Sen. Bunning and the unemployment benefits debate revisited; Update: Senate votes 78-19, UI/COBRA extension/govt benefits bill passes, no pay-go; Update: Roll call vote added
Scroll for updates…2:37pm Eastern reported deal reached on two amendments…bomb threats reported…vote set for tonight…78-19, unemployment benefits/COBRA extension, other government benefits extensions pass…$10 billion bill not paid for…roll call vote added
I’ve praised GOP Sen. Jim Bunning many times over the last two years for taking unpopular stands against massive, government entitlement expansions. He was the lone dissenter in April 2008 on a massive mortgage boondoggle. He was one of 25 Senators to vote against the TARP crap sandwich in October 2008. He voted against the UAW/auto bailout in December 2008. He was one of the fiscally responsible 14 GOP Senators who voted against the $6 billion GIVE/SERVE national service entitlement expansion in March 2009. And he has consistently grilled wrong-headed Fed chairman Ben Bernanke over his spectacularly wrong assessments of the housing bubble and the state of the economy.
As you all know, Sen. Bunning is now leading a lone filibuster effort against a Senate $10 billion jobless benefits/COBRA extension bill. (Good point: Ed Morrissey points out the inaccurate characterization of Bunning’s effort as a “filibuster.”) And the Dems are going bonkers.
GOP Sen. Susan Collins is trying to stop Bunning:
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) took to the floor Tuesday morning to ask that the Senate vote within hours on the bill so that thousands of furloughed federal highway workers could go back to work and the unemployed could see a resumption of their jobless benefits. Bunning’s filibuster, which he kicked off Thursday, caused those provisions to expire Sunday night. The retiring Kentucky Republican wants the measure paid for.
Bunning objected to Collins’ request, as he has to nearly a dozen requests from Democrats for similar rapid resolutions to the standoff.
Collins said she was proffering the request on behalf of herself and “numerous” other GOP Senators with whom she had spoken…
…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.
Video via C-SPAN from yesterday on the Senate floor:
Some weak-willed Republicans don’t want the GOP to be cast as the heartless Scrooges taking away “temporary” unemployment benefits that have become enshrined permanently.
You’ll remember that the Left went nuts when I made standard economic arguments last summer on “This Week” on ABC News when the issue came up:
The panel was dismissive of standard economic arguments against extending unemployment benefits (which I’ve been blogging about since last January, when the Bush administration embraced expanding the entitlement). Cynthia Tucker made the common error of mistaking my simple argument about incentives for some sort of moral judgment.
Question: Where do we draw the line? Laid-off workers can collect up to 79 weeks of unemployment in half the states. Democrats want to extend the benefits another 13 weeks:
Representative Jim McDermott, Democrat of Washington and chairman of the House Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, said he would introduce a bill in September to provide yet another 13 weeks of coverage in states with unemployment rates of 9 percent or higher. “Legislators will line up quickly when they start getting calls from desperate constituents,” he said in a telephone interview.
The cost would be $40 billion to $70 billion, but the expense would be temporary, Mr. McDermott said.
Treasury Secretary Geithner told Stephanopoulos the administration is open to such proposals. Well, hell, why not extend the benefits indefinitely?
There is no such thing as a “temporary” entitlement in Washington.
A reminder of the Heritage backgrounder I posted in January 2008:
“Temporary” Extended Unemployment Benefits?
History Tells a Different StoryThe House on January 29, 2008 passed a bipartisan economic stimulus bill that did NOT include provisions to extend unemployment benefits. However, the Senate Finance Committee (SFC) has decided to add a “temporary” extension of unemployment benefits to its version of this legislation.
But does “temporary” really mean this program will operate only “through the end of 2008,” as the legislation’s proponents suggest? Looking back at the history books reveals a different story – of past “temporary” unemployment benefit programs that were repeatedly extended, operating for years and costing tens of billions of dollars more than originally expected.
