Politics

Krauthammer on Obama jobs bill: ‘The word ‘cynicism’ is inadequate here’

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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With a GOP-controlled House of Representatives, the prospects of President Barack Obama’s “Americans Jobs Act” making it into law may be slim. Nevertheless, the Obama administration is adamant with its claim that the proposal is not a political ploy to promote the president’s 2012 re-election bid.

On Monday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer expressed skepticism about that claim. In fact, he called the president cynical and cited the components of the legislation that are centered around the 2012 election.

“The president says no games, no politics. This is all about a game in politics,” Krauthammer said. “The offset he’s proposing — this radical increase in taxes, which he proposed in 2009 and which the Congress dominated and controlled the entirely by the Democrats, rejected out of hand, at the time Obama wanted that money to offset ObamaCare, and the Democrats rejected it. So it has zero chance of passing in Congress.”

Krauthammer explained that even if the current Congress passed the bill, future Congresses may not stick to it, making it “an empty proposal.”

“Second it kicks in remarkably to the tax increases assuming it’s passed, after Obama election – an incredible coincidence,” he continued. “And lastly, it’s the increase in taxes and the offset will take a decade. All the money will be spent in a year, a year-and-a-half and it will be a decade in which it’ll paid off by Congresses in the future not bound by the current Congress.”

Later during the panel, Krauthammer added that if the GOP wanted to match Obama’s cynicism, they would call his bluff and put the onus of the economy completely on the president.

“If Republicans were as cynical as the president they’d agree to it entirely and hand him the economy and say in November of next year, ‘Mr. President, it’s your economy, you run on it,’” Krauthammer added. “[I]’m just saying, if the Republicans were to achieve a level of cynicism that we see in this proposal they would do that. Of course Republicans like me are responsible and would never think of that.”