GOP Agenda:
Everything Except Jobs

May 12, 2011

UPDATED: April 1, 2013

All Links Will Open In New Window

Prior to the 2010 election, jobs was the "GOP's number one agenda" - so they claimed (but their actions told a different story). Their rallying cry was "jobs", which was used to justify the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. However, as of the writing of this document, we haven't heard one single honest discussion about jobs.

Since the new Congress convened in January 2011, with the Republicans in charge of the House, not one single bill has been introduced that seriously addresses the growing unemployment in our country. But they've certainly addressed dozens of other issues, all of which promote their ideological agenda. As the DCCC put it, the GOP's plan for jobs is to start saying the word "Jobs" more often.

Then, in May 2011, House Republican introduced a bill (PDF) called "JOBS". It stands for "Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Services Act of 2011". Naturally it's being touted by the GOP and their propaganda networks as a bill that will actually stimulate jobs. But it does no such thing!

The bill does nothing more than permit states to use federal unemployment funds for things other than unemployment benefits, such as paying down the states debt.

The following is a partial list of bills the Republicans have introduced during the 112th Congress. Some have been passed into law and others were defeated. What you'll notice is there is not one single bill that addresses unemployment.

(NOTE: There may be some duplications listed. If so, they are few. However, the intent is to point out the long list of bills submitted by Republicans that is completely absent of any serious jobs bills, which doesn't include the hundreds of House Resolutions put forth by the 112th Congress. If you're not familiar with the difference in Bills and Resolutions, you may want to find out.)

The "Media-Reported" Bills

• House Republicans Have Tried To Eliminate Up To 7.4 Million Jobs In 2011
• John Boehner: This time we're really going to focus on jobs
• Republican 'jobs bills' aren't really jobs bills, according to economists


