Republicans Openly Advocate Killing Jobs

The ups and downs of election cycles can be emotional, but I am not so naive as to think every year or every race will go the way I'd like them to go. Right now, I am still more optimistic than many about Democrats' chances this year, but obviously this is a cycle where we are trying to manage our losses, not increase our victories.

But there is one argument I keep hearing which leaves me frustrated and confused about the state of discourse today: Obama's policies are killing jobs.

That link goes to a PolitiFact debunking of Rick Scott making such an argument, but what bother me goes beyond the specifics. This is a corruption of conservative philosophy, and a distortion of the truth. If you disagree with Obama's policies, fine. Don't like how Democrats govern, fine. Throw the bums out. But the lies are creating a confusion within the electorate, and distorting people's basic understanding of government hurts the nation in the long haul.

The most frustrating thing to me is saying the stimulus destroys jobs. It does not. It does exactly the opposite. Americans for Tax Reform disguises this lie with a fancy study here for anyone who thinks politicians are more careful with their words than that. But the billions being pumped into the economy by the stimulus are intended to do one thing: create work. Yes, it is questionable sometimes whether those jobs are needed, but the spending sure doesn't take any jobs away.

Ideally, this is creating roadwork jobs on highways that have been neglected for years, or construction jobs building libraries in places that have been under-served. This is why Democrats voted for the stimulus when Bush's best idea was giving money away to banks.

(Reminder: Bush did the bank bailouts. But that didn't kill jobs either. It saved them. Just for the wrong people.)

But, you say, what about the taxes to pay for this? Well, taking a page from Ronald Reagan, Obama and the Democrats decided to just spend without taxing. Is there folly to that? Perhaps. But is there folly in waging two wars while cutting taxes? At least those cuts are set to expire. Obama didn't do that either, by the way. It was by Bush's design.

What would kill jobs? Cutting government spending. We are seeing that now in the many local governments around the country, governments who cannot spend more than they have in tax coffers the way the federal government can do. We lose teachers, postal workers, park rangers and more when Republicans tout their version of fiscal conservatism.

Deficits? Never before have Republicans had a problem with running up a deficit during times of war, much less two wars both created from the bloodlust of neoconservatives hell-bent on world domination.

Obama hasn't raised taxes. Obama hasn't killed jobs. If anything is it Republicans, under the guise of shrinking wicked socialist government, who are promising to kill jobs should take control of Washington. That is what "cutting bureaucracy" means, firing bureaucrats so that tax rebates can be given to people who are already gainfully employed.

Is this hyperbole? Call it that if you will, but it is no more so than when Republicans lie and say the stimulus is killing jobs, or that Obama's policies have stopped anything. I personally believe he hasn't done near enough to create more jobs. If that makes me a socialist, because what says socialism more than encouraging job creation and empowering people to participate in the free market system, then I take that label freely.