4 months of Republican rule in Washington and 4 months of the great Republican revolution at the state and gubernatorial level.
1/3 of a year gone by.
What have the Republicans done?
916 bills introduced at the state and national levels to restrict a woman's right to choose.
744 bills introduced that seek to eliminate collective bargaining for public employees and weaken unions.
0 bills introduced to help create jobs.
I remember the midterm elections as if they happened less than a year ago...
I remember the Republicans saying that the "Socialist, share the wealth" policies of the Obama administration had failed the American people. I remember them saying how "Obamacare was destroying the middle class, driving costs up and making it harder for the American people to get by in already tough economic times." I remember them saying that "Worrying about Obamacare instead of job creation proved how out of touch with the American people Obama was." and how "The American people need leadership that will have a 'LAZER FOCUS' on creating jobs."
I remember the Republicans saying that their number one priority, when elected, would be to create the jobs for the middle class that Obama had failed to deliver, to promote the economic recovery that Obama was too worried about his socialist health care agenda to focus on, to get the American people back to work and doing better than we were. They said it over and over, it was their mantra.
They ran on jobs, they won on jobs.
Then their story changed...
Immediately after the election, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said "Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term."
Wait, what?
What about jobs? What about economic recovery? What about the middle class?
So, ok, I'll give the Republicans the benefit of the doubt here. They want their top priority to be the insurance that Obama loses his re-election bid in 2012. Fine, a great way to do that would be to create all the jobs and stimulate all the economic recovery that the GOP insisted the Obama administration and the Democrats were incapable of doing, right? That makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, if you want to prove that you're more qualified for the job than the guy currently doing it, then wouldn't the best way to accomplish that be to show that you could, in fact, do the job much better than the other guy could? So, ok Republicans, I'll play along for now... You said that your top priority is to beat Obama in 2012, well then surely that means you're going to attack unemployment and the sagging economy with a "lazer focus" and once you start getting the American people back to work and improving the quality of life for the middle class, then you guys will win the presidency by a landslide! I now totally see the logic of Mitch McConnell's statement! By doing what you promised in order to get elected, you're going to prove to the American people that the Republicans deserve to get the white house back! Right, John Boehner?
"Where. Are. The. Jobs?"
That's a good fucking question, Mr. Speaker.
Where I live, in central CA, the unemployment rate is grossly disproportionate to the national average. While the national unemployment rate hovers between 8 and 9%, the unemployment rate here hit almost 25% at the peak of the recession. Since that point, the unemployment rate slowly trickled down to around 17% at it's lowest point since the recession, just before the midterm elections. However, in the scant few months since the midterms, since the Republicans "Took back Washington" riding high on a wave of promised job creation, the unemployment rate here has gradually risen back to almost 25% again. That means 1 in 4 people here is out of work, and that's just the numbers based on people who actually draw unemployment. When adjusted to factor in "disenfranchised workers," - people who have become so frustrated with trying to find a job that they just give up looking, or who remain unemployed after their benefits run out - that number is closer to 1 in 3 people being out of work here.
That's a staggering figure. Those are numbers we haven't seen in this country since the Great Depression. Add to that the fact that this same part of CA is also one of the areas hardest hit by the collapse of the housing market - Merced and Sacramento counties were among the most overvalued housing markets in the country before the bubble burst - and you now have record high foreclosure rates on top of record high unemployment. People are literally going from being hard-working, middle class homeowners, living the American Dream to being unemployed, broke and homeless within months.
Show me the party who can do anything to help reverse those numbers and I'll show you the party of the next president.
So, what do the Republicans do? I mean, it's right here, served up on a plate. Over 60% of voters in the midterm elections said that jobs and the economy were the number one factors in determining how they voted. You give that 60% what they're asking for, and you got a majority vote in the presidential election. You got Mitch McConnell's arrogant and completely out of touch mission statement actually turning out to be the rallying cry for the middle class and it's champions in the Republican party, rather than a petty, partisan call to arms. You ran on jobs, you won on jobs, all you have to do now is deliver jobs and you're the fucking golden children! GO REPUBLICANS GO! Show us the reason why you won your seats!
916 bills introduced at the state and national levels to restrict a woman's right to choose.
744 bills introduced that seek to eliminate collective bargaining for public employees and weaken unions.
0 bills introduced to help create jobs.
In the last 3 years since the market crash in 2008, the wealthiest 1% in this country have seen their incomes increase by over 25%. The richest 1% are doing 25% better today than they were before the market crashed, when it was at an all-time high. In that same 3-year period, middle class incomes have fallen by 10%. The middle class is doing 10% worse today than they were 3 years ago. Inflation is rising. Food prices have increased by about 25% nationwide. Gas prices have gone up almost 30% in the last 3 years. Middle class wages are stagnant. Unemployment is still almost unchanged from where it was at the peak of the recession. Health insurance costs have increased by anywhere from 25%-50% in the last 3 years. More Americans have fallen below the poverty level in the last 3 years than at any other time in history, and the percentage of Americans living at or below the poverty level is the highest it's been since the Great Depression. The middle class is shrinking, and most of them are falling out of the bottom, not rising to the top.
So, what is the Republican solution to this problem? Well, besides pushing to defund Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS and proposing legislation to eliminate collective bargaining and restrict the power of unions to fight for fair wages, decent benefits and safe working conditions for middle class Americans, the Republicans are fighting not only to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 1%, but to increase those tax cuts even further. The same people who have out-earned the middle class by 35% over the last 3 years. The same people who have eliminated hundreds of thousands of private-sector jobs instead of creating a single new job. The same people who have shipped hundreds of thousands more jobs overseas. The people who are largely responsible for the market speculation that has driven gas prices to near-record highs and will cause it go shatter all records and break $5 a gallon by the summer, by all estimates. The people who laid you off so they could send your jobs out of the country and make more profits. The people who foreclosed on your home instead of using the TARP funds they got specifically to help you afford to keep it. The people who gave themselves multi-million dollar bonuses as rewards for crashing the stock market, extorting $1.5 trillion from the government to pay for it and then buying back in at the bottom of the market so that they could end up 35% richer today than they were just 3 years ago. Those guys deserve more tax breaks.
"Where. Are. The. Jobs?"
We want to make abortion illegal....
"Where. Are. The. Jobs?"
We want to bust up unions...
"Where. Are. The. Jobs?"
We want to give tax cuts to the rich...
"Where. Are. The. Jobs?"
Hey, you said it, John Boehner, not me. I'm just asking the same question you did, back when you were trying to get elected.
The rich in this country are paying the lowest tax rate they've ever paid in history, and yet unemployment is the highest it's been since the Great Depression. The income gap between the richest 1% and the other 99% is 25%. That means for every dollar earned in this country, 25 cents goes to 1% of the population. You know the last time in our nation's history that the income gap was that high? You guessed it, right before the Great Depression. Jobs are being lost every day. Middle class wages are falling every day. More and more hard-working American families are falling below the poverty level every day. More and more American families are applying for government assistance programs for the first time ever in their lives every day. The rate of Americans applying for first-time government assistance benefits in this country is at an all-time high.
"Where. Are. The. Jobs?"
916 bills introduced at the state and national levels to restrict a woman's right to choose.
744 bills introduced that seek to eliminate collective bargaining for public employees and weaken unions.
0 bills introduced to help create jobs.
I can only hope that, come election time, enough of the American people can see what's going on and how we've been duped once again by the party of the privileged and when we go in the booth to cast our votes, it will be all those lying, out-of-touch, greed-serving Republicans who are left asking:
"Where. Are. Our. Jobs?"
Nice post Dave. True. Where are the jobs?
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