GOP Plans to Sink the Economy

[babylonsister]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/12/michael-tomasky-on-gop-plans-to-sink-the-economy.html

Michael Tomasky on GOP Plans to Sink the Economy
by Michael Tomasky Mar 13, 2012 4:45 AM EDT

Every month brings improved job news—and bleaker prospects for the Republicans in November. Which is why they’re contemplating economic sabotage as their only hope.


We’re just under eight months away from Election Day now, which means that the GOP is starting to run out of time to think up new ways to ruin the economy so that Barack Obama doesn’t get reelected. The Republicans have to do this delicately, of course; they can’t be open about it lest it become too obvious that harming the economy is their goal. But they have to be aggressive enough about it for their efforts to bear some actual (rotten) fruit. There are three fronts—gas prices, jobs, and the budget—on which we should keep our eyes open for signs that the Republicans are trying to achieve Mitch McConnell’s No. 1 goal for America.

snip//

Lately, though, things are starting to look worrisome on that front for Republicans. In February, the public sector cut just 6,000 workers, well down from last year’s average. This indicates that the party might not be able to count for long on the public-sector numbers dragging down the private-sector ones. Hmmm. What to do about that?

Interestingly and conveniently, exactly what the Republicans on Capitol Hill are doing right now! They have been signaling lately that the budget numbers they agreed to with Democrats last year in the debt deal need to be revisited, and the cuts must be even deeper. Speaker John Boehner is open about the possibility of reneging. He has sent some mixed signals—he’s also talked about trying to get the House to accept a transportation bill that the Senate has already passed by the eye-poppingly bipartisan margin of 85–11. New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer says the bill can create 3 million jobs. The House returns to Washington next Monday. Where would you put the odds that this House of Representatives will vote, less than eight months before the election, to support a bill that Chuck Schumer boasts can produce 3 million jobs?

Every out-party does a little discreet cheering for the economy to be weak. But the GOP has put itself in a unique position. By opposing everything Obama wanted with such ferocity; by saying all those thousands of times that he had no clue about the economy; by sending out a parade of presidential candidates, from the semi-serious to the clown posse, all of whose central criticism of Obama is that he killed the economy—in all of these ways the party has more invested in economic failure than any out-party I can remember in my lifetime. Its best hope for now is gas prices, but even they eventually get lower, usually by late summer. Beyond that, all the GOP has to rely on is Mitt Romney’s unstoppable charisma.

[liberal N proud]

1. With the help of the Koch Speculators they might succeed

How Koch Became An Oil Speculation Powerhouse
From Inventing Oil Derivatives To Deregulating The Market

In April, ThinkProgress caused a stir when we uncovered a series of Koch Industries corporate documents revealing the company’s role as an oil speculator. Like many oil companies, Koch uses legitimate hedging products to create price stability. However, the documents reveal that Koch is also participating in the unregulated derivatives markets as a financial player, buying and selling speculative products that are increasingly contributing to the skyrocketing price of oil. Excessive energy speculation today is at its highest levels ever, and even Goldman Sachs now admits that at least $27 of the price of crude oil is a result from reckless speculation rather than market fundamentals of supply and demand. Many experts interviewed by ThinkProgress argue that the figure is far higher, and out of control speculation has doubled the current price of crude oil.

http://thinkprogress.org/report/koch-oil-speculation/?mobile=nc

[HopeHoops]

2. That's been their ownly objective since Obama took office. The birthcontrol thing is a smokescreen.

While it is most definitely an important issue, it does fill up the fluff news and keep it preoccupied so it can't break for time on the Congressional GOP duct taping all the windows and doors shut in case any REAL legislation escapes.

I doubt the duct tape they're using was even US-made.

[Kablooie]

8. Yep. Their only goal has been to insure that government fails under President Obama.

It's a tribute to Obama's strength that the government has accomplished as much as it has.

That's probably why the Republicans have been working so hard to make him fail.
They know how competent he is.

[Cosmocat]

10. In other news the Steelers beat the Cardinals in the Super Bowl

...

[HopeHoops]

11. They can't pull puppet strings like they did with the shrub.

[Botany]

3. Mitch McConnell: Top Priority, Make Obama a One Term President

They are on record as saying as much ...... where would the economy be if they (GOP)
hadn't fired all those government employees and teachers?

They have been betting all along that by hurting the American people they can hurt the
President. It worked in 2010 by suppressing the voter turn out.

[jwirr]

4. This should not surprise anyone. If they are not preparing for the Lord's return then they are no

longer connected by national borders - globalization ended the idea of borders in economy.

[WI_DEM]

5. What else is new?

[PuffedMica]

6. ?- The Republicans have to do this delicately -???

The Republicans have been sabotaging the economy full tilt since November 2008.

They are not even trying to hide thier obstruction anymore.

[KharmaTrain]

7. They Destroyed It In 2008 And Stuck Obama With The Blame...

When you listen to the rushpublican asshats, they all seem to have this black hole when it comes to the life and times of georgie w boooooooooooosh. They seem to forget it was on his watch that gas hit $4 a gallon for the first time or the market cratered to 6,500 (it's 13,000 now) and he was the one who did the biggest bank bailouts. Nope...all was sweetness and light before Jan. 20, 2009. Of course, these are the same hypocrites who claimed boooooooooosh really didn't take office until 9/12/2001 as anything wrong that happened before that was Clinton's fault. Convenient ain't it.

The boooooooooosh cabal was so corrupt they only cared about themselves and not a hoot about who followed. If anything, they left landminds for whomever would take over as booooooooosh had no love for Gramps McCain and he and his ilk knew that it would take years to dig out of the hole they stuck the country in. But they didn't care...they got their 8 years of plundering in.

Now there's a new group who wants to plunder...and they'll do all they can to blame every economic ill on President Obama...

[patrice]

9. I wonder if the PROFESSIONAL "Left" gets it now, though I suppose they always did, otherwise how

could they do what they were doing.