Debunking The GOP’s Lie That Keystone XL Will Create Hundreds Of Thousands Of Jobs

Original Link: http://www.politicususa.com/en/gop-keystone-xl-lies

By Rmuse



One tactic used to destroy a country from within is dissemination of misinformation and outright lies to convince a population that certain policies are beneficial when in reality; they are not in the public’s best interest. Republicans have used misinformation for thirty years to convince imbeciles that giving the rich more wealth is good for job creation, the economy, and America even though the trickle-down economic theory has proven fallacious since its inception. The payroll tax cut extension dispute has brought another set of Republican lies and misinformation that a pipeline from Canada to Texas will create tens-of-thousands of jobs as well as give Americans more oil. Since Republicans are not known for veracity in their statements, any arguments promoting the Keystone XL pipeline project as creating jobs and helping America’s energy independence must be judged as what they are; blatant lies.

As the nation careened toward a government shutdown for the fourth time this year, Senate Republicans attached the unrelated Keystone XL pipeline to a miserly two-month payroll tax cut extension to reward the oil industry and pacify starving Americans until Republicans can devise new ways to increase poverty in February. Republicans insist that President Obama approve the pipeline project within 60 days, and if he fails to obey the criminal Republicans, the GOP will severely punish 160 million working Americans and millions of unemployed people by eliminating the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefit extensions. It is important to remember that Republicans’ goal is to send as many Americans as possible into poverty to enrich the wealthy, corporations, and especially the oil industry.

Republicans have claimed the Keystone XL pipeline is going to create anywhere from tens-of-thousands to hundreds-of-thousands of jobs depending on which GOP liar is speaking. The payroll tax cut President Obama brokered in December 2010 certainly created jobs because as families had more cash on hand, they spent more at private sector businesses and they in turned hired more employees. Surveys and polls of private sector business owners revealed they hire more workers when consumers have more income to spend. The Republicans have made numerous attempts to kill jobs, and it is one reason they oppose the payroll tax cut extension. Republicans attached the pipeline approval condition to enrich the oil industry and not for job creation regardless of their lies to the contrary. The only people who will benefit from the Keystone XL pipeline is the oil industry that is on its way to earn $130 billion in 2011.

It is important to understand how Republicans came up with the tens-of-thousands of jobs created fallacy; the pipeline’s owners revealed their tactics that inflated potential job numbers. TransCanada chief executive Russ Girling said Friday that 13,000 jobs would be created to build the pipeline. According to Girling, the figure was “one person, one year,” which means if the construction jobs lasted two years, the number of people employed in each of the two years would be 6,500. The 6,500 figure is in line with State Department projections that estimate the pipeline will create between 5,000 and 6,000 construction jobs. Another independent study by the Cornell Labor Institute found there were less jobs than the State Department estimates and they said the pipeline will “actually create ‘no more than’ 2,500-4,650 temporary direct construction jobs for two years.”Anything that creates jobs should be considered worth looking at, but compared to a full year’s extension of the payroll tax cut, the pipeline is sorely lacking.

The real motivation behind Republican’s tying the unrelated pipeline to the payroll tax cut is the benefit to the oil industry. The unrelenting certainty quotient to Republican lies that the pipeline will create “tens-of-thousands” of jobs conceals incredible benefits for big oil and the potential for disaster with a pipeline carrying crude oil over the Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska as well as many other environmentally sensitive areas. The main travesty is that the Keystone XL is an export pipeline. According to a presentation to investors, Gulf Coast refineries will refine the cheap, tar sands Canadian crude oil into diesel and other petroleum products for export to Europe and Latin America. The oil industry’s proceeds from the exports are tax-free and Americans will never see the fuel reach their gas tanks. The pipeline will do absolutely nothing for America’s energy independence or help transition to a clean, renewable energy economy. The pipeline will increase gas prices for Americans, and especially farmers because by draining Midwestern refineries of cheap Canadian crude oil into export-oriented refineries in the Gulf Coast, Keystone XL will increase the cost of gasoline for Americans according to Corporate Ethics International and National Wildlife Federation reports.

Another problem with the job creation lie, according to TransCanada estimates, is that just 11% of construction jobs on the Keystone XL pipeline will be filled by workers living in effected states, and most are temporary, low-paying manual labor jobs. Apparently, Republicans think creating low-paying manual labor jobs for a pipeline through America’s agricultural heartland that produces 20% of the nation’s agriculture, and a spill that has the potential of destroying wildlife and polluting groundwater for 2 million Americans, is more important than helping 160 million American working families. There is no good outcome for the American people, job creation, or energy independence by building the pipeline but Republicans are so intent on adding to the oil industry’s perpetual record profits, that they feel justified in punishing working families with a tax increase to reward an industry that Americans are providing with subsidies because Republicans demand it.

There are no limitations on Republican gifts to the oil industry at the expense of 160 million working families and in two months, if President Obama does not obey Republican and oil industry edicts to build the pipeline, they will unleash a new round of hostage taking and cause more harm to the economy and struggling American families. If the pipeline does win approval, then Americans will pay more for fuel, and Europe and Latin America will help boost big oil’s tax-free profits, and the environment will suffer from developing tar sands according to NASA’s top climate scientists. Regardless of Republican lies and misinformation, there are no good outcomes if the pipeline is built and it is the American people who will pay the biggest price.

Perhaps Americans should bow down, do acts of obeisance, and lick Republicans’ boots for their generosity in extending the payroll tax cut for two months. The Republicans avoided the miniscule surtax on millionaires and billionaires, but it still was not an adequate hostage payment. That is what this deal amounts to; a criminal action holding a tax cut for 160 million Americans hostage for an outrageous gift to big oil and preventing millionaires and billionaires from paying their fair share to help the economy that has given them so much while they rape the American people. It does not matter how often Republicans give everything to the wealthy, the oil industry, and corporations; it is still an assault on the senses that they are willing to send Americans into poverty to enrich a few hundred families and their corporations.

There are not enough vile things to say about Republicans in the House or the Senate, but it is worth a try. Republicans are anti-American, hateful liars, oil-industry whores, criminal hostage takers, and contemptible human beings who have spent the past three years assailing the American people who they were elected to serve. Their cavalier attitude at holding 160 million working families hostage for a fallacious number of jobs, gifts to the wealthy, and guaranteed record profits to the oil industry borders on crimes against American people. The bigger travesty is that Republicans have convinced innately stupid Americans that their assault on 160 million American workers is justified and beneficial. Unfortunately, America is becoming the second-rate nation of peasants who exist to serve the wealthy and enrich the oil industry that Republicans worked diligently to create. It is no wonder there is no pride in America anymore because there is absolutely nothing to be proud of. A once great country controlled by liars and criminals is worthy of shame and aspersion, and even those sentiments are overly generous.