Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz: the GOP is ‘hoping for failure’ for the economy

Teni Sow | October 17, 2011 | 0 Comments

WASHINGTON — Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) accused the Republican Party of acting in bad faith in economic negotiations on Sunday, saying the GOP was allowing the economy to “remain stagnant” in order to score political points.

“We need Republicans and Democrats to work together,” said Wasserman Schultz on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday morning, when asked about opposition to President Obama’s jobs plan. “You know, where is the leadership on the Republican side? You want to talk about sitting on the sidelines? They’re the ones that have just been crossing their arms and hoping for failure. I mean … it’s so irresponsible for them to allow the economy to just remain stagnant, you know, so that they can get a political victory in the election next year.”

Last week, the jobs legislation fell short of the 60 votes needed to move forward. Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) — who are both up for re-election in 2012 — voted with the Republicans.

“I have tremendous respect for Senator Tester, but, you know, to be opposed to legislation because it doesn’t do enough when we can’t even get the Republicans to support what the president has proposed? You know, I have respect for his opinion but the American people right now need us to put a shot in the arm to the economy so that we can continue to get it turned around,” said Wasserman Schultz.

On “Fox News Sunday,” host Chris Wallace pressed House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on whether Republicans might be able to support some of the proposals in Obama’s jobs plan: “You say that there are parts of the Obama plan that you can support. Like what?”

Cantor largely evaded the question. He first talked about the trade bills Congress recently passed, saying they “indicated … how we can come together.”

He then talked about GOP proposals for “unemployment insurance reform” and helping “small businesses to access financing and capital.”

“When we were in the minority, then-Leader Boehner and I went to the president. We presented him with the ‘no cost’ jobs plan. We said, ‘We can do these things. Let’s work together, let’s set aside this all-or-nothing approach,’ that the president continues to go out across this country and campaigns about,” said Cantor, ignoring Wallace’s question.

Cantor also sidestepped questions about how many jobs the GOP bills would generate. Wallace pointed out that Moody’s Analytics, an independent economic consulting firm, said the president’s plan would add 1.9 million jobs next year and grow the economy by an additional 2 percent.

“We put forward a plan on the beginning of the year, our budget … and we had independent Congressional Budget Office scoring, which did several things. It talked about the fact that our plan actually dealt with the one crisis bringing down the debt and deficit over $6 trillion, and it did talk about the ability for our plan to grow new jobs, yes. So we’ve got that kind of analysis,” replied Cantor.

“But you don’t on this jobs plan?” asked Wallace.

“Well, what this jobs plan is taking pieces of our overall vision for this country and saying, you know what? We’ve got to provide incentive for the private sector to grow,” replied Cantor.

On ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod called the Senate’s failure to pass Obama’s jobs plan last week a “setback” in the White House’s push to get the legislation approved “as one entity.”

“But now we’re going to take it apart, and we’re going to go piece by piece,” he said. “The American people support every single plank of that bill. And we’re going to vote on every single one of them.”

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