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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA ‘governing majority’ that doesn’t know how to govern
Posted with permission.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/governing-majority-doesnt-know-how-govern
A governing majority that doesnt know how to govern
01/06/15 10:06 AM
By Steve Benen
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the other day that he hopes the Republican-led Congress can prove to the electorate that his party can be a responsible governing majority. And on the surface, thats a perfectly worthwhile goal.
But its been quite a few years since GOP policymakers actually tried to govern effectively, and theres reason to believe the party no longer remembers how. This week, for example, Republican lawmakers will get right to work, pushing the Keystone oil pipeline and a measure to redefine a full-time worker under the Affordable Care Act. Jonathan Weisman had a good piece on the latter.
Weismans report did a nice job noting that even conservatives seem to realize this is a bad idea, with National Reviews Yuval Levin arguing over the weekend that the legislation seems likely to be worse than doing nothing.
Republicans, at some level, must understand this. Indeed, they pushed this exact same idea 11 months ago in a bill they called the Save American Workers Act and it was deemed ridiculous at the time.
The legislation would also lower the amount the federal government collects in penalties from businesses who dont abide by the employer mandate. As a result, the report found, the deficit would go up by $74 billion over 10 years.
Jonathan Cohn explained a while back, The Congressional Budget Office just taught the Republican Party a lesson. Governing is hard . {T}hats the reality Obamacares critics are never willing to confront. Theyre great at attacking Obamacare. But theyre lousy at coming up with alternatives that look better by comparison. Theres a reason for that. The downsides of Obamacare are real, but, in many cases, they make possible the upsides. Take away the former and the latter go away, too.
Faced with this knowledge, the new, massive House Republican majority has effectively declared, Well, lets just pass it anyway.
And what about Keystone? Ill dig into this in more detail when the vote draws closer, but for now, Im reminded of President Obamas comments at his year-end press conference a few weeks ago:
At issue in Keystone is not American oil. It is Canadian oil that is drawn out of tar sands in Canada. That oil currently is being shipped out through rail or trucks, and it would save Canadian oil companies and the Canadian oil industry an enormous amount of money if they could simply pipe it all the way through the United States down to the Gulf. Once that oil gets to the Gulf, it is then entering into the world market, and it would be sold all around the world.
So theres no I wont say no there is very little impact, nominal impact, on U.S. gas prices what the average American consumer cares about by having this pipeline come through. And sometimes the way this gets sold is, Lets get this oil and its going to come here. And the implication is, is thats going to lower gas prices here in the United States. Its not. Theres a global oil market. Its very good for Canadian oil companies and its good for the Canadian oil industry, but its not going to be a huge benefit to U.S. consumers. Its not even going to be a nominal benefit to U.S. consumers.
Now, the construction of the pipeline itself will create probably a couple thousand jobs. Those are temporary jobs until the construction actually happens. Theres probably some additional jobs that can be created in the refining process down in the Gulf. Those arent completely insignificant its just like any other project. But when you consider what we could be doing if we were rebuilding our roads and bridges around the country something that Congress could authorize we could probably create hundreds of thousands of jobs, or a million jobs. So if thats the argument, there are a lot more direct ways to create well-paying Americans construction jobs.
Again, the Republican Congress knows all of this. They know gas prices have already plummeted and that Keystone wont push them any lower. They know that the project would create a few dozen permanent U.S. jobs. They know this is all about Canadian oil.
But this new governing majority, eager to prove how capable they are, have once again effectively declared, Lets pass it anyway whether it actually makes sense or not.
Republican lawmakers have had months and by some measures, years to come up with a policy agenda theyd implement once they controlled all of Congress. This, alas, is what theyve come up with.
on point
(2,506 posts)In other words, take away incentive for employers to cut their hours. The employers pay the same rates to staff whether they are part time or full time. Voila! Fewer part time workers!!
Otherwise changing the 'hurdle' just moves where the cut happens, doesn't change the situation.