March 20, 2012 03:05 AM UTC

Twilight Zone--How Would This Bill Have "Killed Jobs?"

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• by: Colorado Pols

Please, help us understand this release today from Colorado House Republicans:

House panel stops another job-killing mandate

Republicans on House Local Government Committee stopped a Democrat sponsored bill that would have killed jobs and further harmed Colorado’s ailing economy.

Senate Bill 003, sponsored by state Rep. Randy Fischer, D-Fort Collins, would have unnecessarily limited an employer’s ability to obtain background information, including consumer credit information.

“The last thing job creators need during this recession is government telling them who they can and cannot hire,” said Rep. Laura Bradford, R-Grand Junction, who chairs the House Local Government Committee.  “This bill is just further evidence that Democrats don’t have any idea what it takes to create jobs.”

Now folks, we talked about this bill last month before it passed the Senate. Senate Bill 12-003, despite what this release falsely claims, only dealt with consumer credit information. And far from placing a “mandate” on business, which by any contemporary definition means making somebody affirmatively do something, presumably with a cost, all this bill did was stop the use of consumer credit information in hiring decisions where financial credit is not related to the job.

Our question is really simple: how would this have “killed jobs?” How could this bill have “further harmed Colorado’s ailing economy?” We think both of these claims are more mendacious than average, especially against a bill intended to help otherwise qualified Colorado jobseekers get back to work–many more of whom have had credit problems in the recent recession than would be the case otherwise. You can debate the merits, but how could this bill have “killed jobs?”

We guess these terms are bandied about mindlessly. This is particularly ironic mindlessness.