There's no sign of Speaker John Boehner's promised "jobs, jobs, jobs." Instead, extremist teabagger Republicans are busily trying to take care of the already-rich, kick people when they're down, and further weaken the ability of those who do have jobs to strike against employers:
All around the country, right-wing legislators are asking middle class Americans to pay for budget deficits caused mainly by a recession caused by Wall Street; they are attacking workers’ collective bargaining rights, which has provoked a huge Main Street Movement to fight back.
Now, a group of House Republicans is launching a new stealth attack against union workers. GOP Reps. Jim Jordan (OH), Tim Scott (SC), Scott Garrett (NJ), Dan Burton (IN), and Louie Gohmert (TX) have introduced H.R. 1135, which states that it is designed to “provide information on total spending on means-tested welfare programs, to provide additional work requirements, and to provide an overall spending limit on means-tested welfare programs.”
Much of the bill is based upon verifying that those who receive food stamps benefits are meeting the federal requirements for doing so. However, one section buried deep within the bill adds a startling new requirement. The bill, if passed, would actually cut off all food stamp benefits to any family where one adult member is engaging in a strike against an employer.
The bill also includes a provision that would exempt households from losing eligibility, “if the household was eligible immediately prior to such strike, however, such family unit shall not receive an increased allotment as the result of a decrease in the income of the striking member or members of the household.”
Yet removing entire families from eligibility while a single adult family member is striking would have a chilling effect on workers who are considering going on strike for better wages, benefits, or working conditions — something that is especially alarming in light of the fact that unions are one of the fundamental building blocks of the middle class that allow people to earn wages that keep them off food stamps.
But here's the punchline: Striking workers have been ineligible for food stamps for years. (The only way a striker is eligible right now is if you met the eligibility standards before you went on strike -- and if you belong to a union, odds are, you didn't.) So not only are teabagger Republicans just plain mean and pandering to special interests, they're stupid to boot!
Their bill also rolls back back spending on government assistance programs back to 2007 levels, plus inflation, once unemployment falls below 6.5 percent. (Well, at least we know that won't be anytime soon!)
New Jersey's Rep. Scott Garrett, a teabagger hero, is also busy trying to slash funding for the SEC - but denies that he's doing it. (Says the fact that its spending has gone up so much since the market crash proves the agency has plenty of funding, thank you very much!) Oh, and he's one of the Republicans who voted against extending the budget.
He's also the guy who's pushing for every bill to show "constitutional authority" for why Congress has the right to pass the bill.
Rep. Jim Jordan, the other person who wants to kick voters when they're down? Was he working on "jobs, jobs, jobs"? Nope. He's chair of the extremist Republican Study Committee, a caucus that exists to push House Republicans Further. To. The. Right.
Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) wasn't working on "jobs, jobs, jobs," either. He voted against the budget extension, too. Instead, he introduced a nasty little states-right bill:
“Last week, President Obama made an unprecedented decision to declare a Federal law unconstitutional and thereby abdicate his own constitutional responsibility to uphold and defend that law. Activist judges, and now an activist President, have been trying to unilaterally define marriage for too long. This issue should instead be decided once and for all by the American people and the states.
“That is why I have introduced the “Marriage Protection Act” which simply states that no Federal Courts will have jurisdiction to hear cases regarding same-sex marriage. Instead, the definition of same-sex unions would be determined by the people through their State legislatures or via referendum.
And he also sponsored a bill that would strip President Obama "of his power to waive a law requiring him to move the embassy to Jerusalem."
Rep. Louis Gohmert? He's from Texas and the author of the famous "terror babies" story. A real American!
Last but not least, South Carolina's Rep. Tim Scott. The poor guy's really got to prove himself - first, because he voted for the continuing resolution that extended the budget for three weeks, but also because he's a black Republican. So he's a member of the Club for Growth, plus he just introduced the Rising Tides Act of 2011.
And what does it do, exactly? It cuts the corporate income tax rate by 10% on companies making more than $10 million annually.
Where on earth are those jobs, jobs, jobs?
