To Job or Not to Job

That's not actually the question, or at least it shouldn't be.  At the very least, if it is the question, the answer is obvious right?  Not so fast.

Which would you rather have?
A) Bridges, roads, school buildings, airports and other infrastructure at the cost of a 0.7% tax increase on those making over a million annually (this comes to an average of $13,457 per millionaire)

B) No bridges, roads, school buildings, airports or other infrastructure...period

Though this seems subjective, there is a right answer: choice A. Despite how obvious this is, you won't be surprised to know that some people are picking choice B...you also won't be surprised by who those people are.

The purported party of the economy seems to be doing everything in its power NOT to help the economy.  Though some Republicans championed a bipartisan infrastructure bill in March, not a single one was willing to vote to put Americans back to work while simultaneously creating and repairing infrastructure that would have encouraged even more job creation.  It was a slam dunk and not a single Republican was willing to vote for it.  Not one.  Instead, Senate Minority Doofus Mitch McConnell went so far as to accuse Democrats of creating a bill they knew would fail.  In fairness to Mitch he's right.  It doesn't matter what Democrats put on the table - they've already basically offered the farm - all they get is NO from the opposition.  Democrats should know by now that any attempt to create meaningful, bipartisan policy is a futile endeavor.  Mitch McConnell has acknowledged this before when he pledged to make the healthcare debate "Obama's Waterloo" and when he stated that his only major goal was to make sure Obama was a one-term president.  The plight of millions of Americans and the state of our economy is, quite literally, not on the man's radar.  He just does not care.

Many objective observers have been saying it for a while, but the Republican party isn't interested in governing, isn't interested in legislating, has never heard of the word compromise, and quite frankly, does not care about improving America.  They care about winning back control of Congress and the White House and if millions of Americans must remain jobless for them to achieve that goal then so be it.

In a fair and just world this strategy will backfire.  Independent voters will see Republican intransigence for what it is; they will watch as their countrymen suffer so that a handful of no-tax extremists can get their way - it should be pointed out that the policies these people espouse created the mess we are in - and they will reward Republicans by voting for Obama and Democrats next year.

But this is not a fair and just world so I don't know what will happen.  I can only hope that objective people will realize that the only major Republican policy proposal of the last three years was the one to eliminate Medicare and replace it with Paul Ryan No-Care.  The situation has gotten so bad that Republicans have even been abandoning their good ideas when and if those ideas get support from Democrats.

The current state of American politics is an embarrassment and though there is plenty of blame to go around, there is only one party that is actively trying to improve our country.  The other party is lining up to audition for the remake of Grumpy Old Men; they have selected choice B on the quiz above and they don't care about what that means for their countrymen.