Congressional Republicans are of two minds when it comes to what Washington can or should do to create or save jobs and bolster the preservation of civic infrastructure in states, cities and towns across the nation trapped in a slow and virtually jobless recovery from the most severe recession since the Great Depression.
On one hand, Republicans keep claiming and complaining that the Obama administration and Democrats haven’t done anything helpful relating to job losses. On the other hand, they lambaste and try to kill almost everything congressional Democrats try to do in that regard.
Republicans’ hypocritical and partisan exercise played out again Tuesday when Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the House back into session to consider a $26 billion aid bill for schools and state and local governments. The bill, an extension of current aid to states which was passed by the Senate last week with just two Republican votes, passed in the House by 247-161 margin, with Republicans mainly voting against it. President Obama was scheduled to sign the bill into law right away.
Democratic sponsors say the bill will save or create some 300 million jobs for teachers, police officers, firemen and public-health workers, especially nurses, across the country. These jobs – their numbers are based on state projections – would otherwise be cut or not created without the extension of current recovery funds. Many of these jobs were saved over the past two years by federal stimulus funds that the Obama administration and Democrats, with little help from Republicans, conveyed to state governments in phased appropriations.
Tennessee, for example, received more than $5 billion over the last two years which allowed it to keep thousands of teachers, policemen, firemen and nurses on the payroll. Without the extension passed into law Tuesday, these jobs would be eliminated.