A year ago today, Republicans began blocking the passage of the American Jobs Act. This is not a happy anniversary. Without Republican obstruction, the very jobs report that Republicans are crowing about as proof of the President's failings would instead show an increase in hiring and GDP.
On September 8, 2011..........President Obama laid out a series of policy proposals known collectively as the American Jobs Act. The plan included stimulus spending in the form of immediate infrastructure investments, tax credits for working Americans and employers to encourage consumer spending and job growth, and efforts to shore up state and local budgets to prevent further layoffs of teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public safety officials.
The American Jobs Act never became law....because Republicans opposed it from the start, blasting it as another form of “failed stimulus” that wouldn’t help the economy. (They ignored the fact that the first “failed stimulus,” the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, wasn’t a failure at all.) One month later, the GOP blocked the bill in the Senate, preventing the creation of more than a million jobs and the added growth that multiple economists predicted would occur if the bill passed:
–Moody’s Analytics estimated the American Jobs Act would create 1.9 million jobs and add two percent to gross domestic product.
–The Economic Policy Institute estimated it would create 2.6 million jobs and protect an addition 1.6 million existing jobs.
–Macroeconomic Advisers predicted it would create 2.1 million jobs and boost GDP by 1.5 percent.
–Goldman Sachs estimated it would add 1.5 percent to GDP.
http://thinkprogress.org/...
Yet Republicans have been tweeting, blogging and spinning all over MSM, relentlessly blaming the Administration for not growing jobs fast enough. To paraphrase former President Clinton - That takes some brass!
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The Republican's complete disregard and contempt for the American people could not be clearer. They're hurting all of us, lying to all of us, in order to defeat the man who has been fighting for us. Republicans have taken our lives and economy hostage.
At every job fair held across this country, thousands of our fellow citizens have stood in line for hours hoping to find work.
Thousands of unemployed waited overnight, camping out in their business suits and office heels and braving the tormenting heat in Atlanta to stand in line for a job fair Thursday. Authorities treated 20 people for heat exhaustion as they struggled to keep the line moving and get people moved inside.
The incredible turnout at the job fair comes on the heels of the state labor commissioner's announcement that Georgia's jobless rate rose.....
.... The line was full of hopefuls who waited for hours in a line that wrapped around the Atlanta Technical College where the event was held.
The For the People Jobs Initiative, hosted by U.S. Reps. John Lewis and Hank Johnson and sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus, is a series of job fairs and town halls at some of the urban areas hit hardest by unemployment and the financial crisis.
http://abcnews.go.com/...
Democrats create job fairs and policy to put people back to work. Republicans focus their efforts on keeping our people out of work.
We pay the price again and again for their economic and political malfeasance.
We need to constantly call them out for their despicable actions. Explain their actions to family, friends, neighbors and folks in the check out line. Contact MSM, write LtE and yes, diaries here.
When we're working on getting out the vote, we need to let people know just what the Republicans have been doing to them, their family, friends, communities, and states.
I'm past being angry about the repeated sacrificing of the American People on the Altar of Republican political expediency.
A party that consistently ignores the needs and wishes of our country's citizenry deserves neither respect or votes.
Public Opinion Snapshot: Public Supports Infrastructure Spending to Create Jobs
Conservatives claim the only way to create jobs is to cut taxes and spending, which will magically induce businesses to invest at a furious rate. The public seems to understand, however, that in today’s economic climate some spending might perform a useful role. One approach that meets with considerable public approval is spending on infrastructure.
In a just-released ABC/Washington Post poll, the public favored by a wide margin (52-33) spending money on projects such as roads, bridges, and technology development over cutting taxes as a way of creating jobs.
http://www.americanprogress.org/...
It's time to take them down.