Posted on 02/26/2010 7:31:57 PM PST by tobyhill
The Senate adjourned Friday without approving extensions of cash and health insurance benefits for the unemployed after a lone senator blocked swift passage due to his insistence that Congress first pay for the $10 billion package.
Retiring Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Kentucky, led a spirited Senate debate with Democrats over the issue -- at one time cursing at another senator on the floor. Bunning said he doesn't oppose extending the programs -- he just doesn't want to add to the deficit.
According to two Democratic aides on the Senate floor Thursday night, Bunning muttered "tough s---" as Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, criticized Bunning's stance on the package.
An aide to Merkley said the senator didn't hear the remark. A spokesman for Bunning said he was aware of the reports about the senator's language but didn't have a comment.
On Friday, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, sent Bunning a letter asking him to "stand down immediately" from his stance.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Here’s just a couple of ways the Senate could help fund unemployment (just from the news in the last two days):
House Republicans yesterday lashed out against the Obama administration’s proposal to ramp up funding next year for research on the effects of global warming on farmers.
The Agriculture Department’s fiscal 2011 budget request includes a number of programs intended to address the potential impact climate change could have on farmers and ranchers. It would devote $52 million to climate change programs — a relatively small piece of the $21.5 billion discretionary spending request.
Battle lines were drawn yesterday as the chief Senate architect of the U.S. EPA spending bill and state regulators backed a White House proposal to ramp up funding for programs to curb greenhouse gas emissions, and congressional opponents vowed to fight the agency’s efforts.
“I would support it,” Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said yesterday of President Obama’s suggested $43 million boost for EPA programs to limit greenhouse gases in fiscal 2011. “There’s no question about greenhouse gas in my mind.”
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Battered by the housing crisis, mortgage finance company Fannie Mae said Friday that it needs another $15.3 billion in bailout money from the federal government.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/26/news/companies/Fannie_mae_results/
The State Department has unveiled its plans for an extravagant new embassy in London, an expensive crystal cube that features a 100-foot moat among its defenses — but the hi-tech hive is already facing angry salvos from fuming taxpayer watchdogs.
The new structure, reported by the Times of London to cost $1 billion, would set a glittering jewel in the crown of American presence abroad, even as soaring deficits and unemployment continue to threaten the economy at home.
The Department of Energy’s latest report on the Weatherization Assistance Program—a $5 billion piece of the now year-old Recovery Act—is disheartening. A mere $368.2 million dollars of the $5 billion have been spent and about 5 percent of units allocated funding across the nation have been completed. Of the top 10 most funded states, only two have completed more than 2 percent of the planned units (as you can see in the chart below), and there has been more time spent taking wage surveys, in accordance with the Davis-Bacon Act, than there has been caulking, stripping and insulating homes.
“In short,” the report says, “the Nation has not, to date, realized the potential economic benefits of the $5 billion ... The job creation impact of what was considered to be one of the Department’s most ‘shovel ready’ projects has not materialized
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/home_improvement/4347294.html
Unemployment GROUP?! I guess the parasites have plenty of time to organize.
Yep. Unemployment is now unionized.
qwertypie: “And that is the pragmatic RINO-type thinking that has led to the bankruptcy of the USA.”
Exactly! Maybe Republicans should start handing out money faster than the Democraps. That would certainly be popular with millions of voters. If one year of unemployment isn’t enough, make it two years. Shoot! Just make it indefinite. That would be even more popular, right?
Yeah! That’s the ticket. Hand out more cash, and Republicans will rule forever! After all, even if it comes crashing down in the distant future, what do we care? Most of us will be dead when our children’s children are living in a third world country called America. Party on!
Why, that big MEANEY!!!!
gee, can’t we all just follow the law???
mrs
The Senator has a point. He is to be commended. This stuff has to stop somewhere.
$10 billion? Is that all? It's chump change compared to what the Dem Congress has "appropriated" from the people. There's hundreds of billions of TARP money unspent - how about redirecting some of it to the needy? Are you still afraid that they "wouldn't spend it right"?
There's more billions out there, unspent, because the cause that you so fervently wanted to fund was caught in a video sting and you can't support them openly any more. The money's still there, but you're waiting for the people to forget and the offices to rename themselves, and they'll be back on the gravy train. Don't the unemployed deserve that money, more than ACORN?
There's money out there for the people you CLAIM to care about, without borrowing any more or raising taxes. Somehow when the bills were passed and the money appropriated, it became YOUR money, for YOUR desires, and no longer for the people's needs.
Bunning is my new hero. It’s the principle of the thing, you know.
Already has. There was a posting about this on our local Craigslist yesterday.
The people of KY may come and tar and feather him.
This is part of Bunning’s recent statement to Ben Bernanke during his confirmation hearing for a second term:
“Four years ago when you came before the Senate for confirmation to be Chairman of the Federal Reserve, I was the only Senator to vote against you. In fact, I was the only Senator to even raise serious concerns about you. I opposed you because I knew you would continue the legacy of Alan Greenspan, and I was right. But I did not know how right I would be and could not begin to imagine how wrong you would be in the following four years.”
http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/blogs/investorcentric/2009/12/senator-bunning-challenges-bernanke.html
I’m with you. People are starving here in FL and cannot find jobs. This is not the bill I would have chosen to stand on. People I know have been looking for work for months and months. There’s nothing.
I do not consider extending unemployment benefits in times like these wasteful. It seems to me, for instance, these idiotic bills like cash for clunkers would be a better target.
People of KY had already turned against him before he showed this latest round of courage. People in KY support unemployment comp.
The truth is, most won’t find work until the unemployment runs out...then, amazingly, they find a job.
It may not pay at the level of their previous job, it may not even match their unemployment benefits (which is the problem) but it’s honest work for an honest wage.
This guy is a true hero.
If the dems want to extend unemployment, let them take the money out of some other program. I bet you could take a billion out of ten different programs and they wouldn’t even miss it. In a time of unprecedented deficits, this is a heroic position. Bravo!
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said: “There’s no question about greenhouse gas in my mind.”
I’d agree she has some kind of gas in her head, and it’s not conducive to rational thought.
Yeah right. Toss him some more pork and Bunning will come around. They always do.
LMAO.
LOL. A couple possum sandwiches should do.
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