So, Maybe a Jobs Bill Isn't All That Important
by James Glaser
April 12, 2010

Now getting people back to work might be important to you or one of your loved ones, but not to the people in the White House or Congress. You see, they all have jobs, and the government is hiring, not laying people off.

Here is another thing to think about. Most of our elected officials are pretty wealthy, and even thousands their of staffers make over a hundred thousand a year.

2,000 House Staffers Make Six Figures
By: Erika Lovley
www.politico.com
March 26, 2010 05:10 AM EDT
Nearly 2,000 House of Representative staffers pulled down six-figure salaries in 2009, including 43 staffers who earned the maximum $172,500—or more than three times the median U.S. household income. All the salary data are part of the public record and are culled from congressional office disbursement reports.

Ouch!

So, if the Congressmen and the President are rich or close to being rich, and all their staff people seem to be doing OK, who do you think will be able to push them to create jobs for the working stiffs who are out of work?

Obama Election-Year Jobs Agenda Stalls In Congress
By ANDREW TAYLOR
Apr 11, 9:00 AM (ET)

WASHINGTON (AP)—The election-year jobs agenda promised by President Barack Obama and Democrats has stalled seven months before voters determine control of Congress.

Democrats have no money to pay for the program. That's because both Republicans and the Democratic chairman of the Senate Budget Committee objected to taking money left over from the fund that bailed out banks, automakers and insurers and using it for the jobs bill. Such a move, they insisted, would add tens of billions of dollars to the $12.8 trillion national debt.

Now, let me get this straight. We had enough money to bail out Wall Street, the bankers, some insurance companies, and we had enough left over to buy two of the three major American car companies, but we can't find even a tiny fraction of that amount of money to put people back to work?

A few month ago the President was talking about helping out the people on Social Security because their checks didn't go up with the cost of living this past year. Washington played with the numbers and claimed that there was no inflation last year. So, the President said he was going to get each of them a $250 check to help them out. Guess what, Congress can't find the money to do that either.

Obama's proposed $250 bonus payment to Social Security recipients is dead for the year, having lost a Senate vote last month.

The President's approval numbers have been going down, and Congress' have never gone up. The American people (that would be everyone not in Washington, in a corporate boardroom, or a bank) know what is going on. The rich (our elected officials) help the rich (those who finance our elected officials' campaigns).

Before Congress went on spring break, Republicans blocked a one-month extension of health insurance subsidies and additional weeks of unemployment insurance for people who have been out of work more than half a year.

Now, why would you think Congress would do that? If they thought these benefits were important enough, the Democrats could have stayed in Washington and would have gotten them passed before they went on vacation. They decided their vacation was more important than the benefits these people needed.

How can that be, you might ask. Well, is really is pretty easy to figure out. Our elected officials don't care about us, because they are in a different social and fiscal class. You might even say that our elected officials live in a different America than we do.

They have a different retirement package (much better), they have a different health care insurance package (much, much better), and they are even insulated from most of the laws we have to obey.

So, our politicians in Washington don't really think a jobs bill is that big of a deal. Not only do they have really nice jobs, it is a pretty good bet that their loved ones have jobs, and if they lose one, somebody gives them another one.

We have to face the fact that for our elected officials, creating jobs for the Americans out of work is not a priority. They don't know us, they probably don't see us, and for sure they don't socialize with us. We are out of sight and out of mind, and so is that Jobs Bill.

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