Unemployment benefit program 1991-1994
Original proposed program length: 8 months
Original estimated cost $7 billion
Actual length: 29 months
Actual cost: $39 billion
Number of extensions: 5
Unemployment rate at start of program: 7 percent
U rate at end: 6.4 percentUnemployment benefit program 2002-2004
Original proposed program length: 10 months
Original estimated cost $9 billion
Actual length: 29 months
Actual cost: $26 billion
Number of extensions: 2
Unemployment rate at start of program: 5.7 percent
U rate at end: 5.8 percentUnemployment benefit program 2008
Original proposed program length: 11 months
Original estimated cost $10 billion
Actual length: ? months
Actual cost: ? billion
Number of extensions: ?
Unemployment rate at start of program: 5 percent
U rate at end: ?1. SFC documents suggest the “temporary” extended unemployment benefits program would operate only through CY 2008 and cost $10 billion. But these sorts of programs never work out that way.
a. CRS reports that no “temporary” extended benefits program created since 1970 has expired without being extended.
b. Programs created in the 1980s and 1990s were extended 6 and 5 times, respectively.
c. The prospects a temporary program created today will expire at the end of 2008 as the SFC proposes – with the window of eligibility shutting two days after Christmas – is both dubious and would be without precedent in the last generation.
2. Even if it operated only as long as the “average” program created since 1980, a “temporary” program created now will be paying extended benefits in mid 2010.
a. The average duration of extended benefits programs created since 1980 is 30 months.
b. If a program started in February 2008 and paid benefits for 30 months, the final payments would be made in July 2010.
c. The total cost of such a program would likely be $30 billion or more.
3. If prior extended benefits programs began when the national unemployment rate was as low as 5.0%, these “temporary” programs would have operated for decades.
a. The U.S. unemployment rate was 5.0% or higher in every month between January 1974 and April 1997 – more than 23 years in a row.
b. Today’s 5.0% rate is below the average of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
c. During the Clinton Administration (1993-2000), the average unemployment rate was 5.2%.
d. According to a 2007 report by the Congressional Budget Office, today’s 5.0% unemployment rate is the same as the “natural rate” CBO will use “both currently and for the 10-year projection period through 2017.” Put another way, according to CBO today’s unemployment rate is “normal” not “high.”
e. Creating an extended benefits program now will create a precedent to repeat this action every time the unemployment rate reaches this historically modest level. That will cost billions of dollars and encourage more and longer unemployment.
Sen. Bunning’s move to unmask pay-go hypocrisy has been dismissed by the White House as “irrational.” His GOP colleagues are backing away.
But if Republicans can’t stand up and question the permanent Nanny State and can’t point out the unintended consequences of liberal intentions without folding like card tables, what good are they?
***
Update: Bomb threats reported at Bunning’s Kentucky offices…
Friday afternoon state police took a phone call from the FBI after a threat had been made at the William D. Gormam Educational Center in Hazard.
The center houses the offices of U.S. Senator Jim Bunning and Congressman Hal Rogers.According to officials working the investigation, the threat was that an explosive device or devices had allegedly been placed at the educational center.
A threat had also been made at Senator Bunning’s Office in Louisville.
***
Update: Bunning reportedly relents vote scheduled for tonight…
A Republican that had been stubbornly blocking a stopgap measure to extend help for the jobless relented on Tuesday under withering assaults from Democrats and dwindling support within his own party.
Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky had been single-handedly blocking the $10 billion measure, causing federal furloughs and threatening the unemployment benefits of hundreds of thousands of people. He was seeking to force Democrats to find ways to finance the bill so that it wouldn’t add to the deficit, but his move sparked a political tempest that has subjected Republicans to withering media coverage and cost the party politically.
The bill is now slated to come to a vote Tuesday night. It passed the House last week and is likely to be signed into law immediately by President Barack Obama so that 2,000 furloughed Transportation Department workers can go back to work on Wednesday. They’re likely to be awarded back pay once the program is revived.
