Would the Republicans sabotage the economy for political gain?

[Billy000]

The unemployment extension bill might not have any Republican votes in the Senate and House Majority Leader Cantor said he will not bring a bill to the floor for a vote. The reasons the Republicans give for opposing extending unemployment benefits for 3 months are wide and varied. Could the primary reason for the opposition be to blame the Democrats for a bad economy? In other words, would the Republicans sabotage the economy for political gain?

I think they would. I think some of them truly believe extending those benefits harms the enonomy even though they are wrong. Others do know extending is the right thing to do and really are sabotaging the economy for political gain. They want to put that job growth to an end just to embarrass Obama.

 

[dblack]

Republicans have been rooting for failure since Obama was elected.

I didn't support Obama, but if the president succeeds, America succeeds. I don't care who is president, or which side of the aisle they are on. I want America to succeed. It doesn't matter what policies bring us to that point, or which party proposes them.

How are you defining success?

I define success as policies with proven positive results. Obama has accomplished very few, but the GOP hasn't done much better. They have become the party of idea opposition. Not the party of opposition ideas.

Hmmmm. Well, the reason I ask is that policies DO matter. I mean, it's possible that legalizing slavery would give the economy a much needed boost, but I assume you wouldn't sign off on that. Many of us oppose Obama's policies on principle (ACA for example), because we think they violate fundamental human rights. That's not being "obstructionist", it's just a matter of having different values.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

The unemployment extension bill might not have any Republican votes in the Senate and House Majority Leader Cantor said he will not bring a bill to the floor for a vote. The reasons the Republicans give for opposing extending unemployment benefits for 3 months are wide and varied. Could the primary reason for the opposition be to blame the Democrats for a bad economy? In other words, would the Republicans sabotage the economy for political gain?

Let’s just say that since the president took office republicans have not been the most supportive of measures and policies designed to hasten economic recovery.

 

[francoHFW]

Or let's say Pubs have blocked EVERYTHING, even their own ideas lol...Pub dupes.

 

[RandomVariable]

What brought me to start the thread was I was watching a video of Cantor and Hoyer speaking on the House floor about what would be brought for a vote in the coming weeks. Hoyer asked Cantor if the unemployment benefit extension bill would be one of those bills. Cantor gave a glancing no and proceeded to talk about job training programs. Having watched hours of budget debate in committee about a year ago I know Republicans would go no where near passing a jobs training bill. Basically Cantor said he thought absolutely nothing should be done for no one, and being the House Majority Leader nothing will be done.

 

[Borillar]

The unemployment extension bill might not have any Republican votes in the Senate and House Majority Leader Cantor said he will not bring a bill to the floor for a vote. The reasons the Republicans give for opposing extending unemployment benefits for 3 months are wide and varied. Could the primary reason for the opposition be to blame the Democrats for a bad economy? In other words, would the Republicans sabotage the economy for political gain?

Of course they are. They've been doing it the minute Obama won the election.

 

[RandomVariable]

Also the OP is a sock for either Rdean or Jake Starkey

I vote for Jake. I've never seen anything from rdean that indicates he's even half clever enough to pose a semi-literate query.

Do socks get to vote?

 

[Shrimpbox]

Let's make it real simple. Anyone who has gotten 99 weeks of unemployment compensation doesn't deserve a penny more. So now repubs are bad people because they are resisting spending more money for more govt programs. How many programs already exist for job training? And a better question would be how many of those programs have been wildly successfull. And another better question is how are they going to get a job once trained in this labor market. No this debate can't see the forest for the trees.

 

[BobPlumb]

Republicans have been rooting for failure since Obama was elected.

I didn't support Obama, but if the president succeeds, America succeeds. I don't care who is president, or which side of the aisle they are on. I want America to succeed. It doesn't matter what policies bring us to that point, or which party proposes them.

How are you defining success?

I define success as policies with proven positive results. Obama has accomplished very few, but the GOP hasn't done much better. They have become the party of idea opposition. Not the party of opposition ideas.

The republican ideas are pilling up on Harry Reid's desk.

 

[BobPlumb]

The unemployment extension bill might not have any Republican votes in the Senate and House Majority Leader Cantor said he will not bring a bill to the floor for a vote. The reasons the Republicans give for opposing extending unemployment benefits for 3 months are wide and varied. Could the primary reason for the opposition be to blame the Democrats for a bad economy? In other words, would the Republicans sabotage the economy for political gain?

