Lisa Benson for December 27, 2013

Republicans have promised a ‘laser-like focus on Jobs, Jobs, Jobs’ for quite a while now.-Harley, maybe you can cite even ONE piece of legislation passed by the Republican controlled House intended to provide jobs.-Of course, if Harley can’t cite one, other Fox “news” viewers are invited to participate.

No jobs but you can get “free” food stamps, welfare, unemployment, a cell phone, chauffer service to job interviews, and someone to listen to you whine… all on the taxpayer’s dime!

No Adam, I don’t want the unemployed or poor to starve or just suffer but I also will not accept that the government give them a perpetual handout either. Long term welfare and government support only breeds dependency and social problems like crime..The generalized answer is tying any support to a very stringent program that requires those on government support getting training, education, and really working to get a job and off that support.If a person will not make that effort then they really do not deserve the support of the public. It’s a two-way street not just a handout to the lame and lazy..A good example of how NOT to do it is the Democrats wanting to extend and extend unemployment benefits. They did this unilaterally early in Obama’s first term and now can’t get another extension past the House. The Democrats claim that unemployment is “insurance” paid in by workers and not welfare. That is true for the original program before they extended those benefits to (I believe) 99 weeks.The extenison they made to those benefits was done with tax money not worker paid in money. That made the new benefits in effect welfare by another name. Now they want to extend that welfare even longer. It only gives someone an incentive not to find another job..The administration also has been a major stumbling block to job creation rather than a benefactor. For example in my state the Obama administration has stalled or denied every mining permit on federal land that any company applied for. That has left literally thousands of employable people in towns and counties that have astronomical unemployment without potential good paying jobs. For Obama the enviroment is more important than people even when the enviroment is not substancially impacted.

Arizona.Denied the land swap with Freeport McMoran for a copper mine at Superior Arizona.Denied expansion of the open pit mine at Duncan AZ.Denied all permits to reopen existing uranimum mines in the breccia tube area about 100 miles east of the Grand Canyon in Arizona.Has denied the one existing uranimum mine there a renewal of their permit and that mine is scheduled to close when the current one runs out.An in situ copper mine using acid extraction near Florence is being denied an EPA water quality permit and hearing….The Rosemont mine in the Santa Ritas near Tucson is being denied an air quality hearing and permit by the EPA…That is, the last two are being held up by the administration proceedurely because they have no other way of stalling their opening.This is a common Obama administration tactic; To slow play the permit process and try and run out the clock..How many more would you like ahab?.Arizona’s only major coal mine was already closing (Peabody Coal) due to a variety of EPA regulations and will cost the Navajo Reservation it is on a major source of income in a severely depressed and unemployed region of the state.

Every GOPer “jobs bill” was just anti-regulation, or a tax reduction double speak.

The 1872 Mining Act is still “king of the mountain”. Having lived near some of Enoki’s mines, like Superior and Florence, and seen the damage from years ago (not to mention damage from smelters) there’s sound reason for reviews. This also includes those applications near extremely sensitive lands, like well that other thing that’s just a hole in the ground, the Grand Canyon.

The simple fact is that PRIVATE SECTOR employment IS UP, and you might check out “whitehouse.gov”, or numerous other sites that aren’t on the Rush Limbaugh or Faux news, etc., bullpucky blogs.

job bill passed house hr 3010 for one// found in a 2 second search if the lazies want more have them do the research themselves

The over 400 filibusters really sped things up, thanks to “Twitchy Mitchy”.

TTM:.The uranium permits because of enviromentalists protesting to the administration that these mines MIGHT, might, effect the Grand Canyon over 100 miles away. The Superior mine due to enviromentalists arguing that the land swap that would give the government sensitive land in the San Pedro River valley that Freeport -McMoran / Rio Tinto mining owns shouldn’t be done. That way the land for the mine (next to an existing mine by the way) would remain untouched and the mining companies can’t do anything with the other land either. A double win for enviromentalists.Even the uber / ultra Left Raul Grijalva (an AZ house rep was grudgingly for the mine).In all cases it has been the BLM, EPA, etc., and Obama appointees that have foot drug on these projects. They won’t hear the arguments for or against the permits but rather just keep putting them off. In most cases it is because they just don’t want these projects to go forward regardless of whether they meet regulations or not.Another example is permitted exploration off the North coast of Alaska by a ship owned by Exxon. The EPA won’t issue a necessary pollution permit for its operation at sea. It isn’t that the ship isn’t compliant, it is. The EPA simply doesn’t want it to do the exploration.Look, TTM, I think there are bad mining projects and good ones. I think mining and other resource extraction can be done in a reasonably enviromentally friendly and safe way. Oversight is good for these projects.But, with Obama’s administration they have taken a hard Left enviromentalist position on every one of them. That position is NO!

TTM you know what a “Thought experiment” is don’t you? I was making my point by taking things to an extreme. The OP claimed that for $1 of unemployment benefits given out by the government $1.80 was generated in the economy. My point was this was an absurdity because if that were true at an extreme the economy could move ahead with 100% unemployment.Clearly it couldn’t. It couldn’t at 90% unemployment or 50%.Please, put a bit of thought into this and don’t use some obtuse literalism as a substitute okay?

TTM here’s some on the copper mine by Superior:.The mining company.http://resolutioncopper.com/.Native opposition.http://www.nativenewsnetwork.com/san-carlos-apache-tribe-leads-opposition-to-copper-mining-congressional-bill.html.Article showing Dept of Interior holding irrational position against mine.http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/021612_az_resolution_copper/salazar-grilled-over-resolution-copper-bill/.http://www.mining.com/dust-up-in-washington-over-resolution-copper-land-swap-deal/.I can throw more up but it shouldn’t be necessary. The opposition to this mine is very weak. The San Carlos Apache tribe wants a cut of the profits more than anything else. This is nothing new with tribal politics in Arizona.The federal alphabet soup is opposed because Obama appointed people, like himself, who are opposed on political and ideological reasons.I’m not taking sides here. Really, I’m not. I have no interest in that mine whatsoever. What I don’t like is that the US government is taking an ideological position and making it policy rather than being neutral and looking at the merits of a project that would potentially benefit America as a whole.

I will become an ardent supporter of capitalism as soon as capitalism demonstrates that it can produce decent jobs for everyone.

If “welcome to the real world” means put up with the shit, then I want to work for a better world. I’ve seen some things get better (and some get worse). I grew up in the segregated South, and although I wouldn’t say things are perfect, they are better than they were. And women’s rights have improved. And rights for gays and lesbians. None of these improvements happened because people gave in to the “real world” — they happened because people worked hard — sometimes at a great sacrifice — to make things better. There is still a lot of work to be done. We need to work on employment and poverty. And the environment. That’s a start.

That was Eric the weasel Cantor. Over and over.