(Yuri Gripas/Reuters)
This is
rich. Here are the main bullet points of the newly released plan from House Speaker John Boehner plan for extending the payroll tax cuts, unemployment benefits and destroying the world:
- Extends Current Payroll Tax Relief, Protects Social Security
- Reforms UI Program & Extends Benefits for Americans Struggling in the Obama Economy
- Job Creation Initiatives
- Includes Two-Year “Doc Fix,” Further Defunds ObamaCare
- Reforms & Extends Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program
- Spending Cuts – Not Tax Hikes on Job Creators – to Offset Payroll/UI Extension
First, set aside the fact that never before have Republicans insisted that tax cuts be offset by cutting government spending. From there, understand that where Boehner says "reform" he means slashes benefits. For example, here's what they propose for unemployment benefits, as explained by Meteor Blades:
The GOP proposal could cut benefits that—in states with the highest jobless rates—now last as long as 99 weeks, to 59 weeks as early as summer. That would yank hundreds of thousands off the roles immediately and mean that hundreds of thousands of others would exhaust their benefits much sooner.
Oh, they say, their job creation proposals will take care of that. Those proposals? Trying to force the administration to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Never mind that the myth that it would create potentially tens of thousands of jobs has long since been debunked.
The State Department found that the pipeline would only create between 5,000 to 6,000 temporary construction jobs and only 20 permanent jobs (pg. 3.10-79, 80). Even the pipeline’s sponsor TransCanada has admitted that the pipeline would create no more than a few hundred permanent jobs.
They'd also block a critical EPA rule designed to reduce toxic pollution spewed by industrial boilers and incinerators. They call that "job creation."
What else would they do? They'd slash the funding for subsidies designed to help working families purchase health insurance starting in 2014. That's not their only Affordable Care Act target. They want to halve the $16 billion in prevention and public health funding in the bill. They'd also extend the freeze on federal worker pay, and means test federal retirees and Medicare beneficiaries.
Oh, but they want you to know that they're "protecting Social Security." There's a clue for what they intend to run on in 2012, hoping that no one will notice they sacrificed America's working families income and health in order to protect one-tenth of the 1 percent.