I’ve noticed a conservative bent to Sam Youngman’s reporting for The Hill, but he’s definitely repeating the common wisdom. In his eyes, the president isn’t serious about passing a jobs bill, he’s just using it as a weapon to beat over the Republicans’ heads. Anyone can see that this bill, and pretty much any conceivable alternative bill, cannot get 60 votes in the Senate or pass through the Boehner-led House. The Republican Party doesn’t want to reduce unemployment. They want to increase it. They don’t want to demonstrate that Congress can work together to solve problems. They want to prove that Congress is broken and that the federal government is worthless.

This has been the Republican plan since November of 2008. And, so far, it has worked for them. It didn’t prevent an avalanche of progressive legislation in 2009-2010, but it made that legislation hard to digest on the left and downright toxic on the right. Since the 2010 midterms, the Republicans have effective veto power over everything, and they’re using that veto.

Yet, the president isn’t doing this all for show. He’s trying to put pressure on Congress to do something about joblessness. It’s only a political question because the opposition refuses to do anything to help people find jobs. How long are they going to persist in refusing to act?

Senior administration officials have warned reporters for the last month that Obama will be pushing the jobs bill long after the press has grown bored of hearing about it.

It will be at that point, the thinking goes, that Americans will have heard about it, embraced it and joined the president in calling for its passage.

The drumbeat is to pass the Jobs Bill. Everyone says it can’t pass. The president thinks Congress should pass the bill right now and put 2 million people back to work. He’s going to keep saying that and saying that, and, really, why shouldn’t he? People want action on jobs and the Republicans want a bad economy for political reasons. If enough people come to understand this, they’ll either force their representatives to act or replace them next November. If they don’t come to understand this, they’ll throw out the Democrats for being ineffective.

Where do you stand?

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