GOP Controls Congress Leading to Job Killing Legislation

Now that a bill has been passed that anyone who has taken Economics 101 class knows is doomed to make the economy worse than it is today it is time to look at who has had control of legislation since January 2009 and therefore, set the course of the economy.

In January 2009 the Democrats had a majority in the Senate and in the House.  However, the majority in the Senate was illusory at best.  As people learn in high school learn you need a majority of the Senate to vote in favor of a bill to pass one.  However, because of Senate rules a filibuster can be started and that will require 60 votes to end it and bring a bill to an actual up or down vote.  In January 2009 the Democrats had a 60 vote majority, but it was not really 60 votes.  Two of the greatest members in the history of the Senate, Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Robert Byrd of West Virginia were both very ill and did not appear in the Senate unless their votes were absolutely essential.  Also in the 60 vote group was independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, whose vote could no longer be counted to back policies of the Democratic Party.

This meant that the Democrats really did not have control of the Senate because on every bill with any so controversy one member of the minority would threaten a filibuster and the bill could not be brought up for a vote.  One only needs to see the antics of former Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning on the issue of continuing unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed.  Bunning had lost nothing off his fastball as he demanded spending cuts to offset the additional cost of unemployment benefits.

So clearly despite what it looked like on paper the Democrats really did not have control of the Senate.

From January 2009 until January 2011 the Democrats did have control of the House of Representatives.  Under then Speaker of the House, Nancy Peolsi, the Democrats were able to accomplish many things including passage of Health Care Reform.  In fact, she may have been the most effective Speakers ever.  That all ended in January 2011 when the Republicans regained control of the House.

Since January 2011 the GOP has had effective control of the entire Legislative Branch of government.  This has prevented the Democrats from passing any legislation that will assist the middle class or to raise revenues to help cut the deficit or more importantly to spend it to end the recession and get the economy expanding again.  In fact they have caused what will become a repeat of 1937.  And instead of attempting to enact sound legislation the GOP is stuck having to please a minority of its members, the Tea Partiers.

The GOP leadership is trying to satisfy the Tea Party, which prevented a less damaging bill from being passed that, would have increased revenues and should have been increasing spending in conjunction with raising the debt ceiling.  In fact the Tea Party’s actions have been described as a War on America.  This is the dog wagging the tail.

The GOP screams that raising taxes is a job killer.  They forget their history.  In the 1990s they said the same thing.  Bill Clinton and the Democrats raised taxes and there was a huge period of job growth and economic expansion.  The Clinton tax increase resulted in more jobs being created than the Bush tax cuts.  As with their war on science the GOP is also conducting a war on basic macroeconomic theory and history.

In November 2010 John Boehner said that job one for the Republicans would job creation.  However, the only job bills brought to House floor were bills that the Democrats somehow managed to force votes on.  All of those bills got not one single Republican vote.  John Boehner has said that he got 98% of what he wanted in Debt Bill.  Does that include the estimate of potentially losing 1,800,000 jobs because of this bill?

Mr. Boehner where are the jobs?

Since the GOP got 98% of what they wanted they will be responsible for all of the damage they created in the Debt Bill.  The Democrats will be able to say that the 2% that they got saved the economy from being even worse and did not make the Lesser Depression not as bad as if the GOP got 100% of what they wanted.