Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 04:39 pm
In the over 400 days since Republicans took control of the House, the GOP hasn’t passed a single job creation bill, but has passed bills that would kill 7.4 million jobs.
House Democrats has proposed 31 different bills to create jobs since Republicans have taken over, and all of them have been defeated.
Here is a partial list of some of the job creation bills that the GOP has said no to (via: Democratic Leader Pelosi):
An American jobs effort to end government contracts rewarding corporations that ship American jobs overseas. [Vote 19]
A measure to discourage outsourcing by denying the bill’s pro-corporation election rules for companies that ship American jobs overseas and leveling the playing field for workers in union elections. [Vote 868]A measure that places a priority on keeping jobs in America, protecting the authority of the National Labor Relations Board to order an employer to maintain or restore jobs in the U.S. that would be otherwise outsourced to a foreign country. [Vote 710]
Build America Bonds to Create Jobs Now Act – leveraging public dollars to strengthen the private sector, growing our economy by rebuilding America’s schools, hospitals, and transit projects, supported by American businesses, the construction industry, mayors and governors. [Vote 38, Vote 30, Vote 189]
American Jobs Matter Act – to give preference in federal contracts to U.S. manufacturers that create jobs here at home. [Vote 257]
National Manufacturing Strategy Act, to demand a clear plan to help manufacturers compete, invest in innovation, and put Americans back to work, which passed the House in 2010 with overwhelming bipartisan support. [Vote 279, Vote 721]
A measure to promote jobs and innovation at home, by prioritizing patent applications from entities that pledge to develop or manufacture their products and technologies in the United States. [Vote 490]Advanced Vehicle Manufacturing Technology Act to help ensure the cars of the future are built here in the U.S., by investing in a broad range of near-term and long-term vehicle technologies to improve fuel efficiency, support domestic research and manufacturing, and lead to greater consumer choice of vehicle technologies and fuels. [Vote 310]
A measure to support American Manufacturers by giving priority to any company that uses materials made in America for the construction and renovation of school facilities. [Vote 693]
A measure to protect at least 10,000 American manufacturing jobs and provide disaster relief to families and business owners: approving bipartisan disaster aid passed by the Senate without slashing Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loans that put people to work producing cleaner cars and investing in innovation. [Vote 715]
Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act to provide our government with effective tools to address unfair currency manipulation by countries like China, which could help create 1 million American manufacturing jobs by leveling the international playing field for American workers and businesses. [Vote 9, Vote 199, Vote 780, Vote 821, Vote 854] This bipartisan bill has 230 co-sponsors including 63 Republicans, yet the Republican leadership has blocked it. Democrats have launched a process to force consideration of the measure; that petition has 178 of the 218 signatures needed.A measure to ensure that American materials, rather than those imported from abroad, are used in the construction of new or existing structures for coal ash storage. [Vote 792]
A Make It In America measure that prohibits the Coast Guard from purchasing textiles or apparel that are not grown, reprocessed, reused, or produced in the United States. [Vote 829]
A measure for middle class families, directing the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction to eliminate subsidies for the five largest oil and gas companies and corporate jet owners, before gutting education initiatives that create jobs, spur growth, and invest in our future. [Vote 676]
A measure to protect jobs for returning veterans by preventing incentives for small businesses to hire returning veterans from being swept away by GOP deregulatory efforts. [Vote 879]
A measure to allow Congress to make job-creating investments, instead of automatically freezing funding for Pell Grants and education programs for students, job benefits for veterans and job training for all Americans, and life-saving health research. [Vote 31]
The Republicans refusal to create jobs is just one side of the story. John Boehner and company are also on a mission to reverse the course of the recovery and deepen the recession. House Democrats estimate that the GOP has killed 2 million jobs since they have taken over, and an analysis by Political Correction finds that the House GOP has tried to kill 7.4 million jobs in 400+ days. The House GOP’s ambitious plan would kill double the jobs in the Obama administration has created in the last 23 months by 2016.
One of the first acts of the Republican controlled House was to pass a bill to kill Obamacare. If this bill became law, it would kill 250,000-400,000 jobs a year. House Republicans passed a bill that would disband and defund the IRS, which would kill more than 107,000 jobs. The House passed the Cut, Cap and Balance Act which would kill 700,000 jobs. The House also passed a bill to 285,000 federal government jobs, but the biggest job killer of all is the Ryan Budget, which would kill 2-3 million jobs over 5 years.
The House Republicans claim that they have passed 27 bills that would create jobs, but are stalled in the Senate. However, a quick look at the list of “job creation” bills reveals that the legislation is nothing more than extreme budget cuts and an attack on all regulations, specifically environmental regulations. Interestingly, the House GOP also claims that their opposition to net neutrality will create jobs. There is not a single dollar spent in any of the Republican passed bills on direct job creation.
At the 300 day mark, House Republican had voted to kill 4.2 million jobs. If Republicans would have supported even part of the Democrats job creation agenda, millions of jobs would have been created. The American Jobs Act alone would have created an additional 1.9 million jobs and reduced unemployment by a full point. If the American Jobs Act would have become law, we could have anticipated an unemployment rate falling towards 7.3%, with no other economic growth included.
Despite their best efforts to prolong this recession the economy is recovering and growing again, but this list demonstrates that House Republicans are going to do everything in their power to derail our economic recovery before the presidential election in November.
If House Republicans continue on this path they’ll get their wish, but the jobs they kill will be their own.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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