Randi Rhodes: Jobs!

At yesterday’s 9/11 ceremonies, all around the new park at the WTC site you could see construction cranes that had stopped work for the commemoration. They’re back at work this morning. Now we’ve got to do something about the thousands of construction cranes all over America that aren’t going back to work anytime soon unless we pass a jobs package.

President Obama has proposed a $447 billion jobs package designed to reduce unemployment. The big problem is that Republicans don’t want to spend the money... and they certainly don’t want to reduce unemployment.

Republicans are vowing to find ways to block the “triggered” cuts to defense that would automatically happen if the deficit-reduction committee can’t come up with a plan. In other words, they think failure SHOULD be an option. If you were wondering if President Obama got the best of Republicans in the debt-ceiling deal, there is your answer—right away, Republicans are trying to get out of it. Great. They held the nation hostage to get this deal… and now they’re trying to get out of this deal.

There is yet another debate of Republican presidential candidates tonight. They made Obama move his speech so that these losers could debate? I’m surprised Obama could find a night they WEREN’T having a debate. This bunch gets together more often than the old Cuban guys who play dominoes in the park every day.

During the last debate, Rick Perry called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and a “monstrous lie.” In an op-ed in USA today, Perry backed away from the “Ponzi scheme” and “monstrous lie” language. Now he says he just wants to fix Social Security. I guess he thinks we need a better Ponzi scheme, and a more efficient monstrous lie. Rick, you can’t fix a monstrous lie. If you want an example, try the monstrous lie that Rick Perry just wants to fix Social Security. Perry always says he wants to “get the USA working again.” Evidently he wants us all working until we’re 90 years old.

Today’s Homework | Discuss

Paul Simon performs 'The Sound of Silence' yesterday at the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero..."