With early voting for Florida primary elections having begun on August 9, the 2010 election season is well underway. The official date for the primaries is August 24, and the mid-term general elections, November 2.

As expected, the elections are shaping to be a fierce battle between Democrats and Republicans, with the latter, in several races, trying to grasp control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate from the ruling Democrats. Republicans are casting blame directly at President Barack Obama and his administration for everything they disagree with, and that’s a lot.

There is nothing strange or unique about the political warfare taking place, as it has become traditional in American politics for the opposing party to make inroads with the ruling party during the mid-term of a new administration.

However, increasingly in the current campaign, it is being displayed that the stubborn issue of the nation’s high unemployment rate (currently at 9.5 percent) is being used as a political tool, to the disadvantage of over 14 million unemployed Americans.

Unemployment has been plaguing the nation, and in several states like Florida, California and Michigan, the rate greatly exceeds the national rate. Although the unemployment picture has improved since the Obama administration took office, too many Americans are still unemployed, despite all the attempts made by the government including the application of some $830 billion to stimulate the economy and generate millions of jobs.

One of the main problems hindering employment growth is that the private sector, traditionally a dependable employer, is not aggressively rehiring former employees, or hiring new ones. With credit tight, businesses are cautious about hiring, mindful of encountering problems in paying salaries.

Thus, the government has been pushing for the U.S. Congress to approve a bill that would provide some $30 billion to community banks to be loaned to small businesses. This move would definitely boost the expansion of small business, and accordingly, employment.

But this bill that stands to ease the unemployment pressures in the country, most states, and in several families, is being used as a political tool in Washington.

Most U.S. Senate Republicans are opposing the bill, arguing that it will add to the national deficit and are accusing Democrats of embarking on a continuous spending spree. However, what the Republicans are failing to highlight is that the funds being sought for the small business loan program are not new funds sourced by the government. They are original Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) money that was repaid to the federal government by the large commercial banks that received these funds to bail them out in 2008 and last year.

A few weeks ago, it seemed as if the legislation would make it through the U.S. Senate when some Republican senators, including Florida’s interim senator, Senator George Lemieux voted to advance the bill beyond the debate stage. In fact, there was real optimism that the bill would have been approved before the Senate breaks for its summer recess in August. However, Senate Republicans blocked the bill’s progress with several procedural amendments; now it is highly unlikely to be approved before the August recess.

Of course, not having the bill passed before the November elections suits Republicans’ political objective. Without a law to assist in rolling back the high unemployment rate, Republicans can make unemployment a formidable political platform going into November.

This is not the first time that Republicans have tried to make unemployed Americans suffer for the sake of political gains. The extension of unemployment benefits, which was finally approved a few weeks ago, was delayed for weeks as Republicans tried to convince the nation that Democrats were recklessly increasing the national deficit to provide genuinely needed unemployment benefits.

One understands the machinations of politics, and the quest to win votes by all accounts, but when a politician or a political party tries to garner votes on the backs of Americans who have challenges providing food and shelter for their families and themselves, politics becomes a dangerous and pitiful game.

Certainly, a conscientious politician who puts the needs of his constituents before the raw desire to win should realize that he or she stands to gain more votes by being seen as one who really cares to ease suffering, rather than one harboring only a raw desire to win.

Let’s pray that the men and women in Congress, who would rather delay a bill that could result in employment for millions, find their conscience and set about quickly approving the bill to help small businesses expand. Politicking on the backs of millions of unemployed Americans is plain wrong.