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House Republicans rode into the majority on campaign promises to “focus on jobs.” However, once in office, the GOP has all but ignored the issues of job creation and the economy. Their very first bill was a symbolic repeal of the Affordable Care Act that is destined to languish in the Senate or fall to Obama’s veto pen, while their second bill had to do with restricting the rights of private health insurers to cover abortions.

Not only are Republicans completely ignoring job creation, but they are also actively trying to undermine important efforts to boost employment. For instance, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who delivered the Tea Party response to President Obama’s State of the Union, suggested in a list of proposed spending cuts that the government “eliminate federal job training programs.”

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said that he also has his eye on job training programs, which were on his list of items that he claims he can “whack from this budget and [have] nobody feel it.”

It seems fitting that, while paying lots of lip-service to job creation, Republicans would actively abandon programs meant to help people find jobs. Particularly at a moment when long-term unemployment is sky high (with 44.3 percent of the unemployed having been out of work for six months or more) it is critical that people be aided in learning new skills that might enable them to transition into a new industry

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According to the U.S. Labor Department nearly twice as many jobs per year are created under Democratic presidents as under Republicans. In 36 years Democratic presidents created an average of more than 1.7 million jobs per year. Thirty-eight years worth of Republican presidencies created just over 900,000 a year on average. The economy under Democrat Bill Clinton alone created 22.7 million jobs, a number equal to those created by GOP Presidents Reagan and both Bush’s.

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At issue is the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Emergency Fund, which should have been one of the most popular programs in Congress. A key component of the Recovery Act, the fund subsidizes jobs with private companies, nonprofits, and government agencies, and has single handedly put more than 240,000 unemployed people back to work in 32 states and the District of Columbia.

Governors, including Mississippi’s Haley Barbour (R), have sung its praises, and urged its extension. In July, CNN called the TANF Emergency Fund “a stimulus program even a Republican can love.”

This isn’t some academic exercise — by killing the measure, Republicans will force thousands of Americans out of work. The House approved an extension of the program (twice) but the Senate GOP just didn’t care. As a result, the TANF Emergency Fund comes to an end tonight at midnight. Thousands of layoffs will begin quickly, and continue as we get closer to the holiday season.

In a sane political world, the death of the TANF Emergency Fund would be a pretty big scandal, and Republicans would have been afraid to kill an effective jobs program with an unemployment rate near 10%. Instead, the GOP is counting on being rewarded by Americans for taking steps like these.

Republicans will keep asking, “Where are the jobs?” and no one seems inclined to answer, “Your party got rid of them.”

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One of NAFTA’s biggest promoters, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, appeared on the Howie Carr radio show yesterday evening and was asked about the watershed trade pact between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada he helped create. Responding to a caller who asserted that NAFTA killed American jobs, Gingrich didn’t disagree, but retorted by touting the fact that NAFTA had created jobs “close to the United States” in Mexico:

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CALLER: Back in the ’90s I remember Ross Perot saying that there was going to be the giant sucking sound of jobs if NAFTA passed. I think it ended up being true, right? And I know you were a big free trader.

GINGRICH: Yeah, well, I don’t think it was true in Mexico. I think the fact is that NAFTA allowed us to build jobs in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, in competition with China. I mean, our big competitor is not Mexico. Our big competitor is China and India. And I’d rather have jobs close to the United States than have jobs overseas in places like China and India. That’s why I was in favor of it. … So in a sense, I’d like our neighborhood to be fairly well off and fairly prosperous.

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While there were many benefits to the American economy from enacting the pact, there is no question that NAFTA pushed low-skilled American jobs out of the U.S. to Mexico. “All 50 states and the District of Columbia have experienced a net loss of jobs under NAFTA,” especially in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors, according to a study from the Economic Policy institute. “[O]ver a million jobs that would otherwise have been created were lost, and wages were pressured downward for a large number of workers with less than a college education.”

And Gingrich himself promised NAFTA would help create American jobs, telling Congress after being re-elected Speaker that the treaty would help the U.S. “focus on increasing American jobs through world sales.”

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A little known federal labor law, Section 13C arrangements, protects union and non-union workers who work on transportation projects dependent on federal grants.

The Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB), the state’s budget office, informed the governor that $46 million of the $74 million received in federal fund for transit is jeopardized, now that the collective bargaining has passed.

“According to information from the U.S. Department of Labor, the proposed changes in collective bargaining rights included under SS SB 11 could impact the ability of unionized transit systems in the state to receive existing federal transit aid, unless actions are taken to protect the collective bargaining rights of their employees... If the federal Department of Labor makes the determination that the changes under SS SB 11 affect the continuation of collective bargaining rights, and protections of transit employee's wages, working conditions, pension benefits, seniority, vacation, sick and personal leave, travel passes, and other conditions of employment, the Federal Transit Authority could not provide federal transit funding under there provisions.”

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What (Walker) does not say is just what services he would cut to make up for those lower taxes or what the actual costs that further deregulation would be on the individual. He doesn't say these things because he knows then that his garbage wouldn't sell.

He also has a bullet point that he calls "stopping frivolous lawsuits." Or in other words, stop protecting the little people so that CEOs can make a bigger killing in bonuses and other pay outs.

The last bullet point of Walker's plan is to "invest in infrastructure."

While I agree with the importance of investing into infrastructure, there is a question that needs to be asked. If Walker does indeed believe that investing in the infrastructure is so important to job creation, why hasn't he been doing that for the last eight years?

County roads are in such a mess, that even a leading member of misnamed Citizens for Responsible Government was complaining about how bad they are. County buildings are so poorly maintained that pieces are falling off them and some have been closed to the public due to safety concerns. The mental health facility was neglected so much that it literally has gotten to the point where it is cheaper to build a new facility than try to fully repair the old one. Milwaukee County's infrastructure also includes the transit system, which Walker has cut down by 20%, costing tens of thousands of jobs for people.

If infrastructure is so important for job creation, Walker needs to answer why he has refused to do it as county executive.

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