A bad economy gets even worse

Perhaps the protesters in Lower Manhattan and other cities need to broaden the reach of their discontent. It’s Washington, not Wall Street, where the exploitation of others’ hardship is pursued for political gain. The wonder is that everyone from the most vocal protesters to the most ordinary voters aren’t more demanding of a radical adjustment in economic policy. It will take rallies, perhaps, but also elections to fix that.

Tuesday’s Senate vote against the President’s jobs bill should tell everyone trying to make do with less who their adversaries are. Whatever Wall Street might represent — all that privilege and protection by politicians so dependent on its campaign contributions — it’s Congress that’s taking the most deliberate action to keep 25 million Americans who need full-time jobs from getting them.

How dare Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell try to turn personal misery and political gamesmanship on its head? His remarks Tuesday, after the vote against the jobs bill, that it’s intended not to get people working but rather to make Republicans look bad for opposing it, reflect a cynicism that should be neither forgiven nor forgotten.