The American Jobs Act is dead. Nearly two million Americans will not have the jobs that this act would have created. Given Republican refusal to raise taxes for the wealthy and their determinatiion not to give Obama a "victory", its defeat was totally predictable. But the loser in this is not President Obama, the loser is the entire country.
Earlier this week, the Senate could not muster the 60 votes to prevent a Republican filibuster. The House Republicans will not allow it to even reach the floor for a vote. Let's hope the voters remember this come the 2012 elections.
The "Occupy - 99%" demonstrations continue across the country. It's not clear that the demonstrations will be any more effective than Obama's stump speeches as long as Republicans control the House and block jobs legislation and taxes in the Senate. Class warfare? Gangs? The Republican empty suits that are decrying the OWS demonstrations were egging on the Tea Party loonies just a year or two ago. The Republican Party has been captured by an extremist wing funded by billionaires. If there is class warfare, it is one the Republicans have created over the past 30 or so years by continually redistributing the nation's wealth to the richest. The country is now on the verge of becoming an oligarchic banana republic.
So this will be theme number one for the 2012 elections for the Democrats: the absolute intransigence of the Republican Party on anything that might have helped the economy or create jobs. Republican lawmakers would rather cater to the wealthiest Americans (and many of these wealthy do not even want to be catered to!) and to the corporations that fill their campaign coffers. This needs to be drummed into the American consciousness continually from now to November 2012.
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