A law that provided stopgap road funding and longer and more generous unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for the jobless expired Monday. Without the extension, about 200,000 jobless people would have lost federal benefits this week alone, according to the liberal-leaning National Employment Law Project.
The measure to be voted on tonight would extend through the end of the month several programs that expired on Monday, including the jobless aid, federal highway funding and help for doctors facing cuts in Medicare payments.
It would provide a monthlong extension of the programs to give Congress time to pass a yearlong fix that’s also pending.
Will it be an all-nighter?
From The Hill: “Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) appears set to release blanket hold he had placed Tuesday on all of President Obama’s nominees, according to Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) office.”
***
9:19pm Eastern.The Senate bill extending unemployment insurance and other govt benefits passes, 78-19. No pay-go provided for as pushed by Bunning.
Here’s the roll call vote:
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Conservative here who has voted Republican every time, often with nose held … I’ve been out of work since last May in the current downturn in the IT industry, on unemployment and without health care.
I’ll tell you this … there is little work out there and it’s tough.
Bunning is not making it any easier, folks. People on unemployment are not bums. You want to bash someone over your frustrations with government, fine. We all want that, including Bunning.
You might want to find someone else to take the whipping.
I’m just saying …
Collins and Snowe, they should be replaced … I wonder what is wrong with the people of Maine?
Thank you, thank you Sen. Bunning! You have a back bone, unlike most in dc. You milk toast r’s who are not backing him, SHAME on you! These are furloughed fed. highway workers. These are already paid for by US taxpayers.
L
If the Republicans had any guts, they would join Bunning and phrase it in terms the public would understand. They should say that they have no objection to the extension as long as there is means to pay for it, you know, like pay-go. Put it right back in the Dems court. Instead they are running scared, afraid of being painted as those mean Republicans who want to let the people go hungry. They are letting the Dems set the narrative once again.
Sen. Bunning has asked the elephant in the room question that hasn’t been asked in months, year, perhaps decades. How do we pay for it?
We can’t pay for any of our wishlists that our politicians keep throwing out there. I have this cute little device known as a calculator that I’m willing to part with if anyone in D.C. wants one.
Where’s DeMint and Sessions? It looks like we only have one conservative in the entire Senate.
What good, indeed?
In that instance, would they even be necessary?
Sen Bunning has it exactly correct. He is using the just recently passed pay-go bill to do the right thing.
At some point we have to stop spending money that we don’t have. No more lip service. Either you will follow the pay-go provisions, either you stand by your guns about spending, or you will be a hypocite.
There will always be an excuse to spend money for this program or that program. Someone has to stand up and say ‘no more’.
Our son finished law school, passed the bar…, and cannot find a law job.
Instead of complaining about no law jobs, he’s taking a job at a hardware store, and he and his friend and classmate, who similarly cannot find a law job, are planning to set up their own law practice.
I haven’t read any comments referring to the unemployed as bums. I’ve been unemployed myself and I know how difficult it is. Are you out buying things right now with money you don’t have? Bunning is right…the country doesn’t have the money and the corruptocrats are too cowardly to cut a useless program to pay for the additional benefits. I think that your ire should be aimed at them and not one man who actually has integrity.
Where is the rest of the GOP to defend Sen. Bunning?
This really p*sses me off.
I went to Sen. Bunning’s web site and sent him an e-mail telling him to keep up the fight. We need to all send these encouraging letters to him!! He needs to know he is not alone…the American People are right behind him!
Agree.
What it seems like Senator Bunning is trying to do is get a vote on this, rather than unanimous consent, so everyone is on record whether they plan to adhere to Pay-Go or not.
Congress has a spending addiction. they have taken step 1 of the 12 step program, admitting they have a problem, but they refuse to go any further. If they are not going to curb their addiction, then an intervention is coming next November.
Although this has been termed a “filibuster” in many news accounts, this is in reality Bunning indicating his disapproval with a UC (unanimous consent) motion. Because he refuses to consent to it, the legislation is being
held up. The Senate could easily pass this legislation if they held an up or down vote, but the Senate leadership chooses not to. So, instead of placing the blame on Bunning, the blame should be placed on Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats for furthering the delay and aany resulting problems.
