Politicians take care of their benefactors. No other men or women need apply.

Paul Krugman responding to my post (I’m kidding) about Obama not even pretending to care about the unemployed:

…No jobs bills have been introduced in Congress, no job-creation plans have been advanced by the White House and all the policy focus seems to be on spending cuts. So one-sixth of America’s workers — all those who can’t find any job or are stuck with part-time work when they want a full-time job — have, in effect, been abandoned.

…There are almost five times as many unemployed workers as there are job openings; the average unemployed worker has been jobless for 37 weeks, a post-World War II record. In short, we’re well on the way to creating a permanent underclass of the jobless. Why doesn’t Washington care?

Krugman notes that both major parties think they’re safe from voter backlash because people who still have jobs feel reasonably secure — at least for now. Office holders have concluded it’s politically safer to whine about the federal budget deficit than address the unemployment mess. And yet, “…polls indicate that voters still care much more about jobs than they do about the budget deficit.”

So what gives? Why are Obama and legislators of both parties, the people who gave billions to the Wall Street thieves who’d stolen billions from us, so blase about the unemployed, and about declining standards of living among those who still have jobs? The D.c. politicians seem to work harder — Republicans more than Dems, of course — at pitting various worker factions against one another than at trying to boost the overall jobs market.

Do they think most Americans are cool with rule by the corporate elite, otherwise known as oligarchy, so long as their own lifestyles don’t fall below a certain comfort level — a level that that has yet to be determined?

Not yet ready to tackle that one, Paul? I don’t blame you.