Friday, April 8, 2011

They Just Don't Get It

Party leaders worked through the night in a failed effort to avoid a government shutdown.  Unless an agreement is reached today the government will run out of money and be forced to shut down at midnight tonight.  The prospects look dim as the sides emerged from the all-nighter trading barbs and blaming each other for what appears to be inevitable.
The impasse in a $1.6 trillion dollar deficit stands at paltry $7 billion dollars with the ideological arguments centering on funding for NPR, Planned Parenthood and the EPA.  The Democrats want it…the Republicans don’t.  The real question is “who cares.”
The American economy has two wheels in the ditch and is struggling to stay upright.  Real unemployment (unemployed + underemployed + those who have quit looking for a job) stands at around 16%. 
The Democrats won the 2008 election promising jobs.  Once they were elected they focused on health care reform. The Republicans promised to correct that error in 2010.  Once they were elected they focused on anti-abortion legislation.
Our fragile economy cannot withstand the addition of 800,000 furloughed government workers added to the unemployment rolls.  It cannot stand the reduction in purchasing power that those 800,000 workers will cease to provide.  The little progress that we have made in the past few months will quickly be reversed.
The average American doesn’t give a damn if part of their tax dollars goes to NPR, Planned Parenthood or the EPA.  What they care about is putting food on their tables and taking care of their families.
It is all about jobs, jobs, jobs.  Our elected leaders just don’t get it.      

No comments:

Post a Comment