OPINION: Trickle nowhere

The American people have spoken!

By means of the mid-term elections the American people have sent a mandate to the American Congress. The message could not be clearer.

It said, We the people want you the Congress to do everything possible to ensure that America's super-rich are comfortable.

What? You didn't hear that message? Well, your earphones must have been turned too high, because that is assuredly what the American people said. Mitch McConnell heard them say it. John Boehner heard it, too. And they are wasting no time in obeying that mandate.

What focus these leaders have! What determination! No sooner had the American people sent that powerful message - Please, help the poor, innocent super-rich, no matter what it takes! - than these brave fellows hopped to the task.

Indeed, they had been hopping to that task even before the American people spoke. Because of that deep political acumen that comes from years of cocktails on K Street, the solons of the GOP anticipated the American people's charitable wishes for those underserved Croesuses for whom the bailouts and the tax breaks, the bonuses and the unprecedented profits were just not enough.

Ever since the first inkling reached the Republican consciousness that the beloved Bush-era tax cuts were threatened with expiration, the hopping began.

That is why Mitch and John and the boys were able to so clearly and so quickly interpret what the American people said on November 2. Lesser beings may have thought that, with 10 percent unemployment, the Americans people were saying Give us leaders who will get us jobs!

Not so. McConnell and Boehner know that the American people are not so selfish. They discerned, as only they could, that the American people were looking out for the super-rich, willing to sacrifice their own peanut butter and jelly so that the caviar can flow uninterruptedly.

Heck, that's what America is all about.

So, they've taken action. McConnell has rallied his senators into doing absolutely nothing until the Democrats agree to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans. The elitist Democrats want to extend the tax cuts for only the middle class, but the egalitarian Republicans insist that the super-rich be included. The entire government and the entire country can go to hell if the GOP does not get to give its masters what they want.

If that isn't commitment, then what is it?

Yes, I know. Republicans, even McConnell and Boehner, have said they are for creating jobs for Americans. Of course they said that. They're politicians. They're too smart to leave themselves open to accusations from Democrats that they don't care about creating jobs.

But look at what they're doing - everything they can to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the super-rich. The only reason for this is to ensure their continued comfort. The super-rich do not need the money. Their children, and their children's children, do not need the money. Oh yes, the Republicans are saying that, if you give more money to people who don't need it, they will create jobs with the extra cash.

But the Bush tax cuts have been in place for 7 years now. That means they were been in place, making life more comfortable for the super-rich, in 2007, the year the economic meltdown began in earnest.

According to figures compiled by the Economic Policy Institute, the top 1 percent of Americans owned 24 percent of the nation's private net worth in 2007. By the end of 2009, the top 1 percent of Americans own 34 percent of the nation's private net worth.

The super-rich have gotten super-richer while the rest of the nation suffered. And with those added riches, the super-rich created how many jobs over the last two years?

Somewhere between zip and zilch.

Why would anyone think they are going to start creating jobs now, or even spending enough money to stimulate the economy?

Don't try telling me that astute politicians like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner actually think for a minute that extending the tax cut for the super-rich will create jobs.

All it will do is ensure the continued comfort of the nation's most comfortable.

That is all Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and the Republican Party want it to do. When it's done that, they will have done their jobs for their true constituents.

And if they get President Obama to agree with them, which seems likely, then they can all hop around Washington in stellar bipartisan fashion. Hop to the left. Hop to the right. Ho hop hop.