GOP Jobs Bills

Democrat-Run Senate Not Passing Legislation
Obama has accused the GOP of blocking jobs legislation and not producing their own. However it is the Democrat-controlled Senate which is passing legislation at historic lows. Nor did this even start after the Republican takeover of the House after the 2010 elections. The number of bills passed by the Senate dropped drastically once Harry Reid took control of the Senate in 2007, from 204 bills in the 109th Congress (2005-06) to just 112 bills in the 110th Congress (2007-08) when and all the way down to 72 bills in the 111th Congress (2009-10). The Senate passed just 82 bills in 2011-12 and 76 thus far in 2013-14. In other words, Harry Reid stopped the Senate from passing legislation even before Republicans took control of the House. The House on the other hand continues to pass over 300 bills per year, consistent with historical norms, unlike the Senate.

The Democrat-controlled Senate is ignoring hundreds of bills passed by the GOP. As rightly observed by Philip Bump of the Washington Post, "You'll notice a big drop-off in the number of bills that the Senate passed over to the House."

GOP Jobs Bills Stuck in Senate
Republicans point out that they have passed over 40 jobs bills which are stuck in the Democrat-controlled Senate. As such, PolitiFact gives a "Pants-on-Fire" rating to those who claim the GOP has produced no jobs bills. Now it can be contested how well they would create jobs, but for Obama to accuse Republicans of not passing jobs legislation or being a "do nothing Congress" is an outright lie. It is the Democrat-controlled Senate that has by and large stopping legislation, not the GOP House, which will become apparent when Republicans take control of the Senate in January 2015.

GOP Blocked Every Idea To Strengthen Middle Class
Obama ridiculously claimed in 2014 that "So far this year, Republicans in Congress have blocked every serious idea to strengthen the middle class." However, the Washington Post Fact Checker has excellently pointed out a number of bills the GOP has passed such as the Farm Bill, Home Heating Emergency Assistance Through Transportation Act and the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act. Obama even congratulated Congress for passing the Water Resources Reform and Development Act for creating thousands of new jobs, saying "During my State of the Union address, I asked Congress to pass this bill by the summer, and I congratulate this outstanding crew for getting it done." The Fact Checker awards Obama three pinocchios for his dishonest rhetoric.

GOP Filibustered 500 Bills to Help Middle Class
In an excellent article, the Washington Post Fact Checker dismantles Obama's obviously flawed claim that Republicans "have filibustered about 500 pieces of legislation that would help the middle class," awarding Obama all four pinnochios for his falsehood. The Fact Checker first points out that while 527 cloture motions have been filed since 2007, only 133 were successful, and many of those motions were "simply dropped, never actually voted on, or 'vitiated' in the senatorial nomenclature." On top of this, many of the cloture motions are to judicial/executive appointments; for example in the 113th Congress 83 of the 136 cloture motions were for nominations not legislation. The cloture motions do not even necessarily represent different bills, as one bill can be subject to 3 different clotures. Finally, the Fact Checker notes that Obama is including two years, 2007-08, when he was still a Senator, and that during that time Obama himself used the same cloture motions/filibusters he is now criticizing 8 different times. Obama is actually accusing the GOP of filibusters he himself participated in, during a time period (2007-08) when Democrats ran Congress the last 2 years under Bush.