Who Will the GOP Put First: Teachers & First Responders OR Millionaires & Billionaires?

Last week, the Senate GOP voted down the president’s jobs plan — and thousands of jobs in each and every state across the country.

But President Obama isn’t taking no for an answer and is breaking his jobs plan into pieces to give Republicans a few more chances to go on record about their priorities. Are they for hundreds of thousands of American jobs or are they for letting millionaire and billionaires get away without paying their fair share.

Here’s the rundown of the first piece of the jobs plan to be voted on separately — plan to save the jobs of teachers and first responders.

By the Numbers: Keeping Cops on the Beat and Teachers in the Classroom

• 392,100…the total number of educator jobs at stake in the American Jobs Act.
• 300,000…the number of teacher jobs lost since 2008.
• 280,000…the number of teachers whose jobs are at risk in the next year due to ongoing state and local budget cuts.
• 112,100…the number of educators that could be put back to work under the American Jobs Act.
• 25,900…the number of educator jobs at stake in Florida, which Sen. Marco Rubio (R) already voted against once last week.
• 13,400…the number of educator jobs at stake in North Carolina, which Sen. Richard Burr (R) already voted against once last week.
• 6,300…the number of educator jobs at stake in Massachusetts, which Sen. Scott Brown (R) already voted against once last week.

How many teachers and first responders could be back to work in your state? Complete detailsHERE.

The Teacher Depression Visualized

Matt Yglesias pulls two charts and explains “the teacher depression” the country is currently suffering through:

Contrast that with the reasonably sharp rebound in private sector employment under conditions of Kenyan anti-colonialism:

The deeper logic here goes as follows. Imagine a world where unemployment is low and wages are rising. In a world like that, teachers who get laid off would get new jobs quickly. Private firms, after all, would be looking to expand but they’re having trouble finding workers.

In the real world, unemployment is high and wages are flat so this doesn’t happen. Instead the teacher’s family just faces an immediate need to restrain spending. Defer any purchases of durable goods, stop eating at restaurants, don’t update the wardrobe this season, etc. So now there’s a drag on employment of cooks and waitresses, of clothing retailers, of truck drivers, of guys who install refrigerators, and so forth.

A new CNN poll out yesterday found strong support for this element of the president’s jobs plan — as well as how it would be paid for:

Do you favor or oppose “providing federal money to state governments to allow them to hire teachers and first responders”?

Republicans in favor: 63%
Republicans opposed: 36%

Do you favor or oppose “increasing the taxes paid by people who make more than one million dollars a year”?

Republicans in favor: 56%
Republicans opposed: 43%

IN ONE SENTENCE: Republicans have yet another chance to prove what they care about most: putting Americans back to work or protecting millionaires and billionaires.