I think they would. I think some of them truly believe extending those benefits harms the enonomy even though they are wrong. Others do know extending is the right thing to do and really are sabotaging the economy for political gain. They want to put that job growth to an end just to embarrass Obama.

If extending unemployment benefits are good for the economy, let's extend them indefinitely.

 

[RandomVariable]

One last thought before I return tomorrow. There are many doors on a hospital. One set of doors is marked Emergency. The unemployment benefit extension is an emergency bill. Created because people need it now. Hopefully if one arrives in the emergency room one is not asked for payment up front. One will have to pay but hopefully that can be worked out after the immediate medical care is given. The other thing is while the patient is lying on the table with the ER staff all running around the doctor from the rehabilitation department does not come in to see how the person's sore knee is doing. This is exactly what the Republicans are trying to do. Maybe they believe if the patient waits in the lobby long enough they will go back out the front doors and not be a bother any more. That is what the unemployed are to them, a bother.

 

[blackhawk]

Has continuing to extend unemployment benefits helped the economy? The state of the economy suggest it has not but then again continuing polices that don't work or work poorly is the hallmark of Washington.

 

[Kosh]

The far left has already sabotaged the economy for political gain and it is going to cost them the next few elections.

 

[Indeependent]

The far left has already sabotaged the economy for political gain and it is going to cost them the next few elections.

Is there another "Left" besides the "Far Left"?

 

[Steven_R]

The far left has already sabotaged the economy for political gain and it is going to cost them the next few elections.

Like it matters. Republicans take control and pass legislation that sucks and they get voted out for a while. Democrats take control and use the opportunity to pass legislation that sucks and then they get voted out for a while. Repeat ad naseum.

It's a game to the two parties and they know the pendulum will eventually swing back and they'll no longer be the minority party in time.

 

[S.J.]

Would the Republicans sabotage the economy for political gain?

I think you're confusing Republicans with Democrats. If you meant to say "Democrats" instead of "Republicans", the answer is yes. Not only WOULD they, but they HAVE been for the past 5 years. If you meant what you said, the answer is no.

 

[Wry Catcher]

The unemployment extension bill might not have any Republican votes in the Senate and House Majority Leader Cantor said he will not bring a bill to the floor for a vote. The reasons the Republicans give for opposing extending unemployment benefits for 3 months are wide and varied. Could the primary reason for the opposition be to blame the Democrats for a bad economy? In other words, would the Republicans sabotage the economy for political gain?

In a word, YES! The GOP is focused on winning the White House, and having a majority in the H. of Rep and the Senate so as to pack the Supreme Court with activists judges and finish the work of making the United States into a Plutocracy.

 

[rdean]

This is not a serious question. Everyone knows the answer. When it's no problem for Republicans to hold millions of unemployed hostage, millions who lost their jobs from GOP policies, of course, they would bring down the country if they believe it hurts Obama. Under Bush, they did more damage to this country that al Qaeda could only dream about.

 

[Billy000]

The unemployment extension bill might not have any Republican votes in the Senate and House Majority Leader Cantor said he will not bring a bill to the floor for a vote. The reasons the Republicans give for opposing extending unemployment benefits for 3 months are wide and varied. Could the primary reason for the opposition be to blame the Democrats for a bad economy? In other words, would the Republicans sabotage the economy for political gain?

I think they would. I think some of them truly believe extending those benefits harms the enonomy even though they are wrong. Others do know extending is the right thing to do and really are sabotaging the economy for political gain. They want to put that job growth to an end just to embarrass Obama.

If extending unemployment benefits are good for the economy, let's extend them indefinitely.

Why would we do that?

 

[auditor0007]

Both sides are equally guilty of screwing the country for political gain. My economics professor said the Democrats pulled those same tricks in 2007 and 2008 to hamper the economy just to score political points at election time.

The sooner everyone in this country realizes the political parties and politicians are not our friends and are only in it for themselves, the better off we'll be as a nation.

The Democrats didn't have to pull any strings to get the economy to tank in 2007 and 2008. The writing was on the wall , and to be honest, there wasn't much anyone was going to do to stop it from crashing. Now, blaming Republicans and Bush for the crash completely is a bit ridiculous because there were so many factors involved. The real truth is that many of Greenspan's moves to keep interest rates ridiculously low helped create the housing bubble. Those same moves kept the economy from going into recession for most of Bush's time in office. Had it not been for those low interest rates, we almost certainly would have been fighting a recession for most of Bush's eight years in office.