Byron York‘s latest Washington Examiner article highlights congressional Republicans’ plan to refocus attention on jobs and economic growth.
Pushing so hard on long-term deficit reduction left Republicans vulnerable to the inevitable Democratic “Mediscare” attacks and the claim that GOP lawmakers are plotting to “end” Medicare. So for weeks now, Republicans have been fighting the Battle of Medicare instead of talking about jobs.
Constrained by the pressures of running the House and by their own miscalculations, Republicans are now trying to force the national conversation back to jobs. In recent days they have been promoting “A Plan for America’s Job Creators,” which is a new package of tax-cut and deregulation proposals designed to stimulate job growth. It’s “the kind of growth that the ‘stimulus’ promised but failed to deliver,” Boehner said in a weekend statement.
The well-connected Republican calls the move a “reset” on the jobs issue, but it might as well be called a “pivot” — as in President Obama’s long-promised but never accomplished pivot to jobs and the economy. Now it is Republicans who need to get back on track.
GOP leaders don’t like the comparison, but they do say “A Plan for America’s Job Creators” is all about getting back to basics. “It’s an effort to go back to the touchstone, to go back to the foundation,” says Rep. Peter Roskam, the GOP’s chief deputy whip and an architect of the original Pledge to America. Economic growth produces tax revenues, which in turn brings budgets into balance. “It’s very important to always go back to this foundation of economic growth,” Roskam continues. “That’s really where the action is, and I think that’s where most Americans want their Congress to spend the majority of their time.”
