Gambling With Our Economy Won't Create Jobs

House Republicans are playing “So Be It” politics again, putting our economy at risk in the process.

Earlier this year, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said “so be it” if jobs are lost as a result of the extreme GOP budget.

Now Republican leadership is at it again, holding our economy hostage in an effort to pass their ideological agenda.

The GOP tactics risk a U.S. default – which experts agree could be catastrophic to our economy – to advance the GOP scheme to balance the budget on the backs of the middle class and seniors, while protecting tax giveaways for big oil and companies that ship U.S. jobs overseas.

According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman:

“There will be dire consequences if this limit isn’t raised. At best, we’ll suffer an economic slowdown; at worst we’ll plunge back into the depths of the 2008-9 financial crisis.

“Bear in mind that G.O.P. leaders don’t actually care about the level of debt. Instead, they’re using the threat of a debt crisis to impose an ideological agenda.

Congressional Republicans have “painted themselves into an ideological corner,” in the words of USA Today. Instead of focusing on America’s number one priority: jobs, Republican leaders continue to be pushed to the extreme. Perhaps that is why Republicans have not brought a single jobs bill to a vote during their first 182 days in control of the U.S. House of Representatives – despite House Democrats offering numerous jobs bills, including those in the Make It In America plan.

Americans deserve a real jobs plan – not a partisan gamble that could delay Social Security payments, put our economy into tailspin, and destroy jobs. House Democrats will continue to work to cut the deficit in a way that creates jobs and protects working families.