• GOP lawmaker offers bill to prevent Cyprus-like run on savings accounts
• Republicans introduce new bill to protect their freedom to restrict yours
• House Judiciary Chair Introduces Unconstitutional Bill To Permanently Abolish The Income Tax
• Extreme Makeover: GOP Edition - About 200. That's how many public laws the 112th Congress passed, a record of sorts. Consider that Harry Truman's "do-nothing" Congress managed to squeak through 906 laws, and the magnitude of the 112th's resistance and rigidity becomes appallingly apparent. Moreover, with the economy sluggish and the unemployment rate still hovering around 8 percent at any given time - and at 14 percent for African Americans and 10 percent for Latinos - not one of those laws was a jobs bill.
• Veterans jobs bill stalls in Senate
• Unhappy Anniversary: Republicans Have Blocked The American Jobs Act For One Year
• Report: House GOP Has Held 55 Votes On Anti-Women Bills
• Do-nothing 'jobs, jobs, jobs' Republicans still banning stuff that doesn't exist
• CHART: House GOP Holds 30 Times More Votes On Repealing Obamacare Than On Creating Jobs
• Senate Republicans to Block Bill Giving Tax Breaks to Small Businesses For Hiring
• Where are the jobs bills? The Democrats have them, but not Republicans.
• GOP Congresswoman Wants To Repeal Obamacare Every Day: We'd Do It 'Again And Again And Again'. But no jobs bills.
• 112th Congress: 28 Bills to Repeal Patient Protection Act in 11 Days, But Nothing to Create Jobs
• Rep. Cantor Admits House Republicans Have Not Been Focused On Jobs
• Republicans Holding Nearly 3 Million Transportation Jobs Hostage For 6,000 Temporary Oil Jobs
• Today in Congress: another pretend jobs bill; farm bill wraps up
• REPORT: Most Anti-Environment House Of Representatives In History Voted 109 Times To Enrich Big Oil
• House GOP Unveil Energy Package Of 7 Bills Mandating More Drilling And Rolling Back Public Health Standards
• House fails to pass not-'jobs, jobs, jobs' abortion bill, on purpose
• House to vote on bill to ban non-existent sex-selection abortions
• Republican agenda for summer: Tax cuts, Obamacare repeal, gutting regulations, gas prices
• Congress Has Nine Bills Pending That Would Weaken Derivatives Regulations
• House Budget Committee Votes to Break Budget Deal
• The GOP's New Sneak Attack on Abortion Rights - Buried in a Republican bill to give states more say over health care funds is a provision that would restrict how they spend their own money on abortions.
• AIPAC's Lobbyists Pushing Bill Today That Could Make U.S. War With Iran More Likely
• House approves tax-cut plan for small businesses
• Conservatives Criticize GOP's $1 Million-Per-Job Business Tax Cut Bill
• House Of Representatives Approves Cantor's $46 Billion Tax Giveaway
• Grant Program Supported Up To 75,000 Wind And Solar Jobs: Congress Killed It Anyway
• THE HELP EFFICIENT, ACCESSIBLE, LOW-COST, TIMELY HEALTHCARE (HEALTH) ACT OF 2011 (PDF) - But it's nothing more tha a medical tort-reform bill and to repeal the Independent Payment Adivsory Board (IPAB).
• Eric Cantor Unveils the GOP's Con JOBS Act - ...the "JOBS Act," a package of anti-regulatory measures and a whopping 20 percent tax cut for small businesses. ...would be another GOP windfall for the wealthy. Should be called "De-Regulate Big Business Bill".
• Four Republican Bills That Are Not About Jobs - Four Republican Senators - Thune, Toomey, Hutchison, and Brown - held a press conference today, to remind Americans about their job creation legislation. "Capital formation for our job creators?" Ooookay. What's that mean? And what does it have to do with jobs? Thune goes on to explain, after telling us that the bills in question all passed with bipartisan support in the House, that these bills were "designed to help that are designed to help our small businesses create capital." Didja catch that? It happened so fast that if you blinked you may have missed it. Thirty-eight seconds into the video we've gone from job creation to "capital formation" to helping businesses "create capital." At one minute and four seconds in, Thune explains that the bills in question are intended to "help our small businesses get access to the capital they need to create jobs."
• Anti-Union FAA Bill Passes Congress - The FAA reauthorization bill has passed Congress with its anti-union provisions. Once again big companies of the 1% were able to use their money and power to buy legislation that hurts 99% of us. And many Dems joined in.
• Like the Ryan Budget? Then You'll Love These House Spending-Cap Bills - ...two bills (H.R. 3576 and H.R. 3580) that would limit federal spending to levels similar to those in the budget of Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) that the House passed last April. These bills are part of a package of ten bills that Chairman Ryan and other committee members introduced to change the federal budget process. As our new paper explains, these two bills would disproportionately hurt low-income people, worsen recessions, rule out balanced deficit-reduction packages, and promote deep cuts in Social Security and Medicare.
• The House voted Wednesday to freeze federal workers' pay until the end of 2013.
• House votes to repeal CLASS Act - The Republican-led House on Wednesday voted to repeal a financially troubled part of the 2010 health care law that was designed to provide affordable long-term care insurance.
• The Republican House reaches new low in wasting time on pointless legislation - Another productive day in the Republican House of Representatives, in which not a single job was created. They had a full day of debate on utterly meaningless legislation.
