The Republicans have controlled the house for just two weeks (and still have a minority in the Senate), but when new job numbers came out that show the economy is growing and unemployment is falling, that didn’t stop the GOP from trying to take credit.
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyle (R-AZ) claimed that soaring corporate profits in 2010 were because of the passage of the tax cut compromise at the very end of last year. And House Rules Committee Chair David Drier (R-CA) says:
We can get our economy growing. And we’ve gotten some positive numbers. I think it’s in large part because we won our majority and we’re pursuing pro-growth policies.
What policies? The new Congress hasn’t enacted any major economic legislation at all. And corporate profits went up because corporations knew they would magically get future tax cuts at the last minute? Huh?
As TPM puts it, this is a “theory of economic growth that requires assuming the existence of a time machine.”
Meanwhile, the Republicans are making it clear what their “pro-growth policies” actually look like — corporate socialism and welfare based on which big companies donate the most money to Republican politicians. Plus even more tax breaks for the richest 0.2% of Americans. In fact, in the last two weeks the Republicans have introduced an astounding five separate bills that repeal the estate tax entirely, even though last month Congress passed a bill setting the estate tax to a relatively low top rate of 35% with a generous $5 million exemption per person.
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The GOP has had a time machine for quite a while, ever since they used it to claim that the housing bubble, financial meltdown, and current recession were in no way influenced by Bush-era policy and was actually rooted in Clinton’s and Obama’s decisions. Seriously, they’re really getting the hang of altering the time/space continuum. Maybe they should get a Nobel Prize in physics for the achievement. Or maybe Bullsh*t.
Jeff: what I found really funny about that is that Republicans have been blasting Democrats about blaming Bush for problems because Democrats have had control of Congress for 4 years. The story goes that if the Democrats thought that Bush’s policies were causing problems, they could have repealed them or gone against them, but they didn’t, therefore they can’t blame anyone but themselves.
You are right that they put the problem on Clinton and Obama, but also amazingly on the Community Reinvestment Act passed in 1977. I don’t understand how they can blast Obama for blaming Bush and at the same time blame the CRA for the meltdown. How many years have the R’s been in control of things since 1977?
It’s a time machine fueled by hypocrisy that exhausts flags and eagles.
I remember the Republicans blaming the 2009 budget’s soaring debt and deficit on Obama, even though it was passed BEFORE he took office.
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