Labor & Employment Law

10 Republican Steps to Killing Economic Recovery

By Mike Hall

It?s no secret that when Republicans take over control of the U.S. House next week, they will be eager to flex their newly found muscle. But  as Isaiah Poole at Campaign for America?s Future points out, the Republican/tea party agenda

will hurt your ability to get or keep a job, your neighborhood’s ability to recover from the recession and this country’s ability to regain its footing in the global economy.

Poole goes through the ?Top 10 Economy Killers? that are the heart and soul of the Republican agenda, including repeal of health care and Wall Street reform, slashing infrastructure spending, strangling government?s ability to create jobs, killing green jobs initiatives and more.

Among the many devastating consequences of health care reform repeal, Poole writes (click here for more), are

a $143 billion increase in the deficit by losing the savings the reforms created, an increase in the number of uninsured by 30 million people, an end to free preventative care services and the loss of the requirement that insurance companies devote the bulk of premium payments to health care costs rather than expensive advertising and executive perks… We’ll be back to uncontrolled cost increases in private insurance.

What will happen if Republicans are successful in undermining Wall Street reform by blocking funding for enforcing the new rules as they have vowed to do?

The agency that will make sure credit ratings aren?t rigged by the banks, the way they were in the run-up to the economic collapse: Gone. The budgets that will allow the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission monitor reckless and/or illegal bank activity: Gone. Even the office that would protect investors ? that is, people who buy stocks–would be eliminated. And the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and its aggressive chief, Elizabeth Warren, is the next target in their sights.

Poole writes that a  ?catch-up campaign to restore our infrastructure should be a no-brainer, because of many hundreds of thousands of jobs created by the restoration work as well as the long-term impact on economic growth.?

Not only are newly-elected Republican governors like New Jersey?s Chris Christie, Wisconsin?s Scott Walker and Ohio?s John Kasich rejecting federal help for job-creating high speed rail and tunnel projects:

Conservative ideologues are once again proposing to end most federal transportation spending.

Click here to read Poole?s entire column.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on December 29, 2010 (boomark / email).