Jobs Are Not My Job, Says Mitch

Ah, my senator Mitch McConnell once again showed a keen grasp on Sunday of what his constituents want from a Washington politician.

CNN’s Candy Crowley reminded the Kentucky Republican that a recent Gallup/USA Today poll found that 75 percent of Americans supported President Barack Obama’s plan to provide additional money for teachers, police and firefighters.

“Republicans helped not break a filibuster, if you will, in a procedural vote,” Crowley explained. “You basically got rid of that jobs bill which would have given money to the states, designed to hire or retain fireman, policeman and teachers. When we look at the polling, 75 percent of Americans supported that and yet, the Republicans were against it. So, how do you justify that in your mind?”

“Well, Candy, I’m sure that Americans do,” McConnell remarked. “I certainly do approve of firefighters and police. The question is whether the federal government ought to be raising taxes on 300,000 small businesses in order to send money down to bail out states for whom firefighters and police work. They’re local and state employees.”

“The question is whether the federal government can afford to be bailing out states. I think the answer is no.”

Sorry unemployed Kentuckians, your senator says we can't afford to lift a finger to rehire teachers and firefighters, or to in fact do ANYTHING.  But we sure could afford a war in Iraq and to give the banks trillions, yes?  Unemployed here in the Bluegrass State?  Sorry, we're broke.  Jobs are not Mitch McConnell's job, you see.

And we're broke because we can never, ever raise taxes on our precious job creators...only that's not what the bill would have done, anyway.

"Yeah, these bills are designed on purpose not to pass,” McConnell asserted. “I mean, the president is deliberately trying to create an issue here. Look, the American people don’t think, I’m sure, that it’s a good idea. Four out of five of the so-called millionaires are business owners, over 300,000 small businesses in our country that hire people. I don’t think the American people think that raising taxes on business, small business in the middle of this economic situation we find ourselves in is a particularly good idea."

On the contrary Mitch, they think it's a great idea.