Posted on 03/02/2010 10:41:34 AM PST by Chi-townChief
The dysfunction of the Senate has now reached cruel depths. First we watched as Republicans systematically chose to filibuster every major vote, effectively ending majority rule by requiring 60 votes to get anything out of the Senate. Now, one Republican senator, Kentucky's Jim Bunning, who is not running for re-election, employed this power of obstruction to block a 30-day extension of unemployment benefits, aid for COBRA health insurance payments and a range of other key programs.
Even while his Republican colleagues admitted that eventually -- perhaps soon -- they will renew the program, one senator ended unemployment insurance extensions for millions of unemployed. In March alone, 1.2 million people will lose their unemployment benefits if the program is not renewed.
Bunning was aggravated that the Democrats forced repeated votes to try to get the measure passed. He complained that he was missing the Kentucky-South Carolina basketball game.
This is an utter disgrace. Bunning may have missed a basketball game, but state unemployment offices had to send out millions of letters informing people that their unemployment support was terminated, that they wouldn't have continued aid to help make COBRA payments to extend their families' health insurance. Doctors were informed that they would suffer 21 percent cuts in Medicare reimbursement. Some 2,000 federal transport workers were furloughed. Federal reimbursement to states for highway programs -- about $190 million a day -- was suspended, as well as some small-business loans.
There are 10.7 million people unemployed in Bunning's Kentucky. Does the senator have any idea what it is like to struggle with unemployment in this economy? There are six applicants for every job. Every member of the family looks for ways to sustain the home. Every dime is counted, every bill an agony. Harsh decisions are forced. Parents skip meals to ensure their children can eat. Credit cards are maxed out and rolled over so mortgages can be sustained. The tension goes up as more creditors are owed, more bills missed.
Under the pressure, marriages are strained. Depression, anger, a sense of failure too often lead to drinking or worse. A constant search for jobs leads to repeated rejections.
Twenty-nine million people are unemployed or underemployed in America today. And in the midst of this, one arrogant senator -- irritated at being forced to miss his basketball on TV -- ensures that millions get suspension notices. And worse, that state agencies bear the increased costs of shutting the programs down and starting them up again.
Bunning's complaint was that the unemployment extension was not paid for, but was an emergency appropriation. Not only have unemployment extensions traditionally been special supplemental appropriations, but the senator's economics makes no more sense than his arrogance.
Unemployment insurance and food stamps are the best jobs programs in any recovery plan; they have the biggest return on the dollar. The reason is simple: The unemployed spend every cent on their expenses, and use the food stamps to buy needed food. Every dime spent helps to boost demand and create jobs. Borrowing the money to spend on unemployment insurance is not only humane, it helps the economy recover. That's why unemployment insurance is built in as an automatic "stabilizer," and why extensions of unemployment insurance, when the recession is deep and long, have generally had broad bipartisan support.
Last month, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby put a hold on all of Obama's nominations to extort funding for pet projects. This month, Bunning adds more uncertainty to the most vulnerable American families to make an ideological point. These senators don't get it. Our country is in trouble. Homes are being lost. Millions are without jobs. This isn't about missing a basketball game. People are in pain. It is time for the games to end; there is work to be done.
mailto:jjackson@rainbowpush.org
Take the money out of the unspent stimulus. Jeez.
Its only OK when democraps do these things
Shrug. Find a way to pay for it and be done with it. If it was me, I’d get rid of all Federal flood insurance and get the remaining UC aid by cutting peoples’ welfare checks.
Just shows how clueless that Jessie is regarding what Jim is trying to do.
Where be my stimulus?? No stimulus - no justice.
Exactly!!!!!!
Ever see what happens to your kids if you give them everything they wanted?
They turn into Democrats.
“There are 10.7 million people unemployed in Bunning’s Kentucky.”
From my Rand-McNally Road Atlas 2008 edition (Large Scale) page 244 ...
Kentucky - Population 4,173,405
Jesse should be regarded as an expert on joblessness as I can not recall him holding a PAID position in a private business EVER....
That was actually proposed to Harry Reid yesterday but he refused.
Master you have obviously forgotten all the illegals errr, undocumented workers!!
LOL
I have a novel idea. Why don’t all the unemployed use all that extra time they have and go picket Barack Hussein Obozo outside the Whitey House and ask him to quit his purposeful destruction of jobs?
nah, that might mean extricating one’s behind from the couch and actually doing something.
Yeah! I need a CHECK!!
It figures. What an assclown Harry is.
Pay for unemployment, and that’s what you’ll get.
Government subsidies retard the completely necessary process of capital reorganization.
From my Rand-McNally Road Atlas 2008 edition (Large Scale) page 244 ...
Kentucky - Population 4,173,405
You ain't using that new math... the one they use to show the creation (or save, cough cough) of 2 million yobs!
Looks like the write doesn’t know the differnce between 10.% unemployment and 10.7 million people? LOL He nots bes too smart!
that should be 10.7% not 10%
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