I believe that the Republican leadership dissuaded Bunning from running for reelection. That’s too bad; I wish there were more Republicans following Bunning’s example.
@ pabarge…
Bunning (and many of us) just wants the extension paid for instead of “borrowing” the money. If the Feds can’t find a “measly” $10 billion to cut from other spending then he is doing the right thing. It’s not hard to understand.
pabarge #2
One of my friends in Texas is also in IT and has been without work since 2/15 last year. He claims that it isn’t a lack of jobs as so much H1-b visas are still bringing in thousands from out of country to fill them. Another friend in Seattle works in a govn’t office and half the people he works with are from Pakistan on contract. What’s up with that? Our prayers go out to you that you’ll find work soon and nobody on this forumn wants to see anyone suffer. And, we know that people are.
But, it still begs the question: how do we pay for any of the wishlists without bankrupting the country? We’re broke.
26-year old living home with mommy and daddy whines: “whaaaa! Don’t take away my “funemployment” allowance !!
(I might have to open up the want ads and actually get of mny ass and do some work.)”
On March 2nd, 2010 at 2:02 pm, granite said:
Our son finished law school, passed the bar…, and cannot find a law job.
Instead of complaining about no law jobs, he’s taking a job at a hardware store, and he and his friend and classmate, who similarly cannot find a law job, are planning to set up their own law practice.
Good for him! Unfortunately you son is the excpetuon to the rule. I see it every single day. If kids can’t get the job they want they won’t take the job they need. The reason why is quite simplye. Becaseu they really don’t need the job.
He needs to be applauded. Something has to be done about the spending in DC. Obama just spent another 6B on green crap.
Where do they think this money comes from? They never care. They have ‘paygo’ but they never consider whether they have money for something before they pass it.
Unemployment benefits is now 2 years. The COBRA subsidy enriches insurance companies and raises costs of health care.
But even if you want to spend money on them it is fine, but you should be able to find 10B in cuts out of 3.5T of the budget.
Bunning is right and it is a shame that he is alone in this fight.
We don’t need to put unemployed highway workers back on the job.
We won’t need our highways before long.
This is exactly why if/when DemDeath passes, it will not be repealed by the Republicans. That said let’s get our people back to work! What I propose is a freeze on all future unemployment benefits, as well as all minimum wage and affirmative action programs. Will it happen? Of course not. I have little doubt that even Senator Bunning would have the vapors were such a thing proposed. But if the State is doing all it can to prevent people from working, the least it can do is toss some cash their way.
Jim Bunning and Mitch McConnell are MY senators. Just sayin’…
Life is hard out there. Jobs are scarce all over. Whos in charge of this mess? Oh Obama and the Democrats. Or are they still blaming Nixon? No end in sight as government policy is still focused on losing jobs, not creating them.
Correct me if I am wrong but I believe Federal unemployment is paid by businesses that have employees.A percentage of a companys payroll goes into this fund.The only thing Congress has done lately is extend the benefit again and again which is more tax on a company.Less profit leads to layoffs and less hiring.
What is wrong with the Maine Twins? Really, what part of we are broke, the cupboards are bare, doesn’t Susan Collins get?
The Tea Party is taking not of the GOP’ers with no backbone.
This is a defining issue. This is one that separates the wheat from the chaff. Thank God we still have people left like Senator Bunning.
Politically, not sure this is the best move…
But its for the children…
That is why they are called Assistant Democrats”. A party that stands for nothing is useless. Get rid of the “big empty tent” already. It has become a bitter metaphor for what ails the GOP.
Thank you.
And, I agree with you.
Pay-go is there. Use it.
docflash #26
My memory is failing but I’ve read that in Texas if a company goes out of business, even if they have viable locations in other states, the former employees are not entitled to unemployment benefits. Because many of the layed off worker’s spouses are working they cannot qualify for welfare or food stamps. They can eat and keep the lights on but cannot make their car pmts. or mortgages.
