Obama's Dialogue of the Deaf With Congress

Lawmakers return to Washington to deal with deficits and unemployment, bringing with them little personal experience of either as House Tea Party freshmen make up one-fifth of this year’s list of Congress’ 50 Richest Members.

Among those considering the President’s proposals for job creation will be multi-millionaire car dealers and other entrepreneurs swept into office last year by voters angry over how government bureaucrats were spending their tax money.

As each party “desperately searches for the political high ground on spending and jobs,” decisions will be driven by the return of a plutocracy unseen since the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century when wealth openly controlled American politics.

Ironically, the new drive to geld government will collide with the kind of spending most economists believe is needed to stimulate an economy that now is producing “negative surprises” in job creation and driving public pessimism to new depths.

The tone of the new Congress is suggested by Tea Party icon Sen. Jim DeMint, who tells a reporter he is “so frustrated I don’t think I’m going to go” to the President’s speech before a joint session of Congress Thursday night.

As Washington gets back to work, the Dialogue of the Deaf is ready to resume.

Update: The latest polls reflect voter confusion about who can do what to improve the economy, with the President and Congress sharing the blame for not alleviating unemployment and uncertainty.

As advance word from the White House is that he will advocate $300 billion for job creation to be matched by the same amount in budget cuts, it sounds like the same old game of playing on Tea Party grounds by their rules.

The President badly needs a game changer.