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Loading...Republican Transportation Secretary: “The GOP Doesn’t Care About Jobs”
Democrats have been saying for a while now that Republicans are trying actively to defeat the president rather than help the American people out of an economic slump. But now, even Republicans are starting to agree it’s true.
The latest? Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, the only Republican in the cabinet, who has grown frustrated by the endless do-nothing legislature. He told the Daily Beast, “I’ve been in Washington 35 years… and I’ve never seen a time when people have put their own personal political feelings over how we can get the economy moving…The crowd that was elected the last time not only came here to do nothing, they also came to put down the president. And the way to put him down is not to give him any kind of opportunity to be successful.”
So why does Congress seem to care so little about the plight of the American worker? Well, maybe it’s because unlike the average American, the net worth of Congressmembers has gone up 25% in the last two years. According to Roll Call, “Members of Congress had a collective net worth of more than $2 billion in 2010, a nearly 25 percent increase over the 2008 total, according to a Roll Call analysis of Members’ financial disclosure forms. Nearly 90 percent of that increase is concentrated in the 50 richest Members of Congress.”
Unsurprisingly, 78 percent of the House’s wealth is held by its Republican members. No wonder they are fighting so hard for tax breaks for the rich — no one likes to raise their own taxes.
Or, as one analyst so eloquently put it, “[Lawmakers] are all a lot richer than anything you would call a typical American.”
Read more: economy, jobs, republicans
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181 comments
+ add your ownSemantics, Pam, it is still ILLEGAL per our Constitution.
More dis-information from so many of you. President Obama is NOT the president of the U.N. Security council. The president is the HEAD OF THE DELEGATION from the Security Council member state that holds the rotating presidency. And they are rotated by Alphabet.
All of you ignoramuses who blame President Obama for everything will get crap if a Republican is elected next year. Unfortunately I would be subjected to the same abuse.
Zeke- a few more instances of Barrack's contempt for the Constitution: Hillary Clinton's appointment, his presidency of the UN Security Concil and his extorting BP (his buddies) to create a fund for people affected by the oil spill.
@Patrick F, - Continued -
Well, he's burned through over a Trillion dollars trying to create those millions of jobs and turn the economy around, without much success. If he can't kick start our failing economy with 20X more money than he said he needed, what make you think spending another 10X more than he originally wanted will do the job? You can't spend our country into oblivion and expect the economy to get our countries recovery back on track.
The Republicans aren't saying it will take until 2020 to recover the economy. The economy recovery would take much less time than that. The 2020 time frame is for balancing the budget and paying down the national debt. The Democrats have had THREE years without fixing the mess they got the country into. It's for Harry Reid to stop his obstruction of at least 14+ House passed bills he's been sitting on, and allow them to go to the Senate for consideration and a
@Patrick F,
I was just making a point that Obama is/was being bought and paid for by big corporations and wall street's elites, much more than the Republicans you leftsits seem to bring up so often.
Lest you forgot (or didn't know in the first place), the Democrats controlled both houses Congress, and were the one's allocating the money during the last two years Bush was in office. The unemployment started to really increase dramatically, the economy started going bad, and the federal spending became excessive and got WAY out of hand well after the Democrats took over Congress and started writing the budgets that allocated money to be spent. Bush also is responsible for the excessive spending during the last 1.5 years he was in office because he signed to approve the excessive spending. The excessive spending and unemployment rate continued to increase dramatically after Obama took office, with Control of both houses of Congress. It took Bush 8 years of spending to increase the national debt by about $4.3 Trillion. It's taken Obama and the Democrats less than 3 years of spending to increase the national debt by almost $4.7 Trillion, and it's still climbing.
Obama made a lot of promises including an unemployment rate that would never getting higher than 8%, and he was going to create a $50 Billion fund that would be used to trun the economy around and create millions of jobs. Well, he's burned through over a Trillion dollars trying to create those millions of
@Zeke S, - Continued -
The banks/lenders knew they could sell the risky and bad loans to the GSE's, placing any losses incurred directly onto the US tax payers shoulders. The GSE's would then bundle and resell the risky and bad loans to other financial investment firms, inferring the loans were good. The banks/lenders took their % for creating the risky/bad loans, .. the GSE's took their % for buying, bundleing, and reselling the risky/bad loans, and the financial investors took their % for the purchasing transaction of the loans. Everyone made a lot of money from the various bad transactions that were being made, and WE, the tax payers paid the price for it.
@Zeke S, - Continued -
Glass-Steagall was repealed by a bipartisan vote in Congress and Clintons signature. During the Bush administration, John McCain tried to get the Glass-Steagall Act re-inacted because of the bad business practices it repeal had allowed to start happening.
