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(AP)
If the back story is true, now we know the real reason KY Sen JIM BUNNING road-blocked a bill extending jobless benefits: He was mad mad at his fellow Republicans.
Apparently, he wanted to run for re-election but got no support from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and GOP colleagues. To get back at them, he refused to extend unemployment benefits.
"The back story here is Sen. Bunning is in a feud with the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer said on CBS' "The Early Show" Wednesday. "He wanted McConnell and Republicans to support him in a bid for re-election. They did not do that. He's been seething and so while the Republicans were trying to move on … he puts a hold on it and it takes three or four days to get it done. It's unconscionable."
Finally, he agreed late Tuesday night to drop his one-man filibuster. The $10 billion jobless benefits extensions bill passed, 78-19.
Bunning's move cut off extended unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for hundreds of thousands of jobless Americans. It also bottled up stopgap funding for highway programs, prompting the Department of Transportation to send roughly 2,000 employees on furlough.
Bunning said the move was aimed at forcing Democrats to find ways to pay for the programs without increasing the deficit but Democrats quickly turned Bunning into the new poster boy for Republican obstructionism and put the GOP on the defense. GOP greybeards surely knew this was not exactly the PR they needed at a time when health care reform has gotten new life in this, a midterm election year.
Even Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe --the Senate's most conservative member-- called on Bunning to drop the filibuster.
Bunning had always claimed the matter was about principle, framing the debate in understandable terms: Congress must stop spending money it doesn't have in order to get the federal deficit under control. Pay your bills.
But if all this was about principle was a hissy fit because Republicans wouldn't support a re-election bid, what does that say about principle?
Bunning voted against the pay-go rule less than a month ago.
How many times in the past has Senator Bunning voted for bills that weren't paid for? Better to ask, where was Bunning the last nine years?
Getting the deficit under control and insisting that Congress quit spending without paying is one thing. But to suddenly get the spirit for pay-as-you--go while throwing a few hundred thousand Americans under the bus in this economy really does call one's ethics into question particularly if the real reason has to do with your own political future.
Excuse me!
You have to laugh
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Comments
The lack of any leadership on both sides.
Nancy Pelosi who is at fault for letting needy Americans lose their healthcare and unemployment benefits. ALL spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives and the Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi) is the one in control of when legislation is brought to the floor for a vote. The simple fact is that the Democratic leadership waited until the last minute to get this bill through in an effort to bypass their own law that they just passed (the “pay as you go law” that was signed by the President himself just 2 weeks ago).
Its quite clear Rein and Pelosi both showing major incompetence by waiting so long on such important legislation.
DA says:
"The lack of any leadership on both sides.
Nancy Pelosi who is at fault for letting needy Americans lose their healthcare and unemployment benefits. ALL spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives and the Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi) is the one in control of when legislation is brought to the floor for a vote. The simple fact is that the Democratic leadership waited until the last minute to get this bill through in an effort to bypass their own law that they just passed (the “pay as you go law” that was signed by the President himself just 2 weeks ago).
Its quite clear Rein and Pelosi both showing major incompetence by waiting so long on such important legislation. "
BULL(F--KING) SH-T!!!!
quit being a partisan hack!
lay the blame EXACTLY where it goes - BUNNING and no one else.
you piece of f---ing partisan sh-t!...even hardcore partisan republicans didn't want to play games with peoples' lives and voted for the extension.
Whatever and whyever, at least people are now paying more attention to uncontrolled Congressional spending.
The funny thing is that NOT ONE person was anywhere near not getting their unemployment benefits! It was the typical scare tactics used by the leftists.
Larry Soetoro says:
"The funny thing is that NOT ONE person was anywhere near not getting their unemployment benefits! It was the typical scare tactics used by the leftists."
are you an idiot? Wait, I made that assessment of you a long time ago...it was Bunning(R) that put the monkeywrench in the EXTENDED unemployment benefits...the key word EXTENDED...it wasn't a given as you stupidly assume... back many years ago during a recession, I was unemployed and needed one of these EXTENSIONS...it wasn't passed (republicans) and a lot of us got into some financial situations...an EXTENSION of unemployment benefits is never a "done deal"...so, Stupid Larry, they actually were in danger of not being able to pay the home and lights and it was NOT a scare tactic...been there.
Paul Kersey says:
"Whatever and whyever, at least people are now paying more attention to uncontrolled Congressional spending. "
no they are not...the ones that did, still do and the ones didn't, still don't...not one person crossed the divider either way...it just shows the independents without a job or with a relative or friend without a job, which party is NOT watching out for them and who is willing to hold them up as hostages...I don't even have to mention the party and everyone on both sides knows which party I am speaking of.
"NOT ONE person was anywhere near not getting their unemployment benefits! It was the typical scare tactics used by the leftists."
Hindsight, meet 20-20.
No person as of today has not received their unemployment checks. FACT!
walnut, you can adore me all you care to, but I will not be your butt buddy.
Now go play with your sister.
@Larry Soetoro
don't need my sister when you "present" so well.
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