American Jobs Act Is Needed Now

As a result of Mitt Romney not being able to get his story straight about whether he left Bain Capital in

1999 or 2002, there was very little talk this week about how dismal the American economy is.

We all know the numbers by know. Unemployment sits at a robust 8.2% with some of the numbers being higher in other communities. Unemployment amongst African-Americans is a staggering 14.4%. These numbers are usually sighted by conservatives as reason number one President Barack Obama needs to be replaced by Romney in November.

Republicans will tell you that the President doesn't have a plan for fixing what ailes the job market, never mind the fact that the guy has already taken a corvette that was heading towards a brick wall at 90 m.p.h and turned it around by putting in place a stimulus package that created somewhere north of two million jobs and took the unemployment number from 10% to the aforementioned 8.2%

The fact is the President does have a plan and it is called the American Jobs Act. Obama first proposed in September 2011, after Republicans in Congress, particularly the House took the economy hostage by initially refusing to raise the debt ceiling, thus causing a downgrade in our credit rating.

What the President offered to Congress was a nononsense extremely aggressive bill that would put unemployed Americans back to work and keep public sector employees like cops, teachers, and firefighters in their jobs. The bill would be paid for with minimal tax raises on the nations top income earners.

It didn't take long for the Republicans to stand in the figurative school house door, as a matter of fact when the President went on national t.v to announce his plan the GOP wouldn't even offer up a rebuttal, a move that was described as “disrespectful” by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The Right which is so afraid to agree to even the smallest tax increase because of Grover Norquist and the Tea Party balked at the chance to pass the bill and put Americans back to work.

The AJA contains elements of job creation that Republicans once proudly touted. In the 1950s it was President Eisenhower a GOP legend who built the interstate highways. Obama's call for $50 billion for new infrastructure programs was not even given any kind of consideration. Even when the President introduced the smaller “Rebuild American Jobs Act”, a slimmed down version of the original It got voted down in the Democratic controlled Senate, thanks to the filibuster and DINO's like Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson.

The AJA also called for $35 billion in additional funding to protect the jobs of teachers, policeman, and firefighters. As I have written in the past the shedding of government jobs is the lasting legacy of the “great red wave” of 2010. While the private sector has continued to add jobs under President Obama it is the public sector's struggles that are delaying an economic recovery.

The sad truth is Republicans don't want the economy to get better, which increase the President's re-election chances. They make sure those chances remain as low as possible by continuing to stall public job creation.

It was Romney a few months ago who offered up “The President wants more cops, more teachers, more firefighters, did he not get the message of Wisconsin” quote, and of course who can forget Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's classic line of “Our number on geopolitical goal is to make Barack Obama a one-term President”. Even if it means firefighters in Scranton, Pennsylvania have to have their pay reduced to minimum wage, Republicans are clear on what they have to do, and they don't care who it affects.

Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor know who they represent, and it ain't the teachers and the fireman, the cops and the construction workers or anybody else inside the 99%. They represent the Charles and David Koch's of the world. The Republican response to the President's bill was their own American Jobs Act of 2011. Introduced by Republican Louie Gohmert the bill called for the full repeal of the Corporate Income Tax, because nobody out there is struggling as bad as America's corporations.

Call me crazy but a party completely fixated on paralyzing job growth and stalling the overall economy shouldn't benefit politically. Let's hope voters keep that in mind come November.