With so many Americans looking for a job -- or worried about keeping the one they have -- lawmakers looking for an edge on Capitol Hill are increasingly labeling their proposals “jobs” bills.

Tax bills, road projects, agriculture spending -- they’ve all become “jobs” bills.

In the 18 months since the 112th Congress first met, about 90 bills that promise to create or preserve jobs have been introduced -- about three times the previous two-year congressional cycle and seven times more than the Congress before that.

With the Labor Department reporting Friday that employers nationwide added only 80,000 jobs in June for an unemployment rate unchanged at 8.2 percent, expect that list to grow before the next Congress convenes in January...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said the Senate this week will move toward votes on a series of “common-sense jobs bills” that include a small-business tax cut designed to reward hiring and provide incentives for payroll growth. “Putting Americans back to work should be our top priority, not TEA Party politics or partisan maneuvering,” the majority leader said.

But job-creation policies, like most everything else on Capitol Hill, rarely are devoid of partisan and political spin. And just what constitutes a “jobs bill” often is in the eye of the beholder, as Republicans characterized the employment report as proof that the jobs agenda of the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress has been a bust.

“Today’s report shows the private sector clearly isn’t ‘doing fine’ and that President Obama’s policies have failed,” said House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican. “The president needs to stop betting on his failed policies and start working with Republicans to remove government obstacles to job creation.”

Republicans who control the House chronically note that Mr. Reid has failed to act on more than two dozen of their “jobs” bills that passed their chamber. Mr. Boehner frequently holds up a card at news conferences embossed with the list to highlight his argument.

House GOP leaders say they will introduce their own legislation this summer to “rein in job-crushing red tape,” including a measure to continue tax cuts instituted during the administration of President George W. Bush that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

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Editor's Note: Here's a thought...let's cut the cr*p that government can create jobs. Government can foster a healthy regulatory environment for job creation by limiting its reach into the private sector and decreasing corporate taxation (by the by, the idea that corporations pay taxes is a canard. Corporations pass the cost of taxes onto the consumer), but government does not create jobs unless they first extract money from the public to pay federal employees.


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