Any American still wondering why the economy is in the tank can stop wondering. In one magnificently revealing statement, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid encapsulated everything that is wrong with having Democrats in majority control of the federal government. “The massive layoffs we’ve had in America today--of course they’re rooted in the last administration--and it’s very clear that private sector jobs are doing just fine, said Reid on the floor of the Senate Wednesday.
"It’s the public sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers, and that’s what [The American Jobs Act is] all about. And it’s unfortunate my friend the Republican Leader is complaining about that. I would also note that my friend said the House passed another bill. Well, they pass lots of bills, but they rarely go anyplace.” Let's take this tripe apart piece by piece.
We're almost three years--and almost $5 trillion in additional deficit spending--into the Obama administration, and Harry Reid still wants to blame the Bush administration for all of America's troubles. Bush was indeed an irresponsible spender of the taxpayer's money, but Harry likes to omit a few inconvenient facts. Like the fact that Democrats controlled Congress and the budget process from 2006 right through 2008 when the economy tanked. Or the fact that, despite their much-professed animus towards the banks, including their alignment with the Occupy Wall Street bunch, more Democrats than Republican in both houses of Congress voted in favor of the TARP bailout. (In the House, Democrats voted 172 in favor of the bank bailout and 63 against it. Republicans split 91 in favor and 108 against. In the Senate 41 Democrats supported TARP and 10 voted against it. Republicans were 33 in favor 15 against).
Another inconvenient fact Harry likes to omit is what necessitated the bank bailout in the first place, which was the housing debacle precipitated overwhelmingly by Democrats, who forced those same banks to lend mortgage money to unqualified applicants---and who pummeled anyone who challenged such irresponsible lending as racist.
Moving on to the preposterous claim that private sector jobs are doing just fine, Harry might have done himself a favor by perusing the U.S. Labor Department's website. Table A-14, entitled "Unemployed persons by industry and class of worker, not seasonally adjusted" shows that the segment of the U.S. workforce with the lowest unemployment rate in the nation is--government workers at 4.7%. The overall unemployment rate? 9.1% The unofficial, or U-6 unemployment rate? 16.5%. I'll leave it up to the American public to decide whether Harry is a fool, or a liar--or both.
It's unfortunate Republicans are complaining about it? The entire country is complaining about it, Mr. Reid. And a great many of them are aware of the fact that the original stimulus package which added $865 billion to the national debt was little more than sop Number One to public sector workers, who got their salaries, pensions and healthcare benefits shored up--while millions of private sector workers got pink slips. The only difference between that so-called jobs package and this one? This time you're admitting it's nothing more than sop Number Two to one of the Democrat Party's most reliable constituencies. Democrats call that a jobs package. A vote-buying package is more like it.
Finally, you note that the Republican-controlled House passed another bill, that they pass a lot of bills, but they rarely go anyplace. Why do they rarely go anyplace? Because the Democrat-controlled Senate--the same one which has failed to adopt a budget for more than nine hundred days--either refuses to vote on any of them, or shoots them down--even as the Obama administration has the unmitigated gall to call Republicans obstructionist.
In 2012, Americans are going to have to choose between a Democrat party hellbent on expanding government at every level, no matter how fiscally irresponsible it is to do so, or a Republican party which gets one more chance to prove they are a viable alternative before they get kicked, perhaps permanently, to the curb. They have to decide whether to let the Democrats bankrupt the nation or Republicans try to save it. Harry thinks there aren't enough government jobs out there. If a majority of Americans agree with him they deserve everything that's coming to them.
Or more accurately, what may never be coming to them ever again.