The Bush tax cuts gave every tax payer in The US, a tax cut. Most of you leftists only seem to remember the tax breaks the wealthy received, and don't seem to want to give his tax cuts credit for giving EVERYONE more money to keep. In fact, his tax cuts removed millions of low income families from having to pay any taxes at all, but I guess that doesn't count with you leftist either. Bush Tax cuts didn't cause the loss of even ONE job. Clintons signing of NAFTA, .. increased state and federal regulations, .. and high corporate taxes were the cause of businesses starting to outsource their production and services.
As stated above, the CRA mandates, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac were the primary cause of the housing and financial sector meltdown. The banks/lenders knew many of the loans they were creating were highly risky or bad, but wrote the loans to meet the mandated quotas the CRA dictated. The banks/lenders knew they could sell the risky and bad loans to the GSE's, placing any losses incurred directly onto the US tax payers shoulders. The GSE's would then bundle and resell the risky and bad loans to other financial investment firms, inferring the loans were good. The banks/lenders
@Zeke S,- Continued -
Watch the videos and then, you tell us what Bush and other Republicans were saying about the two GSE's and the financial sector. Research the Congressional records and you'll find the Republicans tried to pass legislation to stop the risky and bad business practices of the GSE's. Because the Senate threatened to defeat any such legislation, it was never passed. Your denying that fact is the HOGWASH being posted.
Yes, .. Fannie and Freddie worked fairly well UNTIL Bill Clinton:
* Signed the repeal of the "Glass-Steagall Act" (bipartisan vote in Congress),
* Amended Jimmy Carters "Community Reinvestment Act" (CRA) to remove virtually all requirements for qualifying to obtain home loans,
* Created Government mandated QUOTA's banks and other lenders had to meet (or be severely penalized) within the low income and poverty stricken areas of a community.
* Ordered the GSE's to buy any loans (even risky and known bad loans) a bank or lender wanted to sell them.
* Allowed the GSE's to bundle loans (even known bad loans) and sell them to Other investment firms as if they were good loans.
There was nothing solvent about the GSE's well before the meltdown occurred. They were holding huge numbers of bad loans, .. and had bundled and sold huge numbers of bad loans to the larger investment firms, putting them in jeapordy too. The deregulation you mentioned took place during the Carter and Clinton administrations. Glass-Steagall was repealed by a bipa
@Zeke S, - Continued -
~~~~~~~~~~~Some video's for you to watch~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Chart showing ways Obama circumvents Constitution al rewuirements to do things Congress won't approve, or to stop things Congress (or the Supreme Court) has approved, but Obama doesn't want.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/29973145/Obama-POWER-GRAB-Violation-of-US-Constitution
* Democrats on Iraq and WMD's (before and after Bush was elected President)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCVZlLBchVE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEIOtn1wk5g&feature=related
* Bush Admin warning of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the housing/financial sector meltdown.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPSDnGMzIdo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENBdqiMvJ7A&feature=youtube_gdata_player
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DUH!!! After 9/11, do you think there was any reason at all for people to fear the thought of the same thing (or maybe something even worse) might happen? Since the "Patriot Act" was bipartisan legislation, I haven't given my Constitutional rights to any party or administration. I don't like some of the things the "Patriot Act" has done, but no matter what you think about it, it's kept our country safe ever since 9/11 happened. That works for me.
As for Bush and the Republican warning about the problems with the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (GSE's), Watch the videos and then, you tell us what Bush and other Republicans were saying abo
@Zeke S,
Please point out the half truths and falsehoods I wrote about. I hope you do a little homework before trying to point them out. You obviously haven't done any research on your own, or you wouldn't be making the comments you did. You might want to take a look at the videos I've pasted links to below.
You want just one instance where Obama has violated (trampled) the constitution? Here are several.
* The passage of his health care plan by violating Constitutional/Congressional protocol.
* His takeover of GM, and him subsequently giving major ownership of GM to the union.
* His use of the vast majority of TARP and Stimulus money to pay back (and bail out) businesses and people who where some of his biggest campaign contributors and bundlers, while not supporting businesses and people who didn't support him.
* His ILLEGAL attack of Libya (without asking for, and receiving the approval of Congress, as required by the Constitution).
* His placement of troops in Africa (without congressional approval)
* His refusal to uphold and enforce immigration laws as required by the Constitution.
* His continuous use of executive orders and other means to circumvent the Constitution, Congressional law, Supreme Court orders, and the will of the people.
* Lawsuits he's been using to try forcing laws, legally created by States that enforce laws the federal government is supposed to, but refuse to enforce.
There are more instances too.
~~~~~~~~~~~Some video's for you
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