It’s not even Halloween and Congressional Republicans are in overdrive selling tickets to the GOP’s House of Mirrors. That’s the only explanation for their desperate attempt to disguise their special interest agenda by adding the words “and creates jobs” onto bill descriptions that will do no such thing and claiming the Obama Administration and Senate are ignoring them. In fact, House Republicans have voted 17 times against Democratic proposals or efforts to consider proposals – several of which are bipartisan – to create or protect American jobs.

This latest GOP message attempt is nothing but a failed masquerade.   

Bruce Bartlett, Former Advisor to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush:
Republicans have a problem. People are increasingly concerned about unemployment, but Republicans have nothing to offer them. [10/4]

Mark Zandi, Chief Economist and Co-founder Moody’s Analytics:
I don’t think [the Republican proposals] make a meaningful difference on the economy immediately. The economy is struggling to avoid recession. [10/10]

New York Times Editorial, “No Jobs Bill, and No Ideas”
…The Republicans offer no actual economic plans, only tired slogans about cutting regulations and spending, and ending health care reform. The party seems content to run out the clock on Mr. Obama’s term while doing very little. [10/12]

Toledo Blade (Ohio) Editorial, “What now for jobs bill?”
The Republicans’ obstructionism would be slightly more bearable if they offered a better, or even reasonable, alternative to Mr. Obama’s ideas. But they don’t. Instead, GOP lawmakers trot out the same old nostrums: more tax cuts and less regulation for business, with no guarantee of job creation in return.[10/14]

Here’s the truth about the GOP’s Faux 15:

GOP’s Budget to End Medicare (GOP Budget for Fiscal Year 2012, H.Con.Res. 34) – Instead of creating jobs, this House GOP budget is estimated to destroy 1.7 million jobs by 2014, according to economist Mark Zandi; ends Medicare, increasing seniors’ health costs by more than $6,000 and throwing them on the mercy of the insurance companies; and protects tax breaks for Big Oil, millionaires and billionaires, and companies that ship jobs overseas.

Increasing Childhood Asthma Act (The Energy Tax Prevention Act, H.R. 910) – Instead of creating jobs, this bill weakens our ability to ensure clean air and a healthier environment for our children, by eliminating every tool that the EPA has to address serious public health threats from carbon pollution, including increased childhood asthma.

Adding Tolls To the Information Superhighway Act (Disapproval of FCC’s Net Neutrality Regulations, H.J.Res. 37) – Instead of creating jobs, this bill would destroy jobs by overturning FCC rule maintaining America’s open Internet; the open Internet has been the greatest engine for the U.S. economy, creating more than 3 million jobs and helping the 20,000 small businesses that operate on the Internet.

Dirty Water Act (Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act, H.R. 2018) – Instead of creating jobs, this bill undermines the Clean Water Act, thereby undermining our economy; local economies around the country and millions of jobs in tourism, outdoor recreation and commercial fisheries depend on clean water and healthy fish and wildlife habitat.

Dirty Water Act Attempt 2 (The Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act, H.R. 872) – Instead of creating jobs, this bill attempts to overturn a decision of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that commercial pesticides are pollutants when used near or on waterways and would prevent protection of our waterways from toxic pesticide pollution by exempting pesticide applications from Clean Water Act permitting.

Big Bank Protection Act (Consumer Financial Protection and Soundness Improvement Act, H.R. 1315) – Instead of creating jobs, this bill weakens, delays, and erodes consumer protections that stop unfair, deceptive and abusive practices by financial institutions and ensure credit card, mortgage, student loan, and other financial transactions are more clear, transparent, and fair to all Americans.  

The Outsourcers’ Bill of Rights (Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act, H.R. 2587) – Instead of creating jobs, this bill would destroy American jobs – by making it easier for corporations to send American jobs overseas and weakening the rights of middle class workers – by allowing corporations to punish employees for exercising their rights to organize, demand better benefits and safer working conditions, and seek a full day’s pay for an honest day’s work.

Dirty Air Act Attempt 1 (Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act, H.R. 2401) – Instead of creating jobs, this special-interest bill guts the Clean Air Act on behalf of the utility industry, even though utilities are the largest source of mercury pollution – a powerful neurotoxin that damages the development of children’s brains; utilities are also a key source of other toxic air pollutants and the bill is projected to result in 34,000 premature deaths and 120,000 aggravated asthma attacks.

Dirty Air Act Attempt 2 (Cement Sector Regulatory Relief Act, H.R. 2681) – Instead of creating jobs, this special-interest bill guts the Clean Air Act on behalf of the cement industry – even though the cement industry is the third largest source of mercury pollution; the cement industry is also a key source of other toxic air pollutants and the bill is projected to result in 10,000 premature deaths and 68,000 aggravated asthma attacks.

Dirty Air Act Attempt 3 (EPA Regulatory Relief Act, H.R. 2250) – Instead of creating jobs, this special-interest bill guts the Clean Air Act on behalf of industrial boilers – even though large industrial boilers are the second largest source of mercury pollution; industrial boilers are also a key source of other toxic air pollutants and the bill is projected to result in 20,000 premature deaths and 126,000 aggravated asthma attacks.

Coal Ash Protection Act (Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act, H.R. 2273) – Instead of creating jobs, this special-interest bill endangers public health by preventing effective management of coal ash, even though coal ash contains significant quantities of heavy metals like arsenic, lead and selenium, and more than 65 sites in 26 states have been found where coal ash has contaminated the groundwater.

 A Gift to Big Oil Act Attempt 1 (Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act, H.R. 1230) – This drill-only bill grants enormous, multinational energy companies access to the Gulf of Mexico with less oversight – rushing lease sales in the Gulf with unreasonable time limits and without proper environmental review.  

A Gift to Big Oil Act Attempt 2 (Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act, H.R. 1229) – This drill-only bill makes offshore drilling less safe, rushing the very processes that the National Commission on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling found led to the BP disaster.

A Gift to Big Oil Act Attempt 3 (Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act, H.R. 1231) – This drill-only bill mandates the most sweeping expansion of offshore drilling in our nation’s history – making broad swaths of the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts open for leasing automatically.

A Gift to Big Oil Act Attempt 4 (The Jobs and Energy Permitting Act of 2011, H.R. 2021) – This drill-only bill repeals limitations on drilling for oil and gas that protect air quality – rushing through Clean Air permits for widespread oil and gas operations on the Outer Continental Shelf  that could increase pollution and damage air quality in coastal states like California and Delaware. 

A Gift to Big Oil Act Attempt 5 (North American-Made Energy Security Act, H.R. 1938) – This drill-only bill directs the President to expedite approval of the Keystone XL  oil pipeline, which is controversial as it would carry oil from the Canadian tar sands  to the Gulf Coast putting U.S. water supplies in the Plain states at risk.