In July the unemployment rate inched up another one tenth of a percentage point, to 9.5 percent, leaving more Americans out of work. Meanwhile, partisan bickering in the Senate continues as Republicans used parliamentary procedures to block a vote on a small business lending package.
It’s easy to see what’s going on in Washington, but Washington is not seeing clearly what is happening on Main Street, and further, it seems many of them do not care.
In November all 435 House seats are up for grabs along with 37 Senate seats. The Republican Party has one goal, to win back as many seats as they can and control both houses of Congress. Maybe then something could be accomplished for the American people. Maybe then the Party of “No” will support a small business package, as long as it’s attached to an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
The problem with this scenario is the President will veto legislation that includes those tax cuts, and so, nothing will get done. We cannot allow the Republicans to take over Congress and create and even greater stalemate than we already have in Washington.
The House is preparing for a six-week break on Friday. Unless a compromise is reached this week, the vote to shore up small businesses will wait for September, and during that time unemployment will continue to edge upward in most areas.
During a NBC interview the other day at a General Motors auto plant in Michigan, President Obama called Senate Republicans the “just say no crowd,” which is a very fitting definition of what that party has become.
It’s understandable the two sides have a difference of opinion and different philosophies, but because they represent the people they should not stand in the way of progress in an effort to win elections, it’s wrong, no matter what kind of spin you put on it, it’s just wrong.
Both sides like to use numbers and skew statistics to their favor. The Republicans do it by pointing at the deficit and using it as an excuse to block legislation for things like unemployment benefit extensions and small business loan programs.
Obama, himself did it during his NBC interview. The president said GM had created 55,000 new jobs since their financial bailout.
What he left out was the fact that the majority of those jobs were created in China, where GM is building a new $250 million advanced technology center. The Chinese are buying Chevrolets and GM is providing the Chinese with jobs. Back home, jobs are being lost and people cannot afford to purchase new cars.
According to Robert Reich, former secretary of labor under President Clinton, big business will continue to export jobs overseas because labor is cheaper and they have the purchasing power we no longer possess.
“The reality is this: Big American companies may never rehire large numbers of workers. And they won’t even begin to think about hiring until they know American consumers will buy their products. The problem is, American consumers won’t start buying again until they know they have reliable paychecks.”
So if big business will not put Americans back to work again, small businesses must start hiring. For the small business sector to begin hiring again they need to expand, market, advertise and invest, but they cannot do that in our current business climate.
The legislation to help small businesses so they can hire workers is a step in the right direction and it will create jobs. This is an important ingredient in the recipe to put Americans back to work, but if the Republicans have their way nothing will get done, unemployment will continue to rise and short-sighted out-of-work Americans will vote for them; they are counting on their constituents not to see the larger picture.
