Just the facts: GOP's Claim That House Passed 30 Jobs Bills? Bogus.

[Tennessee Gal]

I keep hearing this ridiculous canard in Republican debates and now from John Boehner about the alleged jobs bills the Republicans have passed that the "Democrat Senate" refuses to act upon. Since I watched the better part of their activity in real time, I know this is a lie. But most people aren't obsessive-compulsive about government and politics and might not realize just how much of a lie it is. So without further ado, let me debunk this claim made by the disingenuous Speaker of the House.

WALLACE: Question -- how will you counter that line of attack?

BOEHNER: Chris, 30 jobs bills passed over the last year in a Republican House of Representatives that are sitting in the United States Senate -- thirty.

Our focus over the last 12 months has been on jobs. Our focus over the course of the next 12 months is going to be on jobs.

The president asked us to extend the payroll tax credit, to make sure that we extended unemployment insurance with reforms, and make sure that doctors that dealt with Medicare patients were adequately reimbursed. And he asked us to do it for a year. We did it for a year. It was the United States Senate who decided, we're just going to do it for two months and we can't agree on how we're going to offset these costs. And so, we'll just kick the can down the road.

To make sure they back up their public claims with what might appear to be "fact", they've built a page on the House of Representatives site with a list of their so-called jobs bills, which number 27 and not 30 as the Speaker claims. What follows is a list and a brief explanation of why they are not jobs bills. Feel free to share it widely with your friends who might be inclined to believe Mr. Tobacco Lobbyist Check Distributor without questioning it.

http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/gops-claim-house-passed-30-jobs-bills-bogus

[louis-t]

1. Saved to 'favorites'.

Thanks.

[Tennessee Gal]

2. Welcome!

I keep wondering why this isn't addressed by the Obama campaign more.

[dennis4868]

3. and not one of their jobs bills

was sent to the CBO to estimate the # of jobs it woud create...hmmm...I wonder why?

[Tennessee Gal]

4. Because they are not jobs bills.

They are lying, AGAIN!

[randome]

5. This is like saying they did something about our energy needs...

...by fucking with Daylight Savings Time AGAIN!

[hfojvt]

6. it depends on what the definition of a jobs bill is

Most of that link would probably be refudiated by Republicans with one simple, easy to understand line - "over-regulation kills jobs".

Now take the EPA in my own little corner of the world.

First, on waste water, my city is being hit with a requirement, supposedly, to spend $30 or $40 million to upgrade the waste water treatment plants. This is likely to double everybody's sewer bill for the next twenty years. Nobody's gonna be happy about that.

But wait, you say, what about the pollution? We whiny residents just need to suck it up and pay instead of just polluting the Big Muddy. What is this horrible awful pollution which our city needs to remove?

Nutrients. Too many nutients in the waste water discharge. Oh the horror.

Of course, even nutrients, which sound like a good thing can upset the ecosystem of the river and cause problems, but another point is this - the discharge of the sewer plant is about 4 CFS (cubic feet per second). The normal flow of the river is something like 60,000 CFS. Making the sewer discharge something like 70 parts per million of the river water.

Now on the other side there seems to be an EPA regulation about water purity. To quote "The EPA promulgated the 'Stagre 2 disinfectants and disinfection byproducts rule" in January 2006. The long and short being that it could cost multiple millions to comply with that new regulation.

Not, mind you, that I am against clean water, but it seems to me that consumers could just buy water filters for the water we drink and that would be cheaoer than doing it at the water plant to make sure we have pure water with which to flush our toilets and wash our cars and water our grass.

Ultimately, the EPA is not very popular, and perhaps rightly so.

[GeorgeGist]

7. Spoken like an antisocialist.