Snakes?

* In an effort to do nothing to solve the unemployment crisis in the United States, the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are making themselves look like fools.

The ProgressiveProfessor:

In the midst of the jobs crisis in America, members of the House of Representatives Republican majority are holding hearings trying to prevent an end to the transportation and importation of nine varieties of snakes, including the Burmese Python, Boa Constrictors, and Anacondas, that have become to inundate the Florida Everglades, posing a risk to other species, and ultimately, to humans! We have the report of a Burmese Python swallowing a live alligator whole and then exploding from the effect of doing it!

A snake breeder testified that the ban proposed by Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson and Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar, would interfere with the right of snake owners and snake breeders to purse their hobby and livelihood, and prevent them from moving interstate!......

This is a regulation that the Republicans want to eliminate because they say it will create more jobs?????!!!!!  They are out of their minds!  Shame on the Republicans.  President Obama has presented a plan that would get millions of people back to work, yet the GOP is using snakes to spur job growth.

Politico has this response from Democrats about the Republican House Oversight Committee that held the hearings:

“With all due respect to our witnesses from the Association of Reptile Keepers, repealing a so-called job-killing regulation to allow more pythons, boa constrictors and anacondas into the United States is not the kind of bold, bipartisan solution Americans are looking for to help the economy,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), ranking member of the oversight panel.

In a statement Wednesday afternoon, a spokesman for Nelson (D-Fla.) said that “respectfully, the House Oversight Committee might just be wrong on this one.”

“I mean, how many people line up outside Walmart on Black Friday to buy a python?” the spokesman said. “Rules like this are carefully weighed, narrowly targeted and aimed at protecting the public safety and welfare.”

Then, we find out this information posted at TheHill:

....According to Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held 22 hearings on federal regulations this Congress “but not a single hearing on job creation.” Connolly said Wednesday’s hearing on a snake transportation ban was a prime example.

Holding a hearing about “snakes on a plane” when Congress should be focused on job creation bordered on a “theater of the absurd,” according to a press release from Connolly’s office.....

Is this what the Republicans plan to do for the next 14 months?  These hearings cost time, and money.  While Americans are looking for work, trying to feed their families, the Republicans would rather talk about snakes than creating jobs.