Another reason to have several months operating expenses in the bank.
It’d be interesting to see, if Bunning’s “filibuster” goes on long enough, how much the unemployment rate would drop as a result. I bet it’d be a percentage point or two as people get dropped from the system and are no longer being counted.
Kay Bailey – supports Bunning but refuses to comment
John Cornyn – went on record on the floor of the semate supporting Jim Bunning Friday, press release yesterday doing same.
I sure hope Kay doesn’t make a run-off for governor today.
DanMan,
Me too on the dear kay thing. I did my duty and voted earlier, it was not for dear kay or that medina gal! I voted yes for the four admendments. The one I really liked was a photo ID to vote.
L
This is nothing but a media driven witch hunt. I support Jim Bunning. If they want to pass spending bills, pay for them.
Like we really have to think about that one. The only people who do not want that are the ones that want fraud in the system (and know it is there now).
And no photo ids in burkas either.
Precisely, Ms. Malkin. Well said.
Another way of stating this is: We have, and we will hear, that familiar refrain ‘Give the Republicans time….’ as Rush Limbaugh has been re-opining. Well if they really wanted to get something done, they would just do it…just like they took the steps to become successful politicians, now wouldn’t they?
If you don’t like the way the GOP acts when push comes to shove, then- collectively speaking- it becomes our fault for falling for the most effective job protection gambit a politician can produce. That is: ‘Vote for me, I’m better than my liberal oponent’.
‘The kind of change that we want as conservatives will happen when LOTE as a practice is dead, and has been for some time.
Take the $ from the half a trillion dollars of unspent “stimu-less” funds. Take it from the bailout repayments. Take it from cutting one of the hundreds of bullsh***t government programs out there. But pay for it somehow now. Why is this so hard to understand???? *standing O for Bunning*
I am so elated that Bunning has what it takes to do what is right. And I am so diappointed that he is not getting support from other GOP members. That is why it is time to vote the bums out. We cannot continue this journey of spending without money.
As others have said, most people do not look at the unemployed as bums. i was there myself for about 3 months last year (working now thankfully)and it is tuff, but one must draw the line or these benefits will end up indefinite.
Of course the benefits have to be paid somehow and that leaves only a few solutions. Do we raise taxes to pay for the benefits causing less job creation leading to more people needing unemployment benefits or do we print more money leading to out of control inflation? Other than those two options I do not see anyway to honestly pay for extending the benefits.
The best thing to do would be to truly stimulate the economy so people can go back to work. The only way that will happen is to make investing in businesses attactive again and the only way to do that is through tax cuts and tax breaks and to stop making out those who can afford to invest into some sort of Anti-American Devil (which this administration has been doing since day one).
For some reason Congress just can’t stop spending. Combine that with an electorate that fails to realize that it’s their money that Congress is spending and you get the perfect storm of stupidity.
Bring on Cloward-Piven. The philosophy is that once the system crashes, it can be replaced with socialism because of people wanting assistance. I strongly suspect that liberals have underestimated the resolve of Middle America.
24Klady hit it, I think, regarding foreign workers and unemployment.
In the ’30s FDR actually kicked out foreign workers so Americans could take the jobs (that someone else would do, after all.) In the ’50s Ike did the same so returning GIs could find work.
Why in the world would we continue letting in foreign workers, either illegals or on H1-B when we have many Americans out of work? If we tried that first, extending benefits wouldn’t seem so bad.
Of course if we weren’t burning through money on other crap spending it wouldn’t seem so bad, either.
I’m from Maine, and have b*tched and complained to their offices so many times, they know me by voice now. I have vowed to not only never vote for these two tools again, but will vote for their opposition until they’re out of office. They make me sick.
