Paul Krugman: Why GOP Arguments for the Keystone XL Pipeline Are a Sick Joke
No one, including Paul Krugman, was surprised that the first move the Republican Senate has made is to try, once again, to force President Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. As the the columnist points out in Monday's New York Times, "the oil and gas industry — which gave 87 percent of its 2014 campaign contributions to the G.O.P. — expects to be rewarded for its support."
More cynical still is the absurd Republican argument in favor of an environmentally damaging project at precisely the moment when the glut of oil has caused oil prices to plunge—so it really isn't that we need more oil. No, Mitch McConnell and pals say it's all about jobs.
Puh-leaze!
Where, Krugman wonders, was this concern about jobs when "Republicans blackmail over the debt ceiling" forced cuts in federal spending that cost thousands of jobs? "Oh, and don’t tell me that the cases are completely different. You can’t consistently claim that pipeline spending creates jobs while government spending doesn’t," Krugman writes.
But if you really want to create jobs—and not simultaneously endanger the environment—why not opt for investment in American's crumbling infrastructure? Wouldn't that be a win-win?
http://www.alternet.org/economy/paul-krugman-why-gop-arguments-keystone-xl-pipeline-are-sick-joke
As Krugman points out, republicans only believe that government spending creates jobs when the spending is for the military or the pipeline. For all other purposes, such as repairing infrastructure, they deny that government spending has anything to do with jobs. Indeed, they consistently argue that cutting spending is good for jobs and the economy.
Puh-leaze, indeed.
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