House Speaker John Boehner, or whoever manages his official Twitter account, experienced a true “epic fail” Tuesday when he attempted to post a tweet outlining the Republican “5 point” jobs creation plan. There was just one problem
Except for the numbers 1-5, the tweet was completely blank.
? ? ? ? ? #5pts4jobs ? http://t.co/DR9MAb4X5d
— Speaker John Boehner (@SpeakerBoehner) October 7, 2014
The empty tweet was clearly a mistake, but as numerous commentators pointed out , the tweet seemed to call attention to the fact that the Republicans in Congress, while criticizing Democrats and the president for supposedly failing to produce an effective jobs plan, have never proposed an actual job plan themselves.
“Boehner accidentally told the truth in that tweet,” wrote New Republic political analyst Danny Vinik. “The Republican Party doesn’t have and has never had a jobs plan during the Obama presidency. That’s the cruel irony in Boehner’s tweet. It would be funny, but it represents the massive economic damage that the Republican Party has unnecessarily inflicted on the country the past six years. And that’s not funny at all.”
While Senate Democrats passed an unemployment insurance extension bill in April, Boehner never brought it to a vote in the House, saying that he would not do so until Democrats attached it to a specific bill to create jobs.
More recently, however, Boehner revealed how he actually feels about the long-term unemployed who would have benefited from the unemployment extension bill, saying that he believed the unemployed don’t really want jobs anyway.
After a September jobs report that showed nationwide unemployment dipping below 6 percent for the first time since July of 2008, before the economic crash of that year and from which the country’s economy is still to come back, Boehner was dismissive of the apparent good jobs news, saying that President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats still weren’t doing enough.
“Instead of trying to convince Americans that things are great, Washington Democrats ought to show they’re serious about helping middle-class families get ahead, not just get by,” Boehner said in response to the favorable jobs report.
But his own failed Twitter attempt to outline the Republican jobs plan set the internet ablaze with sarcastic responses. Just a selection of the Twitter responses:
MT @SpeakerBoehner : ? Shut down gov’t ? Sue POTUS ? Sham Benghazi hearing ? 50+ ACA repeal votes ? Threaten another shutdown #5pts4jobs — Mo Elleithee (@MoElleithee) October 7, 2014
RT @SpeakerBoehner : ?All-You-Can-Eat Babybacks ?Fall-Off-The-Bone-Good ?For Around $10 ?Golden ?Corral #5pts4jobs ? http://t.co/jJUAUtHz1I
— Rude Swole Teen (@cushbomb) October 7, 2014
RT @SpeakerBoehner ? could jesus ? microwave a burrito ? so hot that ? even jesus couldn’t ? benghazi #5pts4jobs — lib-boo watson (@libbycwatson) October 7, 2014
nice RT @SpeakerBoehner ? ~black persident is black~ ? isis mulsim ? tacks cut!!!!!!!! ? black ebola ? opportunidom = freeberty #5pts4jobs
— Jeb Lund (@Mobute) October 7, 2014
The link in Boehner’s tweet led to a page on the Speaker’s own site which contained the five points, which are:
·Reform our tax code. ·Solve our spending problem. ·Reform our legal system. ·Reform our regulatory system. ·Improve our education system.
“None of these five slogans are backed up by real, substantive proposals,” wrote MSNBC.com columnist Steve Benen , in his story on the John Boehner Twitter fail. “Except maybe tax reform, which Boehner and House Republican leaders killed earlier this year.”