What an outrage. Republicans want tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to be permanently extended, but they don't want to pay for them. Republicans delay the passage of jobless benefits, and would only support them if they are paid for.

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I didn't invent the title of this post -- it came from the New York Daily News, whose front-page bannered headline recently read: "GOP TO CITY JOBLESS: DROP DEAD!" The front-page headline in the Daily News, hardly a liberal paper, included the all-caps and the exclamation point.

What an outrage. Republicans want tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to be permanently extended, but they don't want to pay for them. Republicans delay the passage of jobless benefits, and would only support them if they are paid for.

The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, one of the Democrats the Republicans love to hate the most, made this exact point on Thursday, and of course, she is exactly right. The Republicans want tax cuts for the wealthiest that are not paid for, while they have double standard to punish the jobless.

Today's depressing and disappointing jobs numbers make the Democrats look even weaker for not fighting harder for jobs, and make the Republicans look even more out of touch with reality, and more cruel and heartless towards the jobless as Christmas approaches.

What is extraordinary about the current situation is that, historically, the gilded ages come before the crashes, but today, the gilded-age insiders who caused the crash then profited from the crash they caused, while the rest of the nation suffers the pain.

Make no mistake, the New York Daily News is right. The message of the GOP to the jobless is: drop dead, while the GOP fights for the tax cuts for the wealthiest to continue to flow forever, even if they increase the deficit.

Authors Bio:

Brent Budowsky is a regular columnist on thehill.com. He served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit. Left goverment in 1990 for marketing and public affairs business including major corporate entertainment and talent management.