Members of Congress have the power to change the economic equation, but they're refusing to act.

[ProSense]

Think about Boehner's response to yesterday's jobs report:

Boehner: ‘Some Good News’ In Jobs Report

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said Friday that there's "some good news" in the April jobs report but blamed President Obama for hobbling more "robust" economic growth.

His full statement:

There’s some good news in today’s report, but the president’s policies still aren’t providing the robust economic growth and job creation the American people desperately need. To get things moving, we need to seize opportunities the president has been ignoring, and focus on growing our economy rather than growing more government. That means expanding energy production and modernizing our laws to make life work for more American families. It means controlling spending, simplifying our tax code, and reining in red tape that is choking small business owners who want to hire more workers. And it means repealing ObamaCare, and replacing the president’s sequester with smarter cuts and reforms that put us on a path to a balanced budget. Republicans will continue to focus on these and more in the months ahead, and will work to unleash our economic potential and expand opportunity for everyone.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/boehner-some-good-news-in-jobs-report

Translation: It means more austerity, de-regulation, repealing Obamacare and enacting the Ryan budget.

Forget for a second that Boehner is being a disingenuous jerk (Boehner takes sequester victory lap: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022583419), he claims the President's policies are holding back the recovery, but then goes on to suggest that following remedy: "repealing ObamaCare, and replacing the president’s sequester with smarter cuts and reforms"

What's wrong with that picture? Those are acts of Congress, the legislative branch. He doesn't need the President's approval/permission to move ahead. What Boehner doesn't want to admit is that House Republicans are playing the "my way (devastation via the Ryan plan) or the highway" game. Not only that, but their obstruction of any progress is affecting their ability to do the job they were elected to do.

Congressional GOP beginning to notice their own incompetence
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022787597

Congress is free to end the sequester, and they have a framework, which includes more stimulus, from the President to do so. The House and Senate can tweak the President's proposal and pass it or simply repeal the sequestration, and the problem of devastating cuts would be solved.

In March, the Senate also passed a budget that replaces the sequestration:

Senate Passes $3.7 Trillion Budget, Setting Up Contentious Negotiations

By JONATHAN WEISMAN

WASHINGTON — After an all-night debate that ended just before 5 a.m., the Senate on Saturday adopted its first budget in four years, a $3.7 trillion blueprint for 2014 that would provide a fast track for passage of tax increases, trim spending modestly and leave the government still deeply in the red a decade from now.

The 50-to-49 vote in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, sets up contentious — and potentially fruitless — negotiations with the Republican-controlled House in April to reconcile two vastly different plans for dealing with the nation’s economic and budgetary problems. No Republicans voted for the Senate plan, and four Democrats opposed it: Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mark Begich of Alaska and Max Baucus of Montana. All four are from red states and are up for re-election in 2014.

<...>

The Senate plan, by contrast, includes $100 billion in upfront infrastructure spending to bolster the economy and calls for special fast-track rules to overhaul the tax code and raise $975 billion over 10 years in legislation that could not be filibustered. Even with that tax increase and prescribed spending cuts, the Senate plan would leave the government with a $566 billion annual deficit in 10 years, and $5.2 trillion in additional debt over that window.

“The first priority of the Senate budget is creating jobs and economic growth from the middle out, not the top down,” Ms. Murray said. “With an unemployment rate that remains stubbornly high, and a middle class that has seen their wages stagnate for far too long, we simply cannot afford any threats to our fragile recovery.”

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/us/politics/senate-passes-3-7-trillion-budget-its-first-in-4-years.html

Understatement: "sets up contentious — and potentially fruitless — negotiations with the Republican-controlled House"

The American people are sick and tired of watching their government lurch from crisis to crisis. The Senate Budget offers a serious and credible path away from this gridlock and dysfunction and toward a long-term plan to create jobs, lay down a strong foundation for broad-based economic growth, replace sequestration, and tackle our deficit and debt responsibly and credibly.

http://www.budget.senate.gov/democratic/index.cfm/senatebudget

It passed, but Senate Republicans managed to block further progress. The definition of a dysfunctional Senate.

Senate Republicans Block Progress On Budget

The GOP isn't reversing its 180 on returning to "regular order" in the budget process.

On the Senate floor Tuesday morning, Majority Leader Harry Reid moved to appoint seven Democratic and five Republican Senate negotiators to a conference committee with House counterparts, to iron out major differences between the two chambers' budgets.

Now that both bodies have passed budgets, convening a conference committee is the next step in "regular order," which Republicans have insisted on returning to for several months.

But speaking on behalf of Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) objected to Reid's request.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/senate-republicans-block-progress-on-budget

Standing headline: Republicans block something else in the Senate.

Updated to add (I meant to include the range of options available to Congress) :

Progressive Caucus releases the Back to Work Budget
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022506420

Congress can end the sequestration and help the economy and struggling Americans if they wanted to.

Republicans have missed opportunities to do the right thing for years. They blocked the President's jobs bill in 2011, but if they act now, they can kick start the recovery at a more robust pace (http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022792808), which is required for the depth of the economic hole created by the recent crisis.

[ProSense]

1. Kick! n/t

[ProSense]

2. Another. n/t

[Wait Wut]

3. I can't believe...

...that Boener hasn't choked on all the sour grapes he's had to choke down over the past few years.