Earth to White House: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Americans are angry. Wall Street has been bailed out, and there's no sign of job growth on Main Street. We know this is important because Sarah Palin's poll-tested tea party speech featured it.

We know it's important because that was the clear message of Massachusetts.

We know it's important because the White House megaphone has told us over and over again since Massachusetts that the president is going to focus on jobs.

So then why is the White House having a bipartisan talk fest on health care rather than on jobs?

It can't be to get consensus on health care. The Congress has debated health care nearly to death. One reason health care costs are soaring may be that so many Americans are sick of debating health care. And Republicans, may the gods save us, want to rip up everything and start over.

It can't be to demonstrate bipartisanship. Bipartisanship has its virtues, but isn't much use when one party is cleaning up from obstruction. Republicans aren't about to go from mugging the president's agenda to kumbaya.

So if you are going to have a show at the White House, why not have it on jobs? Republicans oppose any jobs measures also, other than the time-tested and failed staple of more tax cuts for the wealthy and the corporations. What's the Republican demand for a jobs bill? Repeal next year's hike in the estate tax that touches the heirs of the wealthiest 1 percent of families. Now that will put people to work.

So if it is show-and-tell time, why not show and tell on jobs—and reveal who is on what side?

At least, you'll be wasting time talking about what Americans care about rather than wasting time talking about what Americans are sick of talking about.

Why not hold a national show on jobs, and at the same time, rouse the Senate from its terminal stupor, pass the "fix" on health care via reconciliation, and have the House pass the Senate bill and get health care done without having another press conference about it until it is done.

I don't get it. The public cares about jobs. The country needs jobs. The president says he wants to focus on jobs. So why the devil is the White House talking about health care?

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future