By now, we have all heard of Boehner's not-very-clever scheme to sue President Obama over the use of Executive Orders.
Coincidentally, it has resulted in quite some ridiculous GOP-style contradictions. Of course, the first one being the lawsuit itself, which faults Obama for delaying the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, when House Republicans have voted some 50 times to delay or repeal the ACA. Then there's the recent development where the House failed to pass their border bill, which led to Boehner calling on President Obama to take action without Congress, even though he is suing President Obama for taking action without Congress.
Of course, the whole reason the lawsuit is even an issue is because the GOP's conservative base really wants to impeach Obama, which is actually politically dangerous for Republicans. So the unprecendented move of suing the President seemed like a plausible solution.
Or so they thought.
As time passes, it is becoming obvious that these political stunts are backfiring on the Republican Party, which at this critical time of an imminent offyear election, is a valuable opportunity Democrats can't afford to waste. So long as Obama keeps flexing his executive muscle, getting things done, he will continue to build up the resume needed to prove that he is seriously tackling the problems facing our nation. And so long as Republicans refuse to do anything about it in Congress, they can't even take credit for any of it, other than resorting to their ridiculous sueing/impeaching gambit.
Using executive action to address immigration has been a deft political strategy. Congressional Republicans have been trying to move forward on immigration reform, despite obstruction from the Tea Party, for over a year now. It was clearly a political necessity, as Republicans have been losing at their rebranding campaign, and needed some action to temper some of the damage they have been doing to their brand. At the same time, calls from their base to impeach Obama have been growing, and Obama's actions on immigration only fan those flames. But impeachment is incredibly unpopular, so clearly, Obama holds the advantage here.
but I think there is one more avenue President Obama should visit with the use of his executive actions. One that will hit Republicans right in the bread basket, and could destroy their hopes of 2014 victory:
Stimulate Job Growth.
As much as we like to point to how the economy has been recovering, and all the good news that points to how strong the economy is getting, it is still far from where it could be. Sure, the economy is growing, but relatively speaking, it is quite slow growth.
There are still almost 10 million unemployed. This large unemployment force drags down our economy in a lots of ways. We have a lot of employees working jobs that are below their qualification levels. We have a lot of employees facing competition for their jobs from the huge army of unemployed, making them less likely to fight for better wages or conditions. And these people out of work are not contributing as much to the economy, both in providing productivity and in providing consumption by way of spending their earnings.
I would even argue that a lot of the action taken to raise the minimum wage (though based on its political popularity, should always be on the table anyways) would be unnecessary if we had a New Deal-esque jobs program running. After all, just using supply-demand, with a higher supply of jobs available, demand for the lowest paying jobs go down, and employers will be pressured to raise wages anyways to attract employees. Plus, they can't as easily use the threat of easily firing and replacing the workers with someone cheaper, when the labor force is closer to full employment.
Simply put, finding jobs for many more of these people would not only spur a quicker economic recovery, but it would likely energize our blue collar base voters to show up at the polls, because government is finally doing something to put them to work, but also suppress the dissatisfaction voters who like to lash out at sitting Presidents during weak economic times.
Of course, we all know what is standing in the way of a real jobs bill: Republican obstruction in Congress.
But here we have a great opportunity. Republicans have already lambasted Obama for using executive overreach. What has he got to lose now? What are they going to do other than simply threatening to sue him, threatening to impeach him? Actually carrying out those threats? If there was ever a time for Obama to find a way to stimulate job growth without cooperating with Congress, that time is now.
And seriously, have any of these Republicans actually given it any thought as to if these bizarre plots actually succeeded? In their best case scenario, Obama is forced to step down as President, but then he'd just be replaced by Joe Biden for the rest of the term. And who doesn't love them some Biden?
But then here's another hypothetical. Say Obama is able to use his executive powers to implement aggressive jobs programs as I am proposing in this post. Naturally, Republicans will find some way to object; perhaps they legislatively block some of the action, perhaps they continue down the legal avenues of suing or impeaching Obama. Either way, we are then left with the scenario reversed, where now Republicans have opened themselves to being attacked for taking away jobs. Much like they have tried to raise the charge of Obama taking away people's health plans, now they will be the ones put in the place of coming down on the side of taking away people's jobs. Going against one of their core talking points.
Either way, Republicans are left looking as impotent as ever, both for being unable to enact any of their own jobs initiatives, and being unable to stop Obama from doing it himself. And even if they are able to stop Obama, then they are left with the political anchor aroung their necks of having taken away people's jobs.
We cannot afford to ignore the economy. In an offyear election, the importance of the economy and the public's perception of it cannot be overstated. Sure, Democrats have plenty of ammo this year to use to attack Republicans and energize their voters. But offyear elections offer no room to relax. Now is the time to be hitting them with all we've got, and attacking them with jobs is one political weapon that must absolutely be part of the arsenal.
So, I call on President Obama to use his executive powers to spur job growth in any and every way that is feasible.
Hire more teachers. Hire more IRS agents. Put some of your infrastructure plans into action. Fund some basic research. The economy should not be adding 200,000 jobs a month, it should be adding 200,000 jobs a week.
The political risks are ridiculously small. The political gains are outrageously high. And in the end, Obama will be doing something amazingly awesome for a lot of Americans. He will be giving people who desperately need it a chance at making a living once again.