Both parties say creating jobs is critical, but can’t agree on how to do it

By Karoun Demirjian

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 | 2 a.m.

There’s no official study to prove this, but the most popular term of this Congress so far appears to be jobs.

Democrats and Republicans are proclaiming it is their utmost intention to create jobs, with the ensuing suggestion — or more often, direct accusation — being that the other side doesn’t care about jobs, and is stymieing their efforts.

But despite the common clamor, Democrats and Republicans could hardly disagree more on how jobs should be created.

Take last week: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was trying to get the third installment of his trifecta of job-creating bills past the Senate.

The legislation is a reauthorization of small-business innovation research and technical transfer grants, which have sent about $76 million in startup and development money to Nevada businesses since the program began in 1983. The recipients, such as Jim Hodge of Henderson’s lithium-ion battery company K2 Energy Solutions, say the funding has “a really large impact” on development “that we would otherwise have had to put off or just not do altogether.”

But the measure’s been slowed by Republican amendments on every other topic, from scaling back the Environmental Protection Agency to a moratorium on implementing the health care law. (Those are agencies or initiatives that Republicans say are helping to kill jobs, an assessment with which Democrats do not agree.)

“We’re concerned about jobs,” Reid said of the delay, which will last at least another week while Congress is on recess. “They obviously are not.”

But Republicans say the sort of “job creating” measures Reid is pushing — the small-business grants, and before that, a patent reform act and a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization — although perhaps not in and of themselves objectionable, gloss over a deeper problem, and that solving the country’s debt crisis is the only way to restore enough market confidence to encourage widespread job creation.

Ten Republicans, including Sen. John Ensign, communicated that frustration to Reid by way of a legislative threat last week.

“We feel that the Senate must not debate and consider bills at this time that do not affirmatively cut spending, directly address structural budget reforms, reduce government’s role in the economy so businesses can create jobs, or directly address this current financial crisis,” they wrote.

Senate Republicans are pushing Congress to take up trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea to create a market for American goods that will drive up demand for workers, they say.

The difference is one of philosophy and perspective.

Republicans prefer macromeasures to address the overall economic climate, making it friendlier to businesses and the private sector they say are going to have to create the new jobs. Democrats, on the other hand, seem to be focusing more intently on initiatives aimed at stimulating specific economic sectors and projects they think are ripe for the type of investment that will allow them to grow and hire.

The House of Representatives is joining in the melee to claim the high ground on job creation and is sounding a lot like the Senate.

“We must remove impediments that have caused economic stagnation and the inability of businesses to create new jobs,” said Nevada Rep. Dean Heller, a Republican, who offered that assessment while announcing his 2012 Senate candidacy.

“I remain focused on creating jobs in Nevada by removing government barriers to success, and providing some certainty and stability to the economy by getting the federal government’s house in order,” said Nevada Republican Rep. Joe Heck, following the release of Nevada’s most recent unemployment numbers.

Nevada Democrat Rep. Shelley Berkley doesn’t agree with her counterparts’ approach. “The Republicans want to cut funding for solar and other renewable resources that can be harnessed to provide clean energy and jobs for our local workers,” she said last week about the federal budget being debated in Congress. “I cannot imagine voting against jobs.”

So who’s winning the war of words?

Well, polls don’t agree. This week, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed 46 percent of the country favored President Barack Obama and the Democrats when asked which side was more trustworthy on the economy, but a Rasmussen poll showed the opposite:

47 percent favoring the Republican approach.

That leaves room for more job jockeying.