Has anyone noticed? The republicans are talking about jobs again – about how important jobs are, and about how we don't have enough of them, and how the democrats haven't done anything about making more or better jobs, and how republicans in congress are first and foremost interested in making more jobs for everyone, and that is their priority when they take office.
Anyone who has avoided falling victim to America's Acquired Attention Deficit Disorder (AAADD) will remember the republicans doing a lot of talking about Jobs, Jobs, Jobs in advance of the 2010 mid-term elections. And the republicans did very well in those elections, retaking control of the House of Representatives. But after telling everyone that they are all about jobs and making more jobs, when they actually took office, they did NOTHING about making more jobs. In the past two years since the republican party took control of the House, not past a single bill focused on jobs has passed the House. Hey, they've been very busy: first there was the scandal about PBS not soliciting donations from fake Arab terrorists, then there was the attempt to force America to default on its debt payments, then the Super-Committee did a super job of doing nothing so congress had to hop to in order to prevents those automatic cuts to the defense budget, and now Planned Parenthood has to be put in its place, so on.
So the republicans in congress told us they were going to be about Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, but while actually holding office they have been working very hard to stop anything that might improve the economy, and where ever possible, to remove government workers from their jobs.
But now the republicans are talking about jobs again, and how important jobs are. That means it must be election time.
On the Mitt Romney web-site, “Jobs and Economic Growth” is the first title you come to when examining the all important “Issues” category. Romney wants you to know that jobs are very important and not only has Obama failed to provide jobs for American, Mitt Romney has the business experience and knowledge about how jobs are created. Surprisingly, Mr Romney's plans don't include anything that will directly result in more jobs. There some talk about lowering tax rates for corporations (the implication being that corporations that pay a lower tax rate hire more workers), and there is some verbiage about removing regulations (I'm guessing that corporations that pollute more also hire more workers – after all, omeone's got to drive that tanker truck full of industrial sludge out to some rural dirt road in the middle of the night to empty it – those are high-paying jobs!). He also talks about more funding for the military: plenty of jobs there. But there is nothing there about building roads or repairing bridges, about hiring more teachers to better educate our kids, grants to educational institutions for more research, or retrofitting homes for energy efficiency.
Yes, now that there is an election to win, republicans have turned their focus from wrecking the American economy to Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. My cynical side tells me the jobs that republican politicians are most concerned with are their own, but my republican friends tell me that the republicans will even hire me today to go out and talk to the voters and get their message out, though that job doesn't come with any benefits or even a salary for that matter.