House Minority Leader John Boehner: Where are the jobs, Mr. President? | OpEd Contributor | Washington Examiner

House Minority Leader John Boehner: Where are the jobs, Mr. President?

By: OpEd Contributor
Examiner Staff Writer | 6/23/09 5:54 AM

All year, Democrats have made promises about job creation. If Congress passed the trillion-dollar "stimulus," they promised unemployment would not rise above eight percent.

Five months later, unemployment has spiked to 9.4 percent, with President Obama now admitting that he expects it to reach 10 percent later this year.

So what has the "stimulus" given us? Spending on projects like a new auxiliary runway for powerful Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. John Murtha's "Airport for No One" - but no jobs. In fact, we've lost almost three million jobs this year.

House Republicans offered a better economic plan to create more jobs and let Americans keep more of what they earn. According to a methodology developed by White House chief economic advisor, Dr. Christina Romer, our plan would have created twice as many jobs as the Democrats promised at half the cost.

Unfortunately, Democrats balked and commenced the biggest domestic spending binge in history. They've since passed a $400 billion "omnibus" spending bill loaded with 9,000 earmarks, a $3.6 trillion budget, and endless bailouts.

Yes, more should have been done to rein in spending when Republicans controlled Washington. But while Republicans have acknowledged this mistake and offered alternatives to curb spending, create jobs, and control the debt, Democrats have stepped on the accelerator, telling taxpayers that more government spending equals more jobs. We've certainly seen plenty of spending, but where are the jobs?

Matters are about to get even worse for middle-class families and small businesses, as Democrats have turned to health care, energy, and the environment. They're pushing a government takeover of health care that costs at least $1 trillion, forces at least 23 million Americans off their current health plans, and leaves at least 36 million uninsured.

According to Romer's methodology, 4.7 million jobs will be lost over five years under their proposal, with the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) predicting that the Democrats' new mandates would cost 1.6 million jobs among small businesses.


Tomorrow night, the President will use a primetime campaign-style event in the White House to sell his plan, but his own party isn't even buying it right now. The President's proposal would empower bureaucrats - rather than patients and doctors - to make key medical decisions, limit treatments, and ration care, raise taxes, and kill jobs.

The American people simply don't support it. The best hope for real reform is for both parties to work together. House Republicans have introduced a plan that will reduce costs, expand access, and increase the quality of care in a way Americans can afford - without new taxes, costly mandates, or a government takeover.

On energy and the environment, under the guise of reducing carbon emissions, Democrats are poised to force anyone who drives a car, buys an American-made product, or flips on a light switch to pay a national energy tax.

Not only will this drive up prices for food, gasoline, and electricity, it will ship millions of jobs to competitors like China and India that refuse to take the same approach. A study by the National Black Chamber of Commerce estimates the Democrats' plan will cost 2.5 million jobs.

House Republicans have a better way: An "all-of-the-above" strategy to clean up the environment, lower energy costs, and create more jobs. Our legislation, the American Energy Act, will increase environmentally-safe energy production, promote alternative fuels to reduce carbon emissions, and encourage increased efficiencies and technologies to maximize America's energy potential.

Saddling future generations with more debt is no way to create jobs. We need policies that help small businesses, the engine of our nation's economy, weather the storm and get back to creating jobs.

Republicans are offering common-sense solutions that will make a real difference in creating jobs, making health care more affordable, promoting a cleaner, healthier environment, and reducing energy costs. We hope our Democratic colleagues will change course and work with us to make these reforms a reality.

Rep. John Boehner, R-OH, is Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives