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| Democrats rip GOP senator for blocking jobless benefits extension |
| 2010-03-02 |
| Top Democrats tore into one of their Republican counterparts Monday for blocking an extension of unemployment benefits that would provide assistance to millions of jobless Americans. The Senate adjourned last week without approving extensions of cash and health insurance benefits for the unemployed after Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Kentucky, blocked the measure by insisting that Congress first pay for the $10 billion package. The emergency measure needed unanimous consent to pass. Bunning, who is retiring at the end of this year, said he doesn't oppose extending the programs, he just doesn't want to add to the deficit. Democrats claim the bill is an emergency measure that should not be subject to new rules requiring that legislation not expand the deficit. So the Dems can't even find $10B to cut out of a multi-trillion dollar budget. Does this suggest anything to you? I guess everything is more important to the dems than unemployment benefits. And nothing is more important than unemployment benefits to them, too. Free digital TV for the poor is important, now hush ... As a result of the Senate's inaction, many jobless people starting Monday were no longer able to apply for federal unemployment benefits or the COBRA health insurance subsidy. "The irony of all this is we're out trying to fill that (financial) hole created by the (recession) which cost 8 million people" their jobs, Vice President Joe Biden said. "At a time when so many families are in so much pain we shouldn't be shutting the few valves of relief. ... We should be opening that spigot a little wider not shutting it down." Bunning, in turn, took to the Senate floor to bemoan what he characterized as a growing lack of fiscal responsibility. "If we can't find $10 billion to pay for something that we all support, we will never pay for anything on the floor of the U.S. Senate," he said. Bunning's remarks prompted an immediate response from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada. "Where was my friend from Kentucky when we had two wars that were unpaid for during the Bush administration?" he asked. Reid also mentioned the Bush administration tax cuts, which Democrats have said are unpaid for. So the fact that we spent a few hundred billion on the wars means that we can now spend a few trillion on the 'poor', and not pay for either ... "We don't need lectures here on debt" from the GOP, he said. "There are poor people all over America who are desperate today." White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Bunning had "frustrated a lot of people ... across the spectrum." Federal unemployment benefits kick in after the basic state-funded 26 weeks of coverage expire. During the downturn, Congress has approved up to an additional 73 weeks, which it funds. These federal benefit weeks are divided into tiers, and the jobless must apply each time they move into a new tier. Because the Senate did not act, the jobless will now stop getting checks once they run out of their state benefits or current tier of federal benefits. That could be devastating to the unemployed who were counting on that income. In total, more than a million people could stop getting checks next month, with nearly 5 million running out of benefits by June, according to the National Unemployment Law Project. It also keeps the unemployed from moving on to finding another job; that's well known. Lawmakers repeatedly tried to approve a 30-day extension this week, but each time Bunning has prevented the measure from passing. Several other programs aside from unemployment and health benefits are affected by the legislative spat, including federal flood insurance, satellite TV licensing, and small business loans. The stalled bill also would provide a short-term extension of the Highway Trust Fund, which is a federal fund set up to pay for transportation projects nationwide. For all those 'shovel-ready' projects that haven't quite yet got going ... Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday that up to 2,000 employees at the Transportation Department will be sent home without pay as a result of Bunning's decision to hold up the bill. "As American families are struggling in tough economic times, I am keenly disappointed that political games are putting a stop to important construction projects around the country," LaHood said in a news release. "This means that construction workers will be sent home from job sites because federal inspectors must be furloughed." |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #15 Whew, the poor and unemployed folks can hang up the pitchforks and lanterns back in the shed now. Whew. |
| Posted by: GirlThursday 2010-03-02 22:35 |
