Van Jones, on ABC today, said the GOP 1) is rooting for failure and pain for America so they can capitalize on it, and 2) the GOP won't pass their own bills to help America right now.
I don't know what Congress he's focusing on, but maybe he should check this out: the job tracker, a list of all the GOP-passed House bills that help the economy but are stalled in the Senate, which is, ironically, controlled by a Democrat. Even more interesting, several of these help small businesses, something Van Jones specifically mentioned.
So even if Van Jones was talking about the present (he didn't name a specific bill), maybe he should be talking to Harry Reid instead.
And if we want to talk about parties not passing their own bills, what about the Obama budget, which failed in the Democrat Senate?
UPDATE: Someone in the comments suggested we were taking Van Jones' words out of context. Now, I hate taking people out of context, and I take those accusations seriously, so I want the readers to be able to judge for themselves. While at one point the panelists were talking about Obama suggesting 'Republican' ideas, the discussion then veered to firefighters' and teachers' jobs. I've listened to Van Jones' comments again, and the direct quote seems to encompass both GOP bills and GOP ideas Obama adopted. I'm not sure if Van Jones misspoke (understandable on TV), but his direct quote is this, after the comment about public employees:
"Furthermore, I think we need to take a big step back here. When you have the amount of pain that's happening in the country, the Republican Party has not only been missing in action, they won't pass their own bills to help Americans right now. They won't pass their own ideas to help small businesses right now. Why? Because their gain will come when America has more pain. It's like having a lifeguard trying to help people...I say they're rooting for failure. ... It's like a lifeguard, Obama's a lifeguard trying to help people drowning. These guys are sitting back on the rock, hoping more people drown."
You can listen to the full segment here. If I misunderstood him, my apologies, but I'm judging his words as they stand, and the full comments surrounding them. And if he did mean something different, I'd suggest he get clearer talking points for TV.