Senators Jim Bunning, Jon Kyl, and the Republican Party are flipping unemployed Americans the bird! These Republicans whose votes under the Bush administration to provide the biggest tax cuts in history to the wealthy and provide extensive deregulations for big business which resulted in the economic tsunami we are currently in today and the loss of millions of American jobs causing the unemployment rate we have today, are heartlessly and relentlessly flipping the bird to the unemployed causing their unemployment benefits to be shut off last Saturday. Today, Bunning "flipped the bird" to reporters who asked him to explain "why" he is doing this to unemployed Americans.
Almost in answer to this question, fellow Republican Jon Kyl, who is fortunate enough to receive a six figure income from the government for his current job as Senator, answered, "unemployment benefits make people not want to get a job; they are being paid even though they are not working." Millionaire Senate Paid Kyl seems out of touch, not realizing that the unemployed, even at the maximum pay, can only receive less than $400 per week, and even these benefits are Federally Taxed. Clueless Kyl doesn't realize that these unemployed, utilize these scant benefits to keep their children/families from starving.
Bunning's filibuster has not only stopped benefits to the desolate unemployed - impacting 400,000 starving Americans, his flagrant, clueless filibuster has caused a 21% cut in medicare fees, and caused 2000 Federal Transportation workers to be FURLOUGHED without pay.
When Bunning finally stops filibustering and the inevitable vote finally passes the bill, the lapses in Federal Pay will be repaid, but not without a useless cost to all of us taxpayers of millions of dollars to restart the programs. The unemployment benefits will be restored, but not without little Mary and baby Johnny from starving, without food or formula for a few days.
Ask yourselves why?
Because ole Bunning wanted to prove a point, as did ole Kyl. They are "saying" they do not want to increase our debt to China. While they never complained about the four trillion we borrowed from China during the Bush Administration for the wrongful war in Iraq, the massive tax cuts they granted the rich and the deregulation for big business, what they THINK they are accomplishing is sending a message to the crying poor American Families. "GET OFF YOUR KEESTER AND GET A JOB!" They say this as they are flipping you the bird!!
Besides, I have a question for you:
ReplyDeleteHow long should some be allowed to be on unemployment?
Right now it varies from state to state: 46-72 weeks, or 11-18 months.
Unemployment benefits be state:
http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/unemployment_benefits/index.html
Anon,
ReplyDeleteYou and Bunning and Kyl are alike.
Flipping off the American public when they are out of work and telling them to get a job.
Meanwhile you cut taxes for the rich and let big business outsource Tech jobs offshore.
You right wing extremists just don't get it!
I think unemployment benefits should be extended until we are back to under 8% unemployment.
ReplyDeletePeople who want to work just cannot find jobs.
The folks who cannot find jobs are people like auto workers, tech jobs, etc. These workers are not looking for Agjobs or minimum wage jobs. They are looking for skilled jobs that match their resume and experience.
It's almost funny. Republicans/Right Wingers did not care about the TRILLIONS they borrowed from China when they passed Bush's tax cuts for the rich or borrowed trillions for a wrongful war in Iraq. Or even when we bailed out the banks and wall st.
ReplyDeleteBut NOW, SUDDENLY, when every day Americans on Main St. are looking to have their minimal unemployment checks extended so their families don't STARVE, SUDDENLY they say NO!
200,000 families are LOSING thier unemployment this week, ALL THANKS to Bunning's filibuster!!
ReplyDeleteEven one of the few LOGICAL Republicans said:
Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, took the floor on Tuesday to try move the bill forward "on my own behalf and on behalf of numerous members of the Republican caucus who have expressed concerns to me."
Reid is using Unanimous Consent on this, it is not a bill that gets voted on by members of the Senate. Bunning is simply attempting to get some amendments into it, and to have it be passed by normal procedure, amended and voted on like a normal bill.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of your rant is nothing more than mere conjecture on your part, simply things you fail to understand in their entirety.
"The folks who cannot find jobs are people like auto workers, tech jobs, etc. These workers are not looking for Agjobs or minimum wage jobs. They are looking for skilled jobs that match their resume and experience."
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, those jobs are permanently gone. You can blame pseudo-free trade, the EPA, FTC, SEC, and local governments for making it next to impossible for anyone to start a company or actually manufacture anything in the US.
Example: Phoenix uses a special (and groundwater polluting) blend of gasoline used only in the Metro-Phoenix area and one town in Cali. Several years ago the pipeline from Texas to the Phoenix area that carried this gas broke. Everything was being fixed and gas was being trucked up from Tucson, just short of the break, some 120 miles to Phoenix.
Then some moron on one of the local tv news stations said there might be a shortage of gasoline. Panic ensued. It was next to impossible to get gas for nearly 2 weeks, and lines to stations were miles long. The Phoenix-Metro area is just over 3 million people strong.
Why do I mention this?
Because they had been trying to get a refinery in the area for almost 20 years, and had been blocked numerous times. The EPA, FTC, and SEC all had their say in the matter every time it came up. There was also the NIMBY's (not in my backyard) out there that didn't like the idea of being within 20 miles of a refinery.
Face it, we screw ourselves over, politicians are just the proxy.
The objection to extending unemployment benefits is because there is no funding for it. You can't pull a rabbit out of a hat unless you are a magician.
ReplyDelete"You can't pull a rabbit out of a hat unless you are a magician."
ReplyDeleteI would say:
You can't pull a rabbit out of a hat if you don't have a hat.....
And yet the Bill in question is now stalled in the House for the very reason Bunning was stating - Funding of the bill.
