First Priority for Americans is Jobs, not Reining in Government Spending as Republicans Propose

WASHINGTON & SANTA FE, NM (By Jon Garrido, The Jon Garrido Network) March 4, 2011 ― As Vice President Joe Biden met with congressional leaders Thursday to try to resolve the impasse over government spending, Republicans were beginning to worry they were losing ground on voters' top concern: jobs.

President Obama had asked for Thursday's talks, and Biden brought a new proposal: trimming $6.5 billion from current operating budgets through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. That's far short of the $60 billion in cuts that the GOP-controlled House passed last month. Republicans rejected the offer as inadequate.

Earlier this week, lawmakers passed a stopgap measure to keep the government operating for two more weeks, averting a shutdown at midnight Friday. But reaching a longer-term deal is more difficult, with congressional leaders — and the political parties themselves — deeply divided over how much to cut.

A GOP aide familiar with the talks said negotiators had agreed to hold separate votes in the Senate as soon as next week on both the White House proposal and on the $60 billion in House-passed cuts. That would be a way to gauge the extent of support or opposition for each proposal, said the aide, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the issue's political sensitivity.

"We had a good meeting, and the conversation will continue," Biden said.

For GOP leaders, agreeing on a long-term deal is difficult because their determined freshman class came to Washington with a mission: to reduce the nation's debt load by shrinking government.

So Republican leaders argue cutting spending will lead to job growth. But the message does not seem to appeal to recession-weary voters.

New polls show Americans want the federal government to focus on job creation and economic growth. Reining in government spending ranks second.

A majority agrees deficits are a problem, a Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll showed Thursday. But Americans oppose specific cuts to Head Start preschools, education and college loan programs, which were among reductions in the spending bill passed by the House last month.

As the debate continues, Republicans hope to step up their emphasis on jobs. GOP leaders encourage lawmakers to mention job creation in their public comments.

"The American people want us in Washington to spend less of their money so we can create an environment where jobs can be created," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), a party leader.

But freshman GOP lawmakers are less likely to push that point. They more often cite deficit reduction as their chief mandate.

Democrats have sought to exploit this perceived mismatch by asking almost daily what the GOP has done to create jobs since winning control of the House.

"If the cuts are about undermining the education of our children, harming the creation of jobs and also undermining our economic recovery," Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said Thursday, "I think we have to subject those cuts to some pretty harsh scrutiny."

 

New Mexico is a Microcosm of the USA

New Mexico is a microcosm of the USA and an Economic Development Plan to create jobs should be New Mexico's priority but newly-elected Governor Susana Martinez thinks a proposal to repeal a New Mexico state law allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses should be her priority.

Newly-elected Governor Susana Martinez, a Republican who ran on a promise to get tough on undocumented immigration, added fuel to the fire by using leftover campaign funds to pay for a radio ad urging support for her repeal efforts.

The Republican response to the Latino population surge in New Mexico, is to response to this epochal demographic change by doing everything in its power to keep New Mexico Republicans particularly its electorate as white as can be.  Americas' Republicans have obstructed minorities from voting; required Latinos to present papers if the police ask for them; opposed the Dream Act, which would have conferred citizenship on young immigrants who served in our armed forces or went to college; and called for denying the constitutional right to citizenship to American-born children of undocumented immigrants.

 

The above is is from a page in Sarah Palin's campaign strategy and is the reason why Palin was so quick to endorse Martinez ― birds of a feather flock together. 

In New Mexico last fall, the Republicans ran an gubernatorial candidate who embraced Arizona's draconian racial identification law which is endorsed by Palin. Martinez won not because of her acumen for creating jobs which is New Mexico's priority but because the democratic gubernatorial candidate was a lesser qualified candidate.

 

2014 can not come soon enough. New Mexico needs job creation and for all future elections, New Mexico needs qualified persons with job creation expertise to restore the luster New Mexico once had.

(Some content from news services.)