H.R. 2608 - THE CALLOUS REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE IS ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL

House Republicans have sunk to a new all time low.  Violating their much ballyhooed transparency rules Republicans pitted auto workers against the victims of natural disasters.  No one wins. An expression from my youth comes to mind.  "Robbing St. Peter to pay St. Paul" is an idiom about making choices, stretching money, and making ends meet.  Once again Republicans want to make ends meet by making the economy worse, killing more jobs, and not bothering their rich patrons.

The bill is H.R. 2608, the Small Business Program Extension and Reform Act of 2011.  Republicans chose this as the vehicle to increase funding for FEMA to pay for our national obligation to respond to natural disasters.  H.R. 2608 isn't a new kid on the block.  Missouri Republican Sam Graves introduced it on July 21st with New York Democrat Nydia Velázquez.  Five days later the bill passed the House and was sent to the Senate.  On July 28th the Senate passed an amended version of the bill and returned it to the House.

To Representative Velázquez's credit, she did not vote for the bastardized version of H.R. 2608. 

On September 21st the bill failed to pass the House.  Democrats opposed the drastic cuts being imposed by the Republicans looking for heartless ways to pay for the additional FEMA funding.  Tea Party Republicans opposed the bill that day because it did not contain enough heartless ways to pay for the additional FEMA funding.

On September 21st the cuts included repeal of the Central European Small Business Enterprise Development Commission, the Paul D. Coverdell Drug-Free Workplace Program, the Pilot Technology Access Program, the Small Business Institute; AND FROM THE NATIONAL VETERANS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, the following are repealed: Lease Guarantees and Pollution Control.--Part A of title IV of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958, Alternative Loss Reserve.--Paragraph (7) of section 508(c) of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958, Small Business Telecommuting Pilot Program - .--Subsection (d) of section 1203 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.  Finally, THE ONGOING REPUBLICAN ASSAULT ON COLLEGE STUDENTS CONTINUES with the gutting of the Emerging Leaders Program, which provides for competitive federal internships transitioning the best and brightest American college and university students from academia to their eventual careers.

Yet those intent on destroying the fabric of the Republic said these cuts did not cut deeply enough.  So an another astounding Republican vote favoring advancement of China's new green alternative energy industry and favoring jobs in China over jobs in America came last night.  Representative Norm Dicks [D-Wa] said Republicans "take $1.5 billion from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing [ATVM] program at the Department of Energy to pay for $1 billion in disaster relief, disaster and emergency relief."  That program, according to Dicks has created 39,000 jobs in California, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, and Tennessee.  Many of those jobs are in Sam Graves' District.

Dicks went on to defend the ATVM program. 

By the way, the company in question, Tesla, employed about 400 workers before receiving the loan. Today, they have 1,400 employees in the fields of engineering research and development, design, manufacturing, assembly, maintenance, service, sales, and support.


The ATVM program has an additional 18 loan applications in progress that are projected to create 50,000 to 60,000 more jobs, in total, in California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio. One pending application would support investments at 11 plants in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The company employs over 56,000 workers, and they are adding nearly 9,000 new workers since 2009. Some of the jobs will be at risk by using this offset.

So this is the Republican plan, defeat President Obama by driving up the unemployment rate.  Burn the seed corn.  Take $1.5 Billion from a job creating program [creating private sector jobs] and use that to pay for $1 Billion in FEMA funding.  Kill tens of thousands of jobs.

The Republican tax policy favors the wealthiest Americans, those Americans are not job creators.  If they were, with a decade of Bush Era tax cuts and Wall Street Deregulation, we'd be at full employment.  Now the Republicans are proving that they are the JOB DESTROYERS!

Somewhere, somehow, this callous Republican Conference has managed to channel the ghost of the great French Princess.  "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" which translates to "Let them eat cake" expressing the lack of care and compassion this callous Republican Conference has for the victims of their economic policies.  When things are bad you can count on these Republicans to make them worse.