but nothing much is scheduled this week except for hearings. They
might as well be painting their bedroom's black and listening to Led Zeppelin
albums. No jobs were created.
3-21-2012: On Monday, the 19th, the House was called to order
at 4PM. They then spent the next four hours arguing a bill that would allow Israeli
nationals
to receive nonimmigrant visas. No jobs were created.
On Tuesday, the House convened at Noon. The GOP spent the balance of the day
trying to steal
a Virginia park to fence to their industrialist buddies. No jobs were created.
3-23-2012: For the past two days
the House has been debating H.R. 5, the "HEALTH" bill,
which is actually about tort reform. No jobs were
created.
3-26-2012: The House took last Friday
off. No jobs were created.
3-28-2012: The House debated FCC
transparency, baby monitors, and a transportation
bill but nothing of note passed. No jobs were created,
either.
3-30-2012: The House voted to end
Medicare again but, thankfully, they signed a 90-day
extension to the transportation bill. No jobs were
created.
4-2-2012: The House vacated the
premises early last Friday and won't be back in session
until the 16th of April. No jobs will be created.
4-16-2012: The House is back in
session but it's mostly just nuts-and-bolts stuff
this week. Although a vote on another corporate tax
cut bill (H.R. 9) is in the offing.
4-18-2012: The House voted down
the Buffet Rule, awarded Lena Horne a posthumous
Congressional Gold Medal, then argued the rest of
the day about rules to "enhance" hunting,
fishing, and shooting. No jobs were created.
4-20-2012: The House passed "The
Small Business Tax Cut Act" (H.R. 9) but they
might as well have named the bill "Ponies For
Everyone" because it wasn't
about small business, and it will never pass
the Senate. No jobs were created today.
4-23-2012: The House was in pro
forma session to keep President Obama from assigning
badly needed federal judges. No jobs were created.
4-25-2012: The House spent the day
dealing with the legislative version of cleaning
their room. In this case it meant passing bills that
dealt with adjustments to the boundaries of parklands,
land swaps, and the like. No jobs or anything remotely
like them were created.
4-27-2012: The House pased a couple
of suspension bills (The DATA Act and the Small Business
Credit Availability Act). They also passed CISPA,
which is distressing, but the prez has promised a
veto. Looking forward to that. Oh, and no jobs were
created.
4-30-2012: On Friday the House approved
a bill that lowers the interest on student loans,
but tacked on a rider which guts the Health Care
Act. It's designed to result in a presidential veto,
at which point Republicans can claim that Mr. Obama
doesn't care about higher education.
To which I say "Fuck these Republicans! Fuck these horrible, greedy, useless,
poisonous
bags of scum!"
5-9-2012: The House is back in session but they only passed
a handful of suspension bills. No jobs were created.
5-11-2012: The GOP-led House passed several bills that denied
the Obama administration funds to fight for progesssive issues. Read
the dismal details here. No jobs were created even though Speaker Boehner
again claimed the GOP had a tight focus on jobs... when being specifically
asked about why his party is passing so much anti-gay legislation. Fuck this
guy. No jobs were created.
5-14-2012: Last Thursday the House passed the Sequestration
Replacement Act, designed to fatten the Pentagon coffers at the expense of the
elderly and the poor. It is destined to die in the Senate. No Jobs were created.
5-16-2012: The House was not in session on Monday, but on Tuesday
the legislators busied themselves passing noncontroversial suspension bills.
Ho-hum. No jobs were created, but you already knew that.
5-18-2012: The House passed a watered-down Violence Against
Women Act. Basically, if you're an immigrant or a native American woman, you're
fair game for any sadist. They'll pass a major defense funding bill tomorrow
and then
will take the next week off. No jobs were created.
5-21-2012: On Friday the House passed a bloated defense spending
bill, even though they were obligated to cut defense spending as part of the
Super Committee agreement. Not only did the new bill include discriminitory
language it also included an amendment allowing the government to institute propaganda against
the American people. The president has vowed to veto this bill. No jobs were
created unless you count the military contractors rolling in effluent streams
of your tax dollars.
