Lindsey Graham: Contractors Should Lay Off Workers Before Election

by Beth

Senator Lindsey Graham (r-SC)

I know I am not alone when I say that the repugican party has been doing their damnedest to sabotage the economy and the jobs situation for political gain. If you’ve been paying attention, even in the slightest, it’s a pretty straightforward fact. Since the 2010 midterms, we’ve not seen one inch of movement on the repugican side to alleviate the jobless morass the country has fallen into. Instead, we’ve seen a reigniting of the culture wars, from opposition to marriage equality to the war on women, but jobs? Eh, not so much.
So it should come as no surprise that Senator Lindsey Graham (r-SC) has called on government contractors to layoff personnel just before the election, in protest of the scheduled mandatory defense budget cuts slated for the first of the year, due to the 2011 Budget Control Act. From First Read (emphasis added):

“Politicians, you know, quite frankly respond to pressure,” Graham said about the cuts set to begin in 2013 under the so-called sequestration budget.
“I’m urging every defense industry that could be affected by sequestration to put your employees on notice before November,” he continued. “The more it becomes real to us as to what comes the nation’s way, the more likely we are to solve the problem.”

I cannot tell you how much that makes my blood boil. That entire statement is a slap in the face to every voter, every citizen, every worker, every employee, every employer, every taxpayer, in this country.
The more it becomes real to you?
Are you serious?
Apparently, while the rest of us have been slogging through the Second Great Depression, Graham has been living in some parallel world/ fantasy land, where everything is sunshine and teddy bears. But to call for politically-based layoffs, in my opinion, is grounds for immediate dismissal from the Senate, because that statement makes it crystal clear that Graham has no vested interest in the economic health of this country at best, and it’s cutting off your nose to spite your face at worst. Whatever people may feel about the bloated defense budget, calling for summary layoffs to make a political point is on the warmer side of treachery in my book.
Now, before somebody crawls up my ass about how “the left hates government contractors,” let me be clear on one thing: not every government contractor is a Blackwater or a Haliburton, and government contracts are not awarded to companies based solely in the business of war; hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of small businesses contract with the government on projects on a daily basis, from road repair and other infrastructure, to nursing home construction and laying cables for phone and internet access.
But here’s the other thing that just really gets under my skin:

“Politicians, you know, quite frankly respond to pressure.”

In other words, until you actually pressure us to do something, we’re just going to sit on our asses and twiddle our thumbs.
What are you? A bunch of five-year-olds in need of a flippin’ babysitter? You are elected officials (supposedly adults) voted into office to represent your constituents and govern the country. We pay your salary (and your posh government benefits to boot), we are your bosses, and we’re paying you to do your job.
That being said, as one of Lindsey Graham’s bosses, I think he should be fired…yesterday.