Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 02:01 pm
In the lead-up to the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans, led by John Boehner (R-OH) promised their highest priority was “jobs, jobs, jobs,” and despite offering no concrete plans to stimulate hiring, the nation anticipated some kind of sweeping legislation to get Americans back to work. It is now the lead-up to the 2012 General Election, and Speaker of the House John Boehner says the American people want to know; “where are the jobs?” It has been a year-and-a-half since Boehner and Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and besides not producing any jobs, Boehner has revealed himself to be the most incompetent House leader in recent memory. What Boehner has accomplished, is attacking women’s right to choose their own reproductive health, attempted to pass legislation purposely designed to kill millions of Americans’ jobs, as well as push the Keystone XL pipeline to enrich the oil industry and himself. If the American people want to know where the jobs are, they can look no farther than John Boehner’s desk.
In a rare bipartisan move, the Senate passed a highway and transportation bill that saves 1 million construction jobs and creates 2 million more, but led by Speaker John Boehner, the teabagger extremists in the House are failing to hold a vote on the transportation bill to keep unemployment numbers high and damage President Obama’s re-election chances. What Republicans in the House did propose was an economically shortsighted bill that kills a half-a-million jobs next year alone. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said, “It defies imagination that the Republican leadership and chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee would turn their backs on the needs of our country and pretend it is good government.” Even the ultra-conservative U.S. Chamber of Commerce blasted the Republican version of the transportation bill as being “devastating to construction and related industries—materials, equipment, design, engineering. As important, in the long run, disinvestment results in a less competitive economy and a drag on GDP due to underperforming infrastructure.” In an even rarer letter to Rep. John Mica (R-FL), author of the Republican measure, two Democratic and two Republican representatives wrote, “Reducing investment in America’s transportation system at this time will have a negative impact on the construction, engineering, manufacturing and materials companies which are already struggling with high unemployment. Transportation infrastructure is one of the most cost efficient and effective ways to reduce unemployment and stimulate the economy. Studies suggest that for every $1 billion spent on transportation projects more than 35,000 jobs are created.” The Senate’s transportation bill, worth $109 billion creates 3,815,000 construction jobs and yet, Republicans like Speaker John Boehner are asking; “where are the jobs?” They are sitting on your desk Speaker Boehner and you cannot see fit to hold a vote on helping the construction industry, the hardest hit by Bush-Republicans economic catastrophe, by creating over three-million construction jobs.
Republicans in the House are refusing to hold a vote on the Senate’s transportation bill for myriad reasons, but chief among them are bicycle lanes, the Keystone XL pipeline, and their incessant attempt to kill as many Americans’ jobs as possible to keep unemployment numbers high. It is obvious Republicans want to prevent construction workers unemployed because they are primarily union jobs, and their aversion to bicycle lanes are rooted in keeping Americans guzzling gasoline to bolster the oil industry’s profits, but the Keystone XL pipeline obsession is a devious ploy by Boehner to manipulate share prices in Canadian tar sand companies and enrich the foreign oil market.
This column has reiterated several times that Boehner invested in seven Canadian tar sand companies in 2010 in anticipation of construction of the Keystone pipeline and it prompted the SEC to look into the issue of share manipulation based on their fallacious job creation numbers provided to the U.S. government that Speaker Boehner parroted without pause. Boehner and Republicans are well aware that the pipeline will only provide about 2,500 two-year jobs for pipeline construction specialists and that since the oil belongs to a foreign company, TransCanada, after refining in Texas the oil will be sold on the foreign market but, regardless, they are willing to hold hostage 3 million American jobs to enrich the oil industry and Speaker John Boehner. The presumptive Republican presidential candidate, Willard Romney, says if elected, he “would immediately approve the project if elected because of the construction jobs it would create and the oil it would bring from Canada.” It is no surprise that pathological liar, Willard Romney, touts the fallacy of construction jobs, or that Americans would ever see one drop of Canada’s oil, because he will say anything to win the presidency. In fact, in February, Romney promised that, “I’ll get us that oil from Canada that we deserve.” When Willard says “we,” he means the oil industry that has invested $3.5 million in his general election effort across the country, and that is in addition to the $200-million pledge from oil barons Charles and David Koch. It is astounding that to enrich one industry that American taxpayers already give $4 billion annually in subsidies and tax breaks, Republicans are willing to hold hostage 3 million construction jobs, but that is the Republican Party in 2012.
Americans should be irate that Republicans are deliberately killing 3 million jobs for any reason, but that they are holding them hostage to enrich big oil, Willard Romney, and Speaker of the House John Boehner is the depth of depravity. Boehner exemplifies greed and underhanded politics by asking “where are the jobs,” when they are sitting on his desk, and if the corporate media would do their jobs, the American people would rise up and end the Republican’s reign of terror and job killing agenda, but they stand to benefit greatly if a corporate whore like Willard Romney wins the White House. However, as despicable as Romney is, his corporate pandering pales to the incompetence of Speaker of the House John Boehner who continues asking, “where are the jobs” when they are sitting on his desk.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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