5-23-2012: Say it with me now: "The House is in recess
until the 30th of May. Must be nice to have so many vacations. Oh, how I hate
those
indolent
GOP swine."
6-1-2012: Another day, another abortion bill. This time the "Susan
B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act." Which
was designed to stop abortions based on sex or race. Seriously. It failed to
pass. Apart from that bit of nonsense the day was one long last-minute rush to
pass
bills
that pay the government credit card. No jobs were created.
6-4-2012: Last Friday three Democratic (Hahn, Kaptur, Tonko)
amendments to increase funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy
failed, while three Republican (Hultgren, Chaffetz, McClintock) amendments to
reduce funding of energy efficiency and renewable energy also failed. No jobs
were created.
6-6-2012: The House was not in session on Monday but on Tuesday
it spent the day amending water and energy bills, mostly shuffling money from
one account to another. It was not a job creating event.
6-8-2012: The House passed a bill to repeal a new exise tax
on medical
devices. The GOP refers to this as a "jobs bill". Another waste
of time as the Senate will not consider the bill. In the meantime the GOP is
still losing
its shit over incandescent
lightbulbs, voting to restrict funding for the application of energy-efficient
lighting (The GOP evidently believes that CFL's are manufactured in Hell itself.)
Job creation
was
not
in evidence.
6-11-2012: On Friday the House voted to cut funding for Open
World Leadership Center, the Congressional
Research Service, and the Washington
Botanic Garden. But, on the bright side, they voted themselves funds to print
some snazzy new pocket-sized editions of the U.S. Constitution to hand out to
constituents. As
always, no
jobs were created.
The House is in recess until the 18th of June.
6-20-2012: The past two days have seen nothing fancy from the
House. Just a couple of suspension bills and some laws aimed at American Indians.
No attempt was made to create jobs.
6-22-2012: The clusterfuck that is the Republican-led House
of Representatives spent much time dawdling over the transportation bill, the
only meaningful jobs bill under consideration. (Don't get your panties twisted
about the "jobs" part of this bill. This same bill must be extended
each and every year and the only time there's any opposition is when the president
is
black.)
No
jobs
were
created.
6-25-2012: The House adjourned on Friday, the 22nd. No jobs
were
created.
6-27-2012: The House was pro forma on Monday but was in session
until almost 11:30 Tuesday night. Nothing got done. They couldn't even agree
to name four post offices. No jobs were created.
6-29-2012: On Thursday, the 28th, the House passed several Homeland
Security bills, named a couple of post offices, and voted to hold U.S. Attorney
General Eric Holder in contempt of.... something, because the right-wing base
is screaming for blood and they must be appeased. No jobs were created.
7-2-2012: On Friday, the 29th, the House grudgingly passed the
Transportation Bill, which has never been a problem up until now, and mortgaged
the future of college graduates. No jobs were created.
The House is now adjourned until the 9th of July.
7-11-2012: The House spent the entire day Tuesday debating the
repeal of the Affordable Care Act. This is the 33rd time in 18 months that they've
tried this. According to the Congression Research Service these votes have cost
the tax-payers $50 million
dollars. For the record, the House has voted on exactly one jobs bill in
the same time period. No
jobs
were
even
remotely
created.
7-13-2012: On Wednesday, the 11th, the House voted for repeal
of the Affordable Care Act, then stopped to discuss golf. I
am not kidding. No jobs were created.
7-16-2012: Having failed to ACTUALLY repeal the Affordable Care
Act the House took Friday the 13th off, 'cause it's SCAAAAARY. No jobs were created.
7-18-2012: The House was in recess on Monday the 16th. On the
17th it passed both a Department of State appropriations bill and the Insular
Areas Act of 2011. (Insular areas are, generally speaking, small islands which
the U.S. claims for itself.) No jobs were created.
7-20-2012: The House spent the 18th and 19th debating the massive
Defense
Appropriations Bill. No jobs were created.
7-23-2012: The House spent the Friday the 20th debating the
massive
Defense
Appropriations Bill. No jobs were created.
