The Jobs Plan

Well, now we have it, the President's $450 billion plan to bolster the slumping jobs market. He urged Congress to "stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy." And, he assured us, the American Jobs Act "will be fully paid for."

Onlookers are skeptical. Like the President, they are sure that the GOP will play its hyper-partisan politics and put on another "political circus". Why? Well, obviously because Republicans are opposed to anything that the reasonable, caring, compromising Democrats might suggest. Politics.

We've heard a lot about the "race card", that nasty little trump card that gets pulled out of the deck whenever someone wants to win an argument if there is the least possibility of the remotest connection of the hint of racism. The President, for instance, was opposed because he was black. The race card. I'm so very tired of the race card. But I'm equally tired of the politics card. If Republican A is opposed to Democrat B's plan, it can only be politics. Tea Party members of Congress are not out to push an agenda; they're out to block anything the Democrats might do. The politics card.

One commentator said, "This is not the time to stand on ideology. This is the time to get things done." Right. Let's see if I understand that. "This is not the time to approach our national problems from a principled basis. It's the time to do whatever the President asks. Failure to comply is simply playing 'circus', being 'hyper-partisan', trying to stand for something. Stop it!" It appears that the only possible course of action that is not "political circus" is "whatever the Democrats say to do". Anything else is partisan politics. Anything else in this climate is incompetence, pig-headedness, approaching treasonous behavior.

I'm tired of the race card. I'm tired of the politics card. One other thing I'm tired of, and this isn't pointed at "them". I'm tired of the number of people that seem to think that the President of the United States can create (or eliminate) jobs. I'm tired of the monolithic "White House Administration" (where "White House" is replaced with the name of whoever is in office) that seems to wield god-like powers to create wealth, increase or decrease taxes, elevate or depress the economy, pass laws good or bad, and generally create or eliminate the general welfare. Let me clue you in. It ain't necessarily so. Ours is a government of checks and balances that prevent one branch from having too much power. The President can only do so much. Congress can only do so much. And the combined efforts of 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 Senators along with the President of the United States and the additional effects and influences of the Supreme Court are almost necessarily going to be clumsy, slow-moving, divided by principle, ideology, personality, and, yes, even politics. Really, what do you actually expect of a president and the Congress? Could it be that your expectations are a bit too high?

Sure, sure, a president and the rest of our government, whether local, state, or federal, will certainly have effects on our lives, our jobs, our pocketbooks. They can do things that might encourage jobs and they can do things that might discourage them. They can minimize or maximize their squabbling. They can act purely pragmatically and do whatever feels good to them at the moment or they can act on principle and take stands for what they deem to be right. They can choose to boost your taxes or cut them, although economists are not agreed on the results of either on the national outcome. But, listen, people. Ours is a government of the people, meaning that we need to be responsible. We need to be responsible for who we support, vote for, or vote against. We need to avoid silly concepts like "partisan politics" as if that's all there is as well as the foolish idea that the President can solve our problems, whether he (or she) is a Republican or Democrat. If that's where your faith is, folks, I have bad news for you.