Place Gun, A, To Head of Hostage, B

BOEHNER SOUNDBITE: Job creators in America basically are on strike. And it's not confusion about the policies. It's the policies themselves.

ANDREA [SEABROOK]: His answer? Reform the tax code, making it fairer and to lower rates. Cancel or change all government regulation of business, that could cost money to the economy. And make deep cuts in federal spending, including reforms to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Boehner Lobs Supply Side Shell In Fiscal Trench War With Obama

When I heard this, my first thought was: "What on Earth was John Boehner thinking?"

If you take even a moment to consider the subtext of this, you come away with the idea that there are few jobs because the people with the power to create them refuse to do so as a way of pressuring the government. In other words, the high unemployment rate, and the misery that it engenders is due to "Job creators" who are willing to deliberately allow their fellow citizens to suffer for lack of work because of a squabble with the government.

This seems odd to me, mainly because Speaker Boehner isn't running to be the Republican nominee for President. He doesn't have to frame things in such a one-sided and ideological manner. We I a business owner, I don't see how I could publicly agree with the Speaker's assessment. Especially when he could have just as easily said that business owners can't create jobs.

This is the problem with the drive to put as much distance between the ideological sides as possible. As savvy a politician as the Speaker of the House of Representatives has gone on record as characterizing the nation's high unemployment rate as a hostage scenario - and he's siding with the hostage takers. Perhaps he feels that there is a large enough Republican base that this is a sound strategy. But I suspect that he simply forgot that not everyone who might hear him has the utmost faith that his ideological stance is anything more than that.