ReplyDeleteSo what exactly is it that Bunning was doing that was hurting American Citizens? Is it now the (D) held and lead House that is doing what Bunning was making a point about? Holding up legislation that you deem as hurting the American Citizen.
Well, let's see if you finally post this:
ReplyDeleteFrom:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2010/03/column-why-i-took-a-stand-.html
Jim Bunning: Why I took a stand...
The excerpt I posted before, but was censored:
"Over a month ago, Democrats passed and President Obama signed into law the "Pay-Go" legislation. It calls on Congress to pay for bills by not adding to our debt. It sounds like a common sense tool that would rein in government spending. Unfortunately, Pay-Go is a paper tiger. It has no teeth. I did not vote for the Democrats' Pay-Go legislation because I knew it was just a political dog-and-pony show to get some good press after some political setbacks. Since the Pay-Go rule was enacted, the national debt has gone up $244,992,297,448.11 (as of Wednesday, that is)."
Last week, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., asked to pass a 30-day extensions bill for unemployment insurance and other federal programs. Earlier in February, those extensions were included in a broader bipartisan bill that was paid for but did not meet Sen. Reid's approval, and he nixed the deal. When I saw the Democrats in Congress were going to vote on the extensions bill without paying for it and not following their own Pay-Go rules, I said enough is enough.
But it much easier to demonize and silence those you don't like, rather than to try and understand or at the very least learn the facts.
This is just more of Dee's negative hyperbole. I believe Bunning may have used poor political judgment in taking this stand at this time. The negative hyperbole that would emanate from folks like Dee was entirely predictable. Therefore it took a lot of courage to take this opportunity to make the point that we continue to spend money we don't have. Chairman Mao must be laughing in his grave as we dig ourselves deeper and deeper into debt regardless of how we got there. Sooner or later the chickens will come home to roost. I doubt we will see any hyperbole from Dee at that time. She will be too busy eating crow.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, no one is in favor of starving families. As a minimum the kids should be getting at least one meal a day at school and more from food stamps and other forms of welfare. Soup kitchens should be made available in neighborhoods hard hit by unemployment and where true hardships exists.
I would be willing to divert all of the funds allocated to ACORN, La Raza, and other such organizations to umemployment benefits. There are probably a lot of other funds in the budget which could be diverted instead of being used to reward friends of Obama. It seems to me diverting stimulus funds to unemployment is also another possibility. That would certainly assure that the money would be spent quickly thereby providing immediate stimulus.
The damage done by Bunning's action is minimal and an important has been made. The question remains how long should unemployment compensation be paid. Some apparently feel the answer is "forever" even when one is permanently unemployed by choice or because they have stopped looking seriously.
Lest my Republican fiscal conservatism seems too mean-spirited, let me add that I sympathize with all of those who are unemployed through no fault of their own, especially Dee and her husband. They are the only ones I am aware of directly. I know there are many others. A grand nephew of mine with a Masters Degree in accounting is scraping by with a part time job at Red Lobster in Florida.
ReplyDeleteStill, it is too easy to excuse the presence of illegal aliens and their children as a factor in the
unemployment and budgetary picture. Students are demonstrating in CA because of the large fee increases and class room crowding arising from the state budget problems. It is true that many people would not do the work illegals do even if it meant the difference between hungry children and children with full stomachs. Yet, these are the same people that would complain about the lack of endless umemployment comp. One can only conjecture about how much better off CA would be if there were no illegal aliens there and that they had never arrived to produce the instant citizen children who are the primary cause of class room crowding and the stress on the education component of the CA budget. Add to this the lucrative benefits provided to citizen dependent children, some illegal aliens families may be better off than the umemployed.
Actually Bunning is well known for his rather ODD behavior. Check the links I provided in the original post. The reporters said he DID, in fact, give them the Finger! Some behavior for a Senator. He also previously voted for the taxcuts for the rich and the wrongful war in Iraq all funded by trillions borrowed from China. Where was he then??
ReplyDeleteOn an side note, Ultima.
ReplyDeleteMichael Moore said we are headed towards another Recession/Depression. Here is what Moore said about our economy:
"It's not going to get fixed. There's going to be another crash. The commercial real estate bubble hasn't burst yet. That's going to burst. The credit card debt is so huge right now, it will never be repaid. That's a house of cards waiting to fall. So the crash of '08 is going to look like coming attractions. And we're in for a much, much worse time."
I remember a few years ago when Lupita talked about the trillions we were borrowing from China for the wrongful War and how we were headed for a Depression
Frankly, Scarlet -- many of the reporters deserve the bird. If the truth were to be told, almost every politician at one time or another has wanted to do just as Bunning did. I suspect the younger members tend to be more discrete while memebers of the OF club, probably not so much.
ReplyDeleteYes, we all should be worried about a depression and about those who still don't get it as far as our national financial sitution is concerned. I think it is really scary and a depression would send shock waves around the world and might signal the end of the dollar as the international currency.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar personal experience once with a cynical reporter who asked me a question about the Univ. of Colorado budget. He then mentioned my comment to a radical Republican who said, "He's just giving the finger to the people of the state of Colorado". I guess that was a figurative "bird" too. My boss asked me to deal with the reporter because the reporter's reputation for yellow journalism and sensationalism was well-known and he did't want to be the one to get pilloried. Nice guy!
ReplyDeleteWhat limits do you propose on unemployment benefits?
ReplyDeleteNo politician flips off the American voters. It was the reporter who got the bird. It is and was a big stretch to equate a reporter with the American public.
ReplyDeleteLimits to Unemployment compensation should be variable, based on the rates of unemployment across the states/country.
ReplyDeleteIf the unemployment rates are above 8%, then it should be extended.
You and I both agree that autoworkers will not travel to go work AgