GOP's treasonous obstruction preventing robust jobs recovery

Friday's news on the jobs numbers was not as high as hoped but they are still amazing considering the level of Republican obstruction. Let us not forget the secret cabal that met on Obama's inauguration day to plot against America by vowing to thwart Obama's every effort to improve our lot in the midst of the financial meltdown. Yes plot in the most unpatriotic fashion imaginable against the American people, some even and rightfully calling it treason. So let's take a look at how Republicans are implementing their grand plan to hurt you and me just to retain and gain more power over our lives.

This Daily Kos report looks at just two of their obstructions and the cost in American jobs, claiming that the unemployment rate would be under 6% were it not for them. (As other examples of their job-killing obstruction see this article.) The policy of austerity has so far eliminated 600,000 public sector jobs so far. During past recessions government has increased public jobs, even under GOP control, mostly through federal grant money to the States (see chart). But since the stimulus bill the GOP has blocked any such help, with GOP Governors even refusing to accept the Fed money to hire government workers. Instead they blamed their financial hardship on those very workers--teachers, policemen, firemen--and imposed severe cuts in their ranks. So not only were 600,000 jobs lost but their insidious plan to prevent any Obama victory likely cost another 2.3 million jobs that would have been created.

The GOP is also obstructing most of the provisions of Obama's American Jobs Act. Estimates are that the Act would create another 1.9 million jobs but no, we can't have Americans working because that would likely reduce chances of GOP wins this November. President Obama laid out exactly what measures they are obstructing:

"Help states hire sorely needed firefighters, police officers and teachers; Help responsible homeowners save up to $3,000 per year by refinancing their home mortgages; Invest in much needed infrastructure projects thus helping to create thousands of construction jobs, a sector that has struggles significantly over the past four years; Provide small business owners with a tax break to help them hire more workers and increase wages of existing workers; Provide tax credits to clean energy manufacturers thus helping to grow that particular job market while helping the United States diversify its energy resources and reduce its economically disastrous dependence on oil; Remove tax breaks from companies that ship jobs overseas and provide tax breaks to businesses that bring jobs back to the United States."

Given all the obstruction it is truly miraculous that we've had 28 months of continuous job growth. Yes, the growth isn't as much as we'd like or need to dig out of the humongous trench dug by the previous GOP policies. But such growth as it is more than is testament that Obama's policies are working, and would work much, much better were in not for the actual (not paranoid or imagined)  plot to prevent it from doing so. We need to hammer this theme home, time and again, that the GOP is engaged in such obstruction that if not legally considered treason it certain borders on it by the harm being caused to the American people in the name of party politics over real human suffering. This message will not only retain the White House but will oust many of the GOP Governors and State legislators who are also willfully participating in policies that are not only preventing a robust recovery but taking us back to the same things that created the financial disaster in the first place. Do we really want to go back there?