Obama Versus Jobs

There's a no-brainer job creation and economic stimulus plan out there and all that Obama has to do is get out of the way. He won't. So Republicans are trying to push him out of the way.

The State Department is bashing House GOP legislation to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

The legislation, which Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) is pushing, “imposes narrow time constraints and creates automatic mandates that prevent an informed decision,” Kerri-Ann Jones, the State Department’s Keystone point woman, says in written testimony set to be delivered to a House Energy and Commerce Committee panel Wednesday morning.

Terry's legislation would put the final verdict on the pipeline into the hands of the independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), not the State Department. The bill instructs FERC to issue a permit and limits its discretion to reject the project.

House GOP leadership is weighing attaching the bill to upcoming legislation to extend the payroll tax cut for the rest of the year in an effort to overturn Obama’s decision last week to reject the pipeline.

Of course, doesn't much like economic activity that doesn't fatten his campaign contributor's wallets.