CROSSVILLE — Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourner, said it is a good thing to rescue people from drowning, but we need to send someone upstream to see who is throwing them in. The 1.3 million Americans who are out of work and have lost their unemployment benefits may not know who threw them in the river, but I am pretty sure they know who is holding their heads under the water.

One of the reasons Republicans use for not renewing long-term unemployment insurance is that their focus is “on employment, not unemployment.” Eric Cantor whines that Senate Democrats have blocked dozens of House-passed job bills. The bills they are sending to the Senate are not “jobs bills,” they are all about deregulating the financial industry, pulling the teeth of the Environmental Protection Agency, and lowering taxes on the rich.