| #14 At least Marie Antoinette wanted to let them eat cake. With these pols, one wonders if they think people can eat air and sleep on straw mats with lice. pitchforks are coming if they dont get their crap together. |
| Posted by: GirlThursday 2010-03-02 22:23 |
| #13 Pitchforks. |
| Posted by: GirlThursday 2010-03-02 22:19 |
| #12 He's also pressuring them to use already authorized but unspent stimulous funds rather than keep those around for key constituents in the runup to the elections. |
| Posted by: lotp 2010-03-02 18:18 |
| #11 Sen Bunning's Home Page: http://bunning.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm I have sent him a non-constituent e-mail of support.... |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2010-03-02 18:05 |
| #10 He did not stop a vote. He stopped a "unanimous consent" move, and now they have to vote on the record, instead of skating by. He is making the Senate actually do its job: vote on laws. The lazy bastards in DC, all they need to do is show up, and vote this thing. Nothing Bunning can do to stop that. |
| Posted by: Beldar Threreling9726 2010-03-02 17:02 |
| #9 http://www.kentucky.com/2008/12/18/630621/non-profit-profits-us-sen-jim.html |
| Posted by: 746 2010-03-02 14:42 |
| #8 This is what has to happen to curtail the spending. Lots and lots of pain, as we stop giving people other people's money. We are so deep into this mentality of giving what we don't have, it's going to be a long, hard road back to fiscal sanity. At this first, tiny pinch, look at the reaction and anger. Just imagine what it's going to take for the big stuff..... |
| Posted by: NoMoreBS 2010-03-02 14:11 |
| #7 It has made the Dems look like spoiled kids. That would be the hope. But the Dems and their partners in the MSM are gonna spin it to make the Republicans look like a bunch of old meanies. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2010-03-02 12:02 |
| #6 Old Jim has been called senile in the past couple of years, but he sounds ok on this. Refreshingly open and honest, even. Politicians love to spend but hate to actually find funds to pay for it (taxes or offsetting cuts), so they just borrow and kick the payment can down the road. Bunning is trying to block that kick. If unemployment benefits extension is so important then it should not be that hard to find the funds to pay for it - so go do it! |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2010-03-02 08:58 |
| #5 “I am keenly disappointed that political games are putting a stop to important construction projects around the country," LaHood said in a news release. Bullshit. It’s not like his own leadership is giving him the full throat on this one. Bunning is acting on principle not politics. One can disagree on his tactics but the accusations of game playing from the left are completely disingenuous. The pathetic aspect is that it takes a politician not seeking re-election to actually stand by his own convictions. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2010-03-02 08:49 |
| #4 It's not just that it's a recorded vote, it's that it is without any reduction in other spending. It shows PAYGO is a joke and the donks will have a hard time hauling it out in the future. I also support unemployment assistance, but 99 weeks seems like enough. My daughter from a large midwestern windy city said she is getting pressure to hire more clerks (30!) at her big box store but HR can't source applicants. On the other hand, a new company is moving into the old Circuit City here in the boonies and they got 400 applicants, 10% of the county's unemployed, for 40 openings. Hard to tell what's going on. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-03-02 08:48 |
| #3 The trick to a unanimous consent request is that it is agreed to by leaders of *both* parties, behind which they can all hide, because it is a voice vote only. What Bunning has done is to force a *recorded* vote, so everybody has to go on the record. And like cockroaches when the light is turned on... So the Democrats are going full court press to attack Bunning. A DNC-ABC camera crew even tried to follow him into a "senators only" elevator, and kept the doors open despite his attempts to leave. http://www.breitbart.tv/abc-news-angers-sen-bunning-this-is-a-senators-only-elevator |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-03-02 08:35 |
| #2 It had been a unanimous consent request. Bunning decided to slow down and talk about it. It has made the Dems look like spoiled kids. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2010-03-02 07:19 |
| #1 They're not hypocritical, we just don't understand. Like, how one guy can stop 59 dem Senators and the other 40 rational Senators. Did I miss that? Has to come out of Committee, perhaps? Of course, the dems can't give in and actually compromise, right? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2010-03-02 06:42 |