Awful News Coverage of the Jobs Bill Catastrophe

If you don't know, here's the low down on the jobs bill catastrophe.

• Unemployment is high.
• The Senate was going to pass a bill to create jobs.
• The main parts of the bill were (1) tax credits for job creation and (2) additional highway construction.
• The tax credit was designed by Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
• Republicans added two provisions: (3) cut the estate tax (death tax...inheritance tax) to 0 percent for one year and extend research and development tax credits. (4) pay doctors more money when they see Medicare patients.
• (3) and (4) do not create jobs...except maybe (3) creates jobs for scientists and engineers, a group for whom there is almost no unemployment.
• (3) and (4) cost $41 billion.
• The final bill cost about $85 billion.
• Sen. Harry Reid threw out the bill and replaced it with a bill that has only (1) and (2) and only costs $15 billion.
• $15 billion will not create many jobs.

These are the facts, but the headlines are such:

After Rare Bipartisan Deal, Reid Slashes Jobs Bill (Fox News)
Senate Dems Ax Bipartisan Jobs Bill (ABC)
Senate Dems Pare Down Jobs Bill, Scrap Bipartisan Version (USA Today)

I'm starting to wonder if Republicans truly, deep down, have a moral compass. Do they feel a sense of right and wrong? After my senator, senator shelby, held up all Obama's appointments for several days because he wanted to get refueling tankers built in Mobile and an FBI center built in Alabama that will study improvised explosive devices, I'm really starting to wonder. When these people get up in the morning, do they wonder, "How can I help America?" I really can't imagine someone doing that, and then adding an estate tax extension into a jobs bill. I'm starting to wonder if Republicans--as a group--are crazy people or dishonest people, rather than people who believe different things about the economy or have different ideas of justice. From what I can see, they feel they are at a war with progressives in which literally anything done to hurt the center or the left is a victory, even if it hurts America. They feel they are on a team fighting another team. And their "team" isn't really defined by small-government ideals: paying doctors more money for Medicare patients means using more tax dollars, and is therefore larger government. Their team is defined as the type of people who are generally for lower taxes, e.g. rich people, old people, doctors, etc. And even if a measure grows the government, as long as it helps their team, then they are for it.