You go Jim. I watched you as a kid and you were a Detroit Tiger. If the controlling party, the democrats, wanted this to pass, they would invoke cloture or reconcile it through. However, they’d rather bash republicans/conservatives, and additionally, get the nation’s attention off obamacare. RED HERRING!!!
*Bunning is standing on principle, and should be commended; I’ll take a stout Bunning over a squishy McConnell any day.
*It is true that there remains an ongoing problem with exporting jobs and importing people; It may be a dirty little secret, but it is a big problem, and one of the reasons for continued high unemployment; All thanks to government regulation, high taxes, and cozy relationships between big business and (Name your Dem or RINO)!
hmmm… what was the last successful solution to high-unemployment, run-away inflation, and sky-rocketing interest rates…. hmmm… Oh yeah! Tax cuts from a conservative teflon-man who shook off insults and criticism and just did the right thing for the country. (back when men were men and socialists were Russian). President Reagan – we miss you.
Three cheers for Sen. Bunning! I tried to call his office at the Capitol, but the phone lines are jammed. (I’m not his constituent; I live in South Florida but still wanted to offer my support.)
10 billion here, 10 billion there, pretty soon it adds up to 14 trillion in debt! My son in law is a headhunter, and he can’t find people who will take jobs under 25k per year because unemployment is more and the gubmint keeps increasing the time. He and I both know 25k isn’t much, but it is an honest job instead of being a parasite on the gubmint dole.
This is a perfect example of why the US (like all sucessful societies before it) is doomed to slow, pernicious self-destruction.
Bunning is a hero, but even so-called “conservatives” treat him like a leper, and the howling of “mainstream” liberals is the default presumption.
It digusts me, and (given that 9/11 happened), it makes me conclude once again that the main problem with Flight 93 is that it was 9 years too early and 1 hour too short.
Thank you, Senator Bunning, for suffering all these spineless thug-0-crats so forcefully.
A job is not a right, any more than “affordable” housing or insurance are.
I wonder how profitable it would be, these days, to fire myself and take a year, or so, off. I can sit back, drink beer, and collect all sorts of benefits. One of these days I should sit down and calculate it all.
There’s a blogger in Kentucky who pointed out that the media is totally missing the real story here. All the TEA Party candidates have implied they would vote like Bunning if we will just elect them, and he’s now showing the whole world just what happens if you refuse to go along with the status quo.
Right now, he’s reporting that the pro-Bunning rally (which was organized at the last minute) was much larger than the Democratic Lt Governor’s rally, forcing the Democrats to pack up and run.
This is clearly the Dems’ trojan-horse way of reinstating the old welfare system. A pox on the rest of the Repubs for being so spineless (nothing new, there).
Concise, rational, non-confrontational and dead on topic.
Stop it. You’re scaring me.
And to an even greater degree they have underestimated the intelligence of middle America. The “intellectual elite” actually believe they are superior to us. Fasten yer seatbelt Barry. We-all’r goin’ fer a ride!
In one move, Senator Bunning has exposed the Dems and Obama as hypocritcal liars about Pay-Go, exposed Repubs as giddy handmaidens to big government deficit spending and demonstrated to Tea Partiers that both the Dems and Repubs are two sides of the same coin.
The Republicans are blowing it with Tea Partiers. They say, trust us, support us and we will change.
What the Tea Party Movement is saying to the Republicans is change now and we will support you in November.
The Republicans won’t change, my optimism about November is waning.
This is why I DONT trust the GOP. Ask them if they are willing to fire government workers? If not, we will NOT reduce spending OR the size of the government.
Take care of 2 things with one phone call.
When you call your Senators and Reps. to tell them to support Sen. Bunning, ask them when they will be holding TOWN HALL MEETINGS during the March 29 – April 11 “District Work Period.”
We need to remind all of our elected officials that they will be explaining themselves in very public meetings when they come home at the end of March!
Remember, they work for us!
Who are you and what have you done with zyzzyg?
I only got to draw 25 weeks unemployment 11 years ago, can i re-up for another 70 weeks if this goes through?
