Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI)
House Republicans, currently blocking a bipartisan unemployment aid bill already passed by the Senate, used their weekly address Saturday to insist that they, and not Democrats, are the ones trying to
create jobs:
"Nothing is more important than preserving the American Dream for our kids and grandkids," Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said in the Republican weekly address Saturday. "That’s why Republicans are relentlessly focused on building a strong economy that produces good jobs and lasting opportunities. The trouble is, that task gets harder and harder each time the powers-that-be in Washington won’t act on a good idea," he said, before plugging a bill he pushed through the House to block state welfare. waivers.
Not just jobs! Good jobs, even. That must be why Republicans are pushing to raise the minimum wage, right? For good jobs? Except wait, they're totally not pushing to raise the minimum wage, they're blocking that, too. And by the way, if that state welfare waivers thing sounds familiar, it's because Mitt Romney tried to make it an issue in 2012—after he'd
used such waivers himself as governor of Massachusetts. Presidential candidate Romney's claims about the waivers were
thoroughly discredited.
Following Camp, a parade of Republicans took part in the weekly address touting similarly dubious efforts to pass bills that variously have nothing to do with job creation, make existing jobs worse, or claim to create jobs through different types of giveaways to business. You know what they only mentioned once? Obamacare. That's right, after their years of claims that Obamacare was a job-killer, and all the repeal votes that included jobs as a reason for repealing the health care law, somehow today when House Republicans talk about their jobs efforts, Obamacare barely comes up. That in turn is representative of the other "jobs" bills House Republicans can cite. None of it is real, and when people look closely, all those claims about jobs just sort of fizzle away.