Commentary: ‘RepubLiars’ do not want pre-election job growth
We cannot solve our nation’s daunting problems with tedious repetition of half-truths, fabrications and discredited policies that held sway during a period of six years when Republicans had full control of both Congressional houses and the White House.
GOP policies brought our economy to its knees — policies that have decimated, and continue to decimate, what remains of our middle class. No matter what the RepubLiars say, the “Jobs Bill” is calculated to create 1.9 million jobs by nonpartisan analysts, not zero jobs as stated in a recent letter by Anita Meister-Boyd.
However, their agenda, unambiguously enunciated by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), is to deliberately sabotage the economy for partisan political gain in 2012. And to prove it, here is what they have done since gaining a huge majority in the House and several state governorships, by promising the American people in 2010 that their agenda was going to be jobs, jobs, jobs:
1.) Worked on legislation to deny women’s constitutional right to their reproductive health
2.) Worked on legislation to harass Planned Parenthood
3.) Worked on legislation to defund NPR
4.) Worked on legislation to defund EPA
5.) Blocked the implementation of laws passed under the Dodd-Frank bill to protect consumers
6.) Blackmailed the president into concessions before agreeing to raise the debt limit and causing an embarrassing lowering of the nation’s credit rating
7.) Blackmailed the president into concessions before agreeing to a continuing resolution to fund our troops and other branches of government
8.) Affected a temporary loss of 40,000 jobs through delaying funding of FAA
9.) Worked on destroying the U.S. Postal Service as we know it, and the associated destruction of 100,000 jobs
10.) Worked on eliminating Medicare as we know it
11.) Orchestrated attacks on public-sector unions in dozens of states with the goal of decimating the Democratic Party’s donor base
12.) Orchestrated attacks on voting rights against seniors, students and minorities in dozens of states with the goal of Democratic voter suppression
13.) Conducted witch hunts against American citizens of the Muslim faith even in the face of opposition from our Homeland Security
14.) Obstructed legislation in the Senate through indiscriminate abuse of the filibuster, making a mockery of majority rule
15.) Refused even to bring the jobs bill up for a vote, even though 68% of all Americans and 53% of Republicans support it
There is not much that those outside the Republican power base can do to affect this shameful, un-American, almost-treasonous behavior of Republican elected officials impacting the livelihood of millions of our citizens.
It is time for fair-minded adults, elder statesmen and patriotic Americans who identify themselves as members of the Grand Old Party send a message to their leaders that “enough is enough” and pass the damn bill!
JAMSHED DASTUR lives in Newport Beach.