Republicans think their jobs problem is rhetorical, not substantive
Republicans are afraid that their pursuit of ideologically-motivated spending cuts is hurting them with voters who would rather see them focus on job creation. And their solution? Deliver more hot air (my emphasis):
National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn said there was concern that Republicans weren’t emphasizing the jobs issue in their rhetoric. “People tend to get focused on cuts and spending, but really the ultimate goal is to encourage the private sector to invest and create new jobs.”
“That’s part of what we need to do,” the Texas Republican told POLITICO.
When asked if the GOP needs to be talking more about jobs rather than purely cutting spending, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) replied Thursday: “Absolutely.”
“We have to remind folks about the dire situation that we’re in with the amount of spending that we’ve been engaged in,” he said. “But it’s absolutely correct that there’s a direct connection between that and job creation, and we do need to talk about that as much as we can.”
“The best way for us to make our point is for all 47 of us to go out in all of our speeches and talk about it, so you’ll hear us talking about No. 1 jobs, No. 2 debt,” said Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander, the GOP’s point man on the message.
Here's an idea: instead of dreaming up new ways to talk about their support for job creation, maybe Republicans could actually come up with a plan to that would actually create jobs.
For example, they could sit down with Democrats and work out a bipartisan plan to rebuild our aging infrastructure. They could work with the White House to develop an approach to move forward on developing and deploying the energy technology to sustainably fuel our economy. Better yet, they could do both.
Doing those kinds of things would put the country back to work while making critical investments in our future. But Republicans have no interest absolutely no interest in doing anything constructive like that, because ultimately, no matter how much hot air they spew, they really are on ideological mission.
