Republican presidential candidates assailed President Obama during last weekend’s Iowa GOP debate for his lack of economic principles and anti-business views, proven by the fact that his administration’s stimulus created more jobs in it’s first year than President George W. Bush did during both his terms combined.
Wait – that doesn’t seem to support their claim. And that’s because it doesn’t. Republicans continue to force their “failure of the Obama stimulus” lie onto a gullible Republican base, intent on debasing a president for purely political reasons and not for his accomplishments, or lack thereof as they seem to believe.
GOP leaders and legislators have continued to chant “Where are the jobs?” on Fox News Sunday programs and Teabagger rallies, all the while the stimulus has actually been creating jobs – 1.1 million in 2010 alone, to be exact. In contrast, the previous Republican president, George W. Bush, only managed to create one million jobs during his entire eight-year long tenure as chief executive.
So much for that Republican economic superiority.
True, Republicans took back the House during the 2010 midterm elections on those claims, but the claims were made up completely of false statements about stimulus failure and inaction from the president. All the while, these same Republicans were quietly applying for stimulus funds for their home districts (here’s looking at you, Rep. Michele Bachmann). No hypocrisy there, right?
Jobs: Bush vs Obama – 2008 thru July 2011 (click to enlarge)
Chief among the president’s critics has been Speaker Boehner, who’s weeping on the floor has greatly outnumbered his number of proposed jobs bills. In fact, Speaker Boehner has neither written nor sponsored any. Instead, the speaker has chosen to focus his influence on legislation that oppresses women, repeals health care reform (which actually increases our debt), benefits the wealthy, and smothers the American middle-class.
Even more mind-boggling is the legislation supported by Rep. Bachmann – the Better Use of Light Bulbs Act is sure to create millions of jobs nationwide.
Top economists continue to assert that a stronger stimulus would have created greater and swifter economic growth. Failure to achieve this lies squarely on the shoulders of the GOP caucus, who refused to compromise with the president and Democratic leadership unless tax breaks for the rich and corporations were preserved, arguing that anything else would be job-killing. However, ten years of these Bush-era tax cuts have failed to create jobs, as President Bush’s meager one million jobs created during his tenure proves.
Democrats must keep pushing – and reminding – the American public that the stimulus has been successful, and that President Obama’s 1.1 million jobs created in 2010 alone verifies that. As highlighted by the recent debt ceiling debate, a GOP-lead House has been devastating and creating all-time high disapproval ratings with Americans. Just imagine what a Republican-lead White House might do.
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