Republicans in Senate block tax cuts they originally proposed. Are they hoping a bad economy will help them win in 2012?

It’s hard to believe that anyone in leadership would be so cynical as to deliberately sabotage any nascent recovery to retake power in government. But I don’t know what else to make of it. The new majority GOP members in the House all ran on the platform of Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. So did the state legislators and GOP governors who took over so many states in the last elections. But what have they done? House Republicans have pushed one after another culture war bill they knew had zero chance of passing the Senate or being signed by the president. The only moves they have made that even relate to jobs were attempts to de-fund programs thereby getting more people laid off. The Senate Republicans yesterday killed a payroll tax holiday that would have helped workers and employers—an idea they themselves originated. They are road blocking every single attempt to get Americans back to work. GOP governors and legislatures, when they aren’t union busting, and laying off teachers, firefighters and police, are rejecting stimulus funds for their state.

The Wisconsin GOP controlled legislature even refused to accept Federal funds to extend unemployment insurance for laid-off workers there. Even their firebrand governor Scott Walker thought blocking that was a bad idea. But apparently, the game plan is to do everything in the GOP’s power at the local, state and national level to undermine the economy in hopes that will get them elected in 2012. Will it work? If most Americans remain as poorly informed about politics as they are today, my guess is it will. And then we can look forward to a national program of union busting, voter disenfranchisement, tax cuts for the wealthy, dismantling the social safety net and ending public education, replacing it with private, for profit schools.