In the Know: Obama's jobs bill defeated
By Michael Dafter
Oct. 13, 2011 11:26 p.m.
If you relied on common sense to comprehend what lawmakers do in Washington, you’d never figure it out.
On Tuesday night, President Barack Obama’s heavily politicized $447 billion jobs bill was nixed by the Senate. The bill included a mix of tax breaks for workers, more money to spend on hiring teachers, an increase in infrastructure jobs and a 5.6 percent surtax on people earning more than $1 million a year.
Independent economists say the jobs bill would have added 1.9 million jobs and boosted the GDP by nearly 2 percent.
The bill never had a chance, but, strangely enough, that isn’t even the point anymore.
So what is the point if it’s not getting 1.9 million new workers into the work force? Why is it that out of the 100 members of the Senate, 51 isn’t nearly enough to pass a law? Why would the president spend so much money and effort campaigning for a bill that speculation deemed dead long before the Senate even voted on it?
The answer to all three questions is simple ““ government responsibility in this country is now a fantasy. We don’t have a functional body of lawmakers that passes laws. Between us and “lawmakers” is a thick veil of fantasy: We see them functioning, acting and performing, yet their actual purpose and their propagated purpose are completely different. The fantasy is in their inaction masked as action. The reality is that they put on a show to get re-elected, and ultimately make money, by soiling the name of the opposing party. It’s their agenda in the guise of lawmaking.
What we call government is an empty ritual, and it’s meant to be that way. Obama tried to pass the jobs bill not to get 1.9 million workers off of the streets but to say that the Republican party didn’t want to get 1.9 million workers off of the streets. This is the same reason I believe our credit rating was downgraded a few months ago: Both Democrats and Republicans wanted to blame each other for nearly tipping the American people headfirst in the dreaded siphon of recession, again.
Our lawmakers don’t pass laws ““ they are actors and we are their audience.
