Has Boehner read his list of ‘jobs bills’? In every speech, in every op-ed, at every press conference, in every interview, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) always stresses the same talking point: House Republicans have passed a bunch of “jobs bills,” which those rascally Senate Democrats have ignored. When Boehner wrote an op-ed defending his prospective anti-Obama lawsuit, he stuck to the script: “The House has passed more than 40 jobs bills that would help. But Washington Democrats, led by the President, just ignore them.” When Politico published a recent piece on Congress’ inaction on the economy, the Speaker wrote a letter to the editor yesterday responding to the charge: “The House is listening to the American people and passing jobs bill after jobs bill. There is a list of about 40 on Speaker.gov.” I’m curious if Boehner has actually looked at the list. He should – it doesn’t say what he thinks it says. Last fall, the Speaker pushed a similar talking point, in reference to a separate list, but Boehner and his team have since come up with a more comprehensive, color-coded list, which is worth appreciating in detail because it speaks volumes about Republican priorities and definitions. Right off the bat, note that there are, in fact, 46 measures on the list of “jobs bills” already approved by the House. But the list includes six bills that have either been signed into law or endorsed by President Obama. When Boehner insisted that “Washington Democrats” have “ignored” all of the bills on the list, that wasn’t entirely true. But of the remaining 40 “jobs bills” on the list, very few can credibly be described as actual jobs bills.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 04:39:03 +0000
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