The GOP's 2014 Message: Obama Isn't Creating Jobs for Some Reason

[DonViejo]

PHILIP BUMP

As President Obama heads to North Carolina to unveil a new jobs program, Republicans are gearing up to attack the slow economic recovery from now until the elections in November. Perhaps we shouldn't expect broad bipartisanship on the job creation front.

In a meeting with his caucus on Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner unveiled polling that had good news for his party: for the first time, Americans consider the sluggish economy to be Obama's fault, not George W. Bush's. The Hill reports that the party's pollster found that at the end of 2012:

53 percent of voters said “policies of the past” were causing the nation’s economic problems, while 44 percent blamed policies “of the present.” Polling in November 2013 found those numbers largely reversed; 41 percent blame the policies of the past, while 49 percent blame current policies.

("Policies of the past" is Boehner-speak for "Bush.&quot And since Obama can't blame Bush, he, according to Beohner, has "chosen to talk about rising income inequality, unemployment, and the need to extend emergency unemployment benefits." None of which has to do with improving the economy, apparently.

So Republicans plan to talk about what Rep. Tim Huelskamp evocatively dubbed the "Obummer economy" (with hashtag, of course). "Republicans believe they can exploit the underlying weakness of the job market," The Hill says, "and argue voters should expect a better economic recovery than they are seeing under President Obama’s watch." They plan to make that case, "coupled with repeated attacks on the healthcare law" (which The Hill calls "Obama-Care&quot to wear down support for Democratic incumbents.

more
http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/01/gops-2014-message-obama-isnt-creating-jobs-some-reason/357035/

[DetlefK]

1. "My dear Americans: "

"I am so sorry that no job-creating bill has made it to my desk. But you can stay assured that the House will do whatever it can to lower taxes and to repeal the Affordable Care Act."

[JoePhilly]

2. ... "while outlawing abortion in all cases."