7-25-2012: The House spent the 23th and 24th marking time until
the August recess debating various suspension bills (requires a 2/3 vote), one
of which prohibits the issuance of new regulations on business until the unemployment
rate falls below 6%. Need I add which party authored such a nonsensical piece
of tripe?
7-27-2012: On Wednesday the 25th the House voted to require
a full audit of the Federal Reserve. On Thursday the 26th the House spent most
of the day passing amendments for suspension bills, plus one whole hour to fix one
typo. No jobs were created.
7-30-2012: The House took last Friday, the 27th, off because
it was SUCH a tough week accomplishing nothing.
8-1-2012: The House was in recess Monday the 30th. On the 31st
they took votes on three bills. One was to reduce executive positions subject
to Senate approval and one was to make tax delinquents ineligible for federal
jobs. These were essentially job-reducing bills, so of course they both passed.
The third was an anti-abortion bill. It failed. Negative jobs were created.
8-3-2012: On Wednesday, the 1st, the House passed a series of
ho-hum suspension rules and eventually voted down a revision of the Bush tax
cuts that would have only taxed earnings in excess of $250k.
On Thursday, the 2nd, the House passed a resolution that said the government
should keep its grubby mitts off the internet.
The House will now be in recess for the next five weeks. Maybe.
9-10-12 & 9-11-12: The House is finally back in session
and the past two days have seen a flurry of voting on various bills, but they
all ended on the same note:
"Motion to reconsider laid on the table and Agreed to without objection."
Meaning "Okay, we voted for this turkey but we're going to give it old skunk-eye
once more before passing it along to the Senate."
9-12-12: The House passed bills to: extend the FISA Act, promote
competitiveness in American manufacturing (don't
get excited), and a land swap in Minnesota. No jobs were created.
9-13-12: The House passed nothing today, and for the first time
in modern history, in the midst of a terrible drought, the House will not pass
a Farm Bill. Not only have no jobs been created but our nation's farmers are
going bankrupt. No jobs were created.
9-14-12: The House reauthorized the Federal Insecticide,
Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, then limited taxpayer exposure to a 2005
Energy Policy Act. No jobs were created.
9-17&18-2012: The House took the first two days
of this week off, because they CAN. No jobs were created.
9-19-12: The
House approved: funding for Colordo fish recovery, Mescalero Apache's
right to lease water rights, passage of an Iranian boogey-man rule, meaningless
lip music to Georgia (Asia), a pancreatic cancer initiative, astronauts
right to retain personal artififacts, improved fiduciaries of veterans,
donations by tax-payers to the IRS, freeing dead veterans from educational
debt, change in interest rates for the Small Business Act, the tracking
of cross-border violence, aid to Burma, banned Chinese drywall, provisions
for a National Pediatric Research Network, and the easing of rules to
allow veterans to become EMTs. No jobs were created.
9-20-2012: The
House approved:
limiting the Secretary of the Interiors authority to issue regulations untils
December of 2012, plus several incomprehensible child welfare bills. No jobs
were created.
9-21-12: The House approved the "Stop
the War on Coal Act". I needn't remind you how pointlessly absurd this
bill was. No jobs were created.
9-24-12: The House took the day off. No jobs were created.
9-25-12: The House played a little game called "Hmm, I
wonder what they're doing in the Senate today?" Otherwise, bupkis. No jobs
were created.
9-26-12: The House took the day off. No jobs were created.
9-27-12: The House took the day off. No jobs were created.
9-28-12: The House passed three bills regarding privacy and
security issues. No jobs were created.
10-1-12 through 10-5-12: The House is taking the week off. No
jobs were created.
----------------
Sorry. No job creation here. In fact, if you want to really understand
what the Republican Party is trying to tell you simply insert
the phrase "corporate profits" every time they say "jobs".
I'll keep adding to this list until the Republican House does
something to create jobs but I unhappily predict this is gonna
be one lonnnnng
list. After all, you don't get rid of a sitting president by
helping the economy.
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