Who wants to bet one of the North East RINOs in the Senate use this as an excuse to switch on ObamaCare. They don’t want to be seen as not caring after all.
Collins and Snowe are disgraces.
At least Specter is now a Democrat disgrace and not a GOP disgrace!
If obladah had been concentrating on the economy, we would not have to be extending unemployment, now would we? How’s that stimulus working out? Or is it ‘stimuli’.
Stimuli. That sounds so scientific. Barak, hand me a lab coat!
Hooray for Sen. Bunning!!
Too bad most of the rest of the GOP Senators are useless eunuchs..
August 24, AZ can rid of us of the King of the Weasels.
McCain needs to go.
Go J.D.!!!!
Your update on the bomb threat on Sen. Bunning, Michelle, seems to have the foot prints of acorn and seiu. Isn’t this wonderful?
L
When you take liberals and leftists off the government dole you put your life at risk. These bastards must be stopped.
I’ve heard the coverage of this all day, and I cannot help but think, “Why is he not being heralded as a champion of the people?” I just do not get the castigation of this man!
OT – Please tell me he rents space in a bat factory.
They’ve already done away with Clinton’s welfare reforms. That was one of the donks’ first orders of business when they took over.
$10 billion? If Obama were willing to give up Wagyu beef for a month and skip 2 date nights in Manhattan, that would just about cover it.
Regulus #73
You can lump a vast majority of the ‘Pubs in with the Demwits on wanting to bring back full scale welfare.
I’m so grateful to Sen. Bunning for taking an unpopular stand and proving it can be done, especially with his staff enduring threats against them. He is a hero in my book and I’m hoping to see more of this from the rest of the lemmings(sp?) in our estute Senate.
Clearly the answer is 2,340 weeks of paid unemployment and health care coverage!
Yeah, it’s tough. I’ve been the same since June – and unemployment has run out with no extension available.
Doesn’t mean we sacrifice what is right.
I’ll be wearing my Phillies ballcaps this week in support of Jim for taking this stance. If I had a jersey with his #14 on the back, I’d proudly wear that too.
We must stand up for the Constitution. It’s the overreaching of the federal government that has made things as bad as they are, not the holding back of unemployment benefits for a couple of extra days, amounting to a paid vacation.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Bunning isn’t even all that conservative.
Of course, there was a time when I wasn’t either, and the same can probably be said about the rest of us.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
I predict that with both halves of the one-party establishment being forced out of power, this is going to get violent. These guys believed that the post-partisan fix was in, that their vision of a one-world-without-borders was a fait accompli. There are interests that have billions invested in an outcome that today looks highly unlikely. The process isn’t working so they are going to blow it up. The ends will justify the means.
I’d love to take a job at a hardware store. Not much of that available here these days.
Starting my own IT practice is exactly what I’m doing.
Let me know if you need any help with a slow computer or something. I specialize in virus and spyware removal as well as networking (MCSA certified).
Please pardon the shameless plug.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
They’re just getting out of a meeting with Barack Obama trying to find a way to “reform healthcare” together (Kum Ba Ya).
Senator Bunning (Go Phillies!) isn’t even on their minds.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
They have?
Considering the way Jim is being treated, I’d say there’s very little evidence to support that.
I doubt they even have a clue that there’s a 12-step program.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Someone had better tell this to the New Jersey Department of Labor. They cut me off after 17 weeks with no chance for an extension.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Bomb threat?I thought Bill Ayers and his wife were teaching somewhere.
I had this.
The IRS took it last April 15.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Senator Bunning is absolutely correct and the GOP Senators failing to stand beside him need to be replaced, they are part of the problem in the Senate, Congress, and Washington. To show you I mean business; we can start with my two Senators, Corker & Alexander, they can lead the exodus.
Amen.