• Republicans Want to Throw Kids Under the Bus. Literally. - ...transportation package [bill]... It's got everything that oil companies have asked for over the years and more:
• American Energy Infrastructure Jobs Act - "This is a jobs bill because it reforms the transportation funding process in Washington and removes government barriers that are getting in the way of job creation and long-term economic growth." Any bill that gives corporate American anything they want is always a "jobs" bill in GOP world.
• House Republicans will vote to keep people out of strip clubs ... but still no jobs bill
• Washington Lawmakers Introduce Bill Claiming The Dollar Is Unconstitutional - Washington state Reps. Matt Shea (R), Cary Condotta (R), Jason Overstreet (R) and Jim McCune (R) apparently believe that the U.S. dollar itself is unconstitutional because it is not gold or silver.
• The 27 Republican Bills That Aren't About Jobs - Most of the GOP's "jobs" proposals aren't really about job creation. Instead, the majority of the bills are meant to advance the GOP's radical deregulatory agenda, and many would sacrifice the health and safety of Americans for the sake of a bottom line. A large portion of the bills would have the effect of hampering the Environmental Protection Agency's prerogative to carry out its duties in keeping our air and water clean. One measure would undermine the federal government's ability to enforce coal ash standards that help keep carcinogenic chromium out of the air. Others would halt Cement MACT and Boiler MACT rules, which together will prevent thousands of deaths and health issues caused by air pollution. Other bills among the 27 are aimed at obstructing regulations more generally, proposing to dilute agencies' efficacy by adding bureaucracy and congressional oversight. Although it would be inconvenient for the GOP to admit, studies have found that claims about the burden regulations place on job creators is extremely overblown.
• In 2011, Congress worried about deficits and mostly ignored jobs
• House Commissioned Bust Of Winston Churchill
• Republican House of Representatives Put Profits over Public Health 191 Times and Counting
• SOPA, The Crazy Bill Everyone In Tech Is Worried About - it would "allow the U.S. government and private corporations to create a blacklist of censored websites, and cut many more off from their ad networks and payment providers." The US Government could block Americans from visiting websites. In straight talk, it would allow the government to decide who could have a website and who couldn't.
• House Republicans Push Bill To Ban Abortions Based On The Race Or Sex Of The Fetus
• House Passes Regulatory Accountability Act in Attempt to Make It More Difficult to Protect the Public
• House Energy Committee GOP Fights Imaginary Dust Ban
• House readies vote on Balanced Budget Amendment, another bill that's not about jobs
• Flouting States' Rights Principles, House GOP Pushes Radical Concealed Carry Bill
• Instead of jobs bill, restricting abortion rises to top of House Republican agenda
• GOP Rep Introduces 'Jobs' Bill That Would Completely Eliminate Corporate Taxes
• In Battle Over Job Creation Ideas, GOP Offers Deregulation Of Pythons
• House Passes Tea Party Light Bulb Joke By Voice Vote
• House passes sweeping GOP anti-abortion bill
• Repeal of the Democrats Health Care Reform followed by at least 28 bills to defund health care reform and the killing of other healthcare bills
• Reading an edited edition of version of the Constitution in the House
• Climate Change Witch Hunts
• Gut the EPA
• AARP Witch Hunt
• Witch Hunts on the White House and on President Obama
• CIA Witch Hunt
• Defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• Muslim Witch Hunts
• Redefining Rape
• Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT)
• Defund Women's Health Centers
• Repealing Medicare and Social Security
• Abolish Public Financing For Presidential Campaigns
• Repealing Financial Reform on Wall Street but introduced bill to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
• Defang EPA
• Kill Transportation Security Administration (TSA) union
• Repeal Net Neutrality
• Bypassing Senate and White House in passing a bill into law
• After supporting Bush II with 36 czars, House GOP introduces bill to eliminate Obama White House czars
• Slashing spending to 2008 levels
• Health insurance exchange funding repeal bill
• Medical Liability Reform - Limiting damages brought by patients who are harmed by doctors and hospitals
• Bill to expand offshore drilling
• Repeal of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
• Bill to delay new derivatives regulations
• Using high gas prices to pass energy bills that will do nothing to bring down gas prices
• Passing T. Boone Pickens natural gas bill which will benefit only the gas industry
• Bill to reduce funding to United Nations
• Government Shutdown Prevention Act which would make spending cuts "magically become law" if policymakers failed to reach a budget deal
• Reaffirming "In God We Trust" as the official motto of the United States and supporting and encouraging the public display of the national motto in all public buildings, public schools, and other government institutions
• Renaming a courthouse to honor Daddy and Dubya Bush

Additional Bills Submitted By GOP

The Anti-Environment Bills

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