On jobs, the policies can't follow the politics

White House officials said Obama would lay out a much-anticipated package of new proposals to stimulate job growth, a package expected to include spending programs for roads, bridges, school repair and training for the long-term unemployed.

One thing is no secret: the Republican Party will excoriate everything Obama says, if for no other reason that that he is saying it. They will say that new spending on infrastructure is unthinkable at a time of massive budget deficits. They will say that we should be putting less money into public education, not more. And they will say that we should not be lifting any federal fingers to help the unemployed because they need to pick themselves up by their bootstraps, regardless of whether they've been out of work so long they had to sell their boots. And one can bet that a few conservatives might even say that far from helping the unemployed, we should try taking away their right to vote instead.