Sadly, the LOTE militants are alive and well right here on this blog.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
I guess I must have dozed off but what is a LOTE militant? I keep seeing that term but all I can think of is the “Living on the Edge” religious movement.
rightwingrocker #86
I wish you the best on your starting your own business. I trust very few to work on my computer/files, yet have been sorely disappointed by many in my area. One guy was supposed to make it to my home by 10AM, I called at 11AM when he didn’t show, and woke him up!
I’m a typical Virgo and always keep a stash of ‘mad money’ under the mattress. Do set aside something if you possibly can. Rainy days are just as predictable as weather change.
Not likely.
Jim Bunning made his way to Cooperstown as a pitcher, most famously for the Philadelphia Phillies with his Fathers’ Day perfect game in 1964 at Shea Stadium.
That’s why we should all be wearing Phillies caps and the number 14 everywhere we go!
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
That’s because they were Gingrich’s and not Clinton’s.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
May Lautenberg and Menendez follow them closely behind!
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
You’ve experienced them here, Phil.
You know them well. They excoriate those of us who vote for the Constitution instead of their Republicans and blame us for the fact that their candidate lost in 2008. Their hate-filled diatribes infect this blog often, and people like you and I are forced to the defensive in bringing to the fore the fact that their candidate wasn’t conservative at all, nor was he any more appropriate for office than the current occupant.
For standing up for Madison and Jefferson, we are treated like Hussein and bin Laden.
That’s a militant LOTE voter.
Let’s leave that argument for another thread, though. We finally have a Republican who’s willing to take a stand on something. We should all unite in support for his decision to do so, so that others may follow.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Come by my blog and sign my guestbook, if you would. I believe your email address can be kept private there, and if it isn’t, I am able to edit it out if you don’t want it kept public.
I can do a lot of things for you remotely (over the Internet) if you aren’t close enough for me to help you on site. I will email you once I have your address so that you will have the ability to get in touch with me.
For obvious reasons, I don’t put contact information out there for all.
That offer holds for everyone here, BTW.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
LOTE = Lesser Of Two Evils, FYI
Without comment:
U.S. Senator Jim Bunning today announced that legislation to extend temporary unemployment benefits for an additional five months has passed the United States Congress. The legislation, which was unanimously approved yesterday by the Senate and by a vote of 416-4 today in the House, would also provide a temporary 13-week extension of unemployment benefits for all individuals who exhaust their traditional benefits before June 1, 2003. “The 108th Congress is off to a solid start,” said Bunning. “This is hopeful news for our most needy families in Kentucky. By approving this legislation we will help those folks who are currently without work continue to make ends meet until they can find new employment.” Passage of this legislation means that there will be no lapse in assistance for the nearly 10,000 Kentuckians who have filed claims so far for extended benefits. The last extension expired on December 28, 2002. President Bush is expected to sign the bill tomorrow, which means the next payment to states can still be made on Friday, January 10, as originally scheduled.
rightwingrocker
I’m in the middle of prep for dinner but I appreciate that you can do things remotely. Way cool and again, wishing you the very best and I’m hoping others here can use your expertise as well.
Go PayPal – and cash to locals.
Michelle, I hope you read this. This is consistent to what I have been documenting and explaining to my clients since 2001-2. The worst is ahead of us and the same people who guided us over the economic cliff are in charge of the rescue. God help us.
D’oh! I’m such an idiot. I should have known that.
There is a very simple way for all of these corruptocrats to get around Bunning’s “filibuster” (gag me): put it to a formal vote. (Oops! “But then our constituents will know what hypocrites we are!”)
The only thing Bunning is standing in the way of is the secret escape route for weasels who do evil and think they can avoid being help accountable for it. If these weasels really feel so strongly about this, they should be willing to go on record with their votes. Otherwise, STFU.
Nothing silly? Nothing funny? No redactions?
Stop it. You’re scaring me.
I am, and remain, who I have always been.
Just how can i spend money that is not there?
Remember Pelosi’s promises & claims?
Half the Republicans voted for this?
Every last one needs a primary challenge.
Don’t get me started.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Not voting: Byrd (D-VA) Someone should check and see if he is still alive.