The Republicans have been in the driver's seat for eight months, with an iron grip on the House of Representatives and an absolute veto in the Senate.
They have not introduced one jobs bill and have produced no jobs.
After their great victory in 2010, they promised that their magic formula of no stimulus spending, cuts, and deregulation would produce jobs.
They won the 2010 election demonizing the Affordable Health ACt and frightening old folks with the claim that the $500 billion in Medicare cuts would come out of their hide.
The election was about "jobs, jobs, and jobs," but they did not once produce their formula until the ballots were cast.
After the election, they kept all the Democrats' Medicare cuts in place, and no one in the media questioned them about it!
Republicans promised to generate many jobs by blocking stimulus spending, cuts. Blocking Obamacare and regulations would alsop help. These remedies would cure all of out problems. One wonders how many voters thought this would be the magic formula that was promised. It is counter-intuitive, but, in this age of panic and fear, most people seem willing to grasp at any straw.
Here is what happened:
I. ObamaCare was put on hold and not funded. Any employer who was worried about it should have realized it will not take effect for years to come. No one believes the Democrats will have enough votes in either chamber to implement it in the near future.
2. The process of defunding regulatory agencies across the board was continued and accelerated.
3. Appointments to regulatory posts were blocked, and not one financial regulatory agency has a leader confirmed by the Senate. The dreaded Frank-Dodd financial regulatory bill has been hobbled with a thousand cuts. The danger is that government will not be able to prevent another financial meltdown sometime in the future because the Republicans have short circuited this regulatory mechanism.
4. President Obama is trying to cooperate on deregulation and is cutting the regulations he thinks are burdensome.
5. Republicans have extracted budget cuts that hurt ordinary people. At the state level there have been cuts that many say cost between 600,000 and 900,000 jobs.
6. Republicans talked about passing trade treaties, but now they refuse to act on those same treaties after Obama asked for votes on them.
The simple fact is that the Republican program of deregulation+spending cuts+and no stimulus spending has been partially implemented. Granted the implementation has only been partial---they think there should have been a lot more pain for minorities, the poor, and the working poor----, but any reasonable person would think the program of pain, pain, and more pain has been given a fair test. We should be seeing a flood of the promised jobs!
The fact is that the Republican program has not produced a single job--except perhaps for eventually electing Rick Perry or Mitt Romney.
President Obama and the Democrats need to point out the obvious. The Republicans have dominated economic policy since January, 2011. They have even cracked tghe whip to enforce their power. They demanded the last word on the budget or they would shut down government. Then they demanded their solution on the debt ceiling or they would send the nation into default. Their irresponsible conduct even cost the nation its Triple A credit rating. While they madly abused their power, the Republican propagandists and mainstream media whores claimed the Democrats were being as irresponsible as the Republicans. Maybe that meant the Dems should have surrendered faster???
Now we need to see what the results have been.
Democrats cannot count on an ounce of honesty from the media folks. Democrats have pulled their punches so far ane even bowed to some of the nonsense about how cuts stimulate the economy. There will not be a change in public opinion until they start supplying facts every day that puncture the dangerous and destructive myths that now dominate the marketplace of ideas. This will take some courage and willingness to serve the long-term intersts of this great republic.
Progressives need to point out the simple facts that the Republicans now run economic policy, have had eight months to experiment, and have failed miserably.
The public is not quite ready for the obvious: Republican strategy is to prevent growth and jobs creation in order to insure a big win in 2012. The trouble is that they have been so successful that they might produce a second recessionary dip in the process.