In a blistering assessment of the administration's jobs plan, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) accused the president of trying to "conjure up demand from the clear blue sky," and said the administration was just looking to find more "ways to hand out money."
"These jobs bills haven’t worked and they’re not going to work," Toomey said on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" on Wednesday. "We disagree about the fundamental driver here — I don’t think you can go out, the government can go out and conjure up demand from the clear blue sky and thereby create all of this economic growth."
Toomey said the administration’s jobs plan focuses on creating demand for goods in the economy, when the problem is actually a "supply-side" issue. The Republican senator argued that there is "infinite demand" because consumers will always want a "newer car or a better house or more appliances and services they can’t afford," but that the government is putting these goods out of the reach of the middle class.
"When you start layering on these huge regulatory burdens, for instance, as additional costs, you separate supply from the demand that’s out there," he said. "I think it would be better to focus on lowering that cost than finding ways to hand out money that haven’t worked so far."
Earlier this month, Senate Republicans voted in unison to block President Obama’s jobs legislation, and then again voted to filibuster a scaled-back piece of the bill aimed at putting teachers and first-responders back to work. Last week the Senate introduced another piece of the jobs bill, this time aimed at investments in infrastructure projects.
Senate Republicans say they can’t support a jobs bill that is paid for by tax increases on the wealthy, and counter that there are 15 jobs bills that have been passed by the House that the Democratic-controlled Senate has yet to act on.
