The White House says Boehner is getting defensive (Jason Reed and Yuri Gripas/Reuters)
The White House
offers its take on why John Boehner is
bellyaching about President Obama allegedly ignoring the Republican jobs plan:
"What I think it points out [is] that Republicans are coming under pressure from their constituents to do something on jobs and the economy, because again, one of the reasons they're coming under pressure, we're not just saying this is essential, their constituents are saying it," Carney said.
"The Republicans' so-called plan for jobs creators, while it might have some good ideas in it, free trade agreements, passage of NAFTA reform and some other issues, those same outside analysts are saying will have no significant impact on the economy or jobs in the near term," he continued.
The thing that John Boehner needs to figure out is that there's a huge difference between simply saying he has a plan and actually doing something about trying to get a plan passed through Congress and signed into law. And we still haven't seen a single piece of evidence suggesting Republicans have any interest whatsoever in doing that.
Oh, and while he's at it, maybe Boehner could try to convince his colleagues to embrace a jobs bill that would actually create jobs. According to independent economists, the best case scenario for what Republicans are now proposing is that their plans won't create any jobs. The worst case scenario? That their demand for immediate for austerity will destroy jobs, making things even worse than they already are. With a plan like that, Boehner would probably be better off if President Obama were actually ignoring it.