Published on Friday, July 8, 2011 by The Hill
I have recently written a series of columns about jobs with titles such as "An angry dissent," and today's disastrous numbers are a political game changer. All incumbents of both parties are threatened if jobs are not created in large numbers by Election Day 2012.
This is one of the great outrages in political history. Neither party is now proposing a major jobs program. While the Republican Party at the national and state level is doing everything it can to destroy jobs, the Democratic Party is failing to fight for jobs with the intensity that Democrats have historically done. Meanwhile, the Democratic president does photo-ops, Twitter events and mini-jobs programs of the magnitude of school uniform trivia.
It is an outrage, a crime, a sin against decency and a defamation against everything I personally believe that nobody, I repeat nobody, in the high councils of politics gives a damn about those who have been jobless for 99 weeks. This violates my faith as a Christian, where we are supposed to help those in need. It violates my values as a Democrat, where we are supposed to fight for jobs. It violates the most common-sense economics, which proves that help for 99ers provides more stimulus than tax cuts for the wealthy, but since the 99ers would have to spend the money from assistance, to live.
The president's political brain David Plouffe now suggests that voters will not vote based on the jobless rate. This is ridiculous, absurd, delusional and symptomatic of a president far out of touch with the realities of working-class Americans who is clueless in confronting Republicans who believe in firing police, firefighters, teachers and librarians.
The jobless rate is a scandal.
The plight of the 99ers is a moral outrage.
The disastrous jobless numbers today will add to the political earthquake of a nation that demands jobs and is outraged by Washington power brokers who show no signs of caring, understanding or acting.
Shame on the president. Shame on the Republicans. Shame on the Democrats. Shame on the media. Shame on them all.
It is time to cut the crap, create the jobs and fight like hell for what Americans want: jobs.
I continue my angry dissent today.
The horrendous and disastrous jobs numbers announced this morning are a thunderbolt reminder of the jobless plague that grips our nation.
If the jobs are not created soon there will be more incumbents, from both parties, who will join the jobless after the next change election in 2012.
© 2011 The Hill
Brent Budowsky is a columnist for The Hill.
