Retaking Congress more important to Texas Republicans than taking care of Texans

According to the Washington Post two million people will lose their jobless aid before Congress returns from its week-long recess because Republicans voted against extending unemployment benefits.

Kevin Brady (R) TX-8 said “Businesses are slow to hire because they fear higher taxes, job-killing regulation and a dysfunctional Washington that is ideologically driven and increasingly anti-business.”

As a former manager of a small business I can tell you that fear of taxes and regulation had absolutely nothing to do with decisions on when to hire. The only thing that mattered was whether there was sufficient consumer demand to warrant the additional employee. Given that there is little to suggest an increase in consumer demand we can safely say that there will be little increase in job openings.

Our Senator, John Cornyn (R), claims that he believes unemployment benefits should be extended but that the method the Democrats want to use to pay for it is all wrong. He said “The whole difference of opinion was whether it ought to be paid for or whether it ought to be allowed to rack up more deficit spending.” So I guess Cornyn wants to stop other government spending to pay for unemployment benefits, the problem is if the federal government stops spending which generates demand then more people will be out of work which just make the problem bigger.

To paraphrase Upton Sinclair, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his hope of retaking Congress depends upon his not understanding it.”