[/caption] Posted on 03/02/2010 1:50:50 PM PST by T Christopher
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="285" caption="(March 1, 2010 - Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images North America)"][/caption]
Retiring Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning has apparently decided to make the most of the time he has left in Washington by making the lives of his fellow senators a living hell. In what has now become a four-day standoff with many from both sides of the aisle, Bunning is holding firm on his opposition to proposed legislation that would extend unemployment benefits to millions of Americans. With Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN following the story almost exclusively all morning, his standoff is quickly becoming the political news story of the week.
As you might expect, many have offered strong objections to Bunning's position on the matter. The Left is trying to paint it as a REPUBLICAN effort to take much-needed money from struggling American families and many on the Right are calling for Bunning to stop before it is viewed as such by the American people.
Now I must admit that I am anything BUT a fan of Senator Bunning. Frankly, I will be happy to see him go. That said, I am with him on this one. Any Republican in the Senate who thinks Bunning is in the wrong on this one is focused solely on the political repercussions of taking such a stance on an issue such as this. They should all be willing to admit it as such, or shut their mouths and let at least one man speak the truth.
The underlying reality of this standoff is the fact that just days ago Democrats pushed through the "Pay as You Go" standard which they characterized as a plan to maintain fiscal responsibility. With the ink on the paper still moist from its drafting, they then moved on to this - a spending bill that "quietly" ignores the rules that THEY have just written.
Bunning wants the $10 billion price of extending the programs offset by reductions in spending elsewhere in the budget to not drive up the deficit.This is just another attempt by the Pelosi-Reid brain-trust to force Republicans into a politically damned if you do - damned if you don't position. If Republicans vote NO, they are casting a vote that would allow unemployment benefits to stop for those who are hoping for an extension and thousands of jobs to be lost if funding for the programs that created them is allowed to lapse. If they support it, they are equally to blame for the continued expansion of government and for violating PayGo just days after it was adopted.
We won't even address whether said extension is a prudent measure - even if proposed on its own - because the reality is that such an extension is not being proposed on its own. Its being lumped in with a piece of nuclear waste that Democrats don't want to touch and cannot explain - the Medicare reimbursement appropriation.
Look, I understand that Bunning may be a little off his rocker, and he may have been rocking like a mad man for quite some time, but the fact of the matter is he's right on this one. He alone is in a position to take this stance, because we all know the rest of the Republicans only stand on principle when its politically convenient or expedient to do so. He's on his way out and he's falling on the sword for the rest of the spineless twits that share his Party label. They should be thanking him not opposing him...
The other reality is this... Bunning isn't "filibustering" this bill. He is simply taking his unanimous consent objection to astronomic proportions. Dem's could have skirted his objection procedurally and moved on to a vote already - they just don't want to. They'd rather make this a political charade and paint Republicans as the people standing in the way of unemployment benefits. As Erick Erickson at Red State points out... Dems are simply trying to gain 100% support for this bill at the same time their complaining about having to get 60 votes for health care. Go figure...
This is nothing more than Dems being Dems and the MSM providing them cover. Bunning isn't filibustering away jobs and unemployment benefits, he is holding Democrats accountable for rules that they have just written. PayGo is great in theory, but this fiasco demonstrates precisely why it is nothing more than a cleverly designed hoax. It is word play - smoke and mirrors at best. Placate fiscal responsibility by passing a PayGo bill saying you're required to do so, and then go on spending, spending, and more spending. Its like slapping a Jesus fish on the back of your minivan and then road-raging like a madman flipping the bird at little old ladies while "sexting" and running moonshine.
Questionably Republican Susan Collins of Maine took the floor today to attempt to break the Bunning "filibuster" and offered up this piece of political ass-cover.... via Roll Call
[stextbox id="grey"]“There are 500 Mainers whose benefits expired on Sunday. The COBRA health insurance benefits subsidies for the unemployed, important flood insurance, highway funding, small business loans” expired, Collins said on the floor. “If we don’t act, physicians all across this country are going to have a 21 percent cut in their Medicare reimbursements. Madam President, I hope that we can act together for the American people, and again I want to emphasize that this issue is so important to Senators on both sides of the aisle.”
But in objecting, Bunning took a shot at his own party and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as he read a letter from a constituent who praised his stand against the bill. McConnell and Bunning have a frosty relationship — it hit a low point last year as Bunning was deliberating over whether to seek another Senate term.
“It’s too bad Sen. Mitch McConnell and some of the elected officials on your side of the aisle do not have the backbone or your sense of decency when it comes to keeping their promises to the American people,” Bunning quoted his constituent from Louisville as writing.
Bunning is still insisting that the 30-day extension be paid for from stimulus funds before he allows a quick vote on the House-passed measure. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has offered to hold a vote on a Bunning amendment to offset the bill, but Bunning refused on the basis that his proposal would likely fail.
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The Gateway Pundit posted this video of the exchange between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Bunning...
Michelle Malkin has the full video via CSPAN
In this video from Democrats.Senate.Gov... Harry Reid says Bunning's stance on this bill is "IMMORAL." (A clip from last week)
Fire Dog Lake has a list of the programs shut down because of the Democrat-imposed delay in passing this bill.
Ed Morrissey explains why this is not a "filibuster" for anyone who may have been lost on that point as even Fox News is characterizing it as such.
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This is not a filibuster, which is a specific procedure in which Senators force debate to continue indefinitely as a means to block a final vote, denying “cloture” to the majority party. Alternatively, and now somewhat archaically, it also describes an effort by one Senator to just continue talking to stall action. Bunning is usinganother mechanism altogether, one that won’t block a final vote, although it will delay it:
No one is required to give unanimous consent to any request for it. Senators normally give it, though, in order to keep business moving. Withholding unanimous consent simply means that the Senate will have to hold procedural votes that it would otherwise waive in order to finish its work. That’s not a filibuster.
Furthermore, Bunning’s action is based on the demand by Democrats and the White House to restore the pay-go rule, as Heritage’s Brian Darling explains:
Bunning isn’t even opposing the bill, or at least not its purpose. He’s objecting to thefinancing, which violates the pay-go rules Democrats just imposed.
Pay attention to the misreporting on this issue, because it will happen again when Republicans begin using the same process to slow down reconciliation. Coburn threatened to withhold unanimous consent on bill readings during the ObamaCare debate last December, and wound up forcing the clerk to read the bill aloud for hours. If Democrats decide to cram ObamaCare through reconciliation, it won’t just be Bunning withholding unanimous consent, and not just on ObamaCare, either.
Bunning isn’t filibustering. If Democrats want to get to a vote, they can with or without unanimous consent. If their bill is well supported, it will eventually pass. But after the scolding a few weeks ago from Obama on deficit spending and the Democrats’ victory dance on pay-go, the real reason Democrats are unhappy about Bunning’s action isn’t because it’s a filibuster, but because it shows their hypocrisy on deficit spending. And the American media needs to do its research on Senate procedure before declaring the withholding of unanimous consent a “filibuster.”
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Political Realities has a more general explanation of the backstory here just in case you're new to this one and trying to catch up... "The thing is, Bunning is right…sort of."
Quick - talk him into hanging around for another term.
Or maybe he can move to SC and run against Lindsay Gramnesty.
Bunning isn't opposed to extending unemployment benefits. He just wants it paid for with money that's already available. The national debt is now at 14 TRILLION dollars.
Eliminate unemployment benefits, food stamps, WIC, and the rest of the entitlements. I could be happy with that.
That wasn’t my point and I’m sorry if it came across that way. I wasn’t meaning to imply that he was going to vote against the bill- in fact, I think that’s what makes the story all the more remarkable. He is going to vote for the bill - or at least that’s what’s being reported - he just wants to call the Dem’s on the hypocrisy of this proposal and illustrate the ridiculous nature of pile on legislation that continues to pour out of Washington.
U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK
The Outstanding Public Debt as of 03 Mar 2010 at 01:24:36 AM GMT is:
 |
The estimated population of the United States is 307,937,015
so each citizen's share of this debt is $40,631.86.
The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$3.96 billion per day since September 28, 2007!
Concerned? Then tell Congress and the White House!
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