Well, the new jobs report came out today, and people are—undeniably—struggling. Unemployment is at 8.2 percent, a paltry 80,000 new jobs were created last month, talk increases of the Federal Reserve having to step in more aggressively.
Bad.
Bad.
Bad.
And yet, here’s what irks me most of all. One day before this came out, the Romney Campaign proudly announced that it has raised $100 million in June. One. Hundred. Million. Dollars. To spend on a friggin’ election. A friggin’ election. And please, don’t jump on me for being some partisan liberal. I feel the same sick twisting in my stomach every time we hear about Barack Obama attending a $40,000-per-plate fundraiser or pulling in his own $X million.
People seem to say the unemployment rate has zero crossover with political fundraising, but I strongly disagree. Specifically, I would love to hear the candidates asked: You talk about the poor, and the suffering, and “putting people back to work”—yet you raised $100 million in a month specifically for the benefit of your own campaign. Wouldn’t that sort of massive cash flow be better spent, ahem, not on you?
One other thing: I loathe Mitt Romney (here, I’ll be a lefty hack). I really do. Just try and find a happier guy, RE: a sagging U.S. economy. He talks about his 59-point plan, but never utters one thing that wasn’t offered by George W. Bush (tax cuts … tax cuts … tax cuts). And yet—and this is the funny thing—Romney refuses to mention Bush. Ever. Why? Because what’s the benefit? Most Americans agree he was, at best, a tremendously bad president who ruined a perfectly good surplus and dragged us into two unnecessary wars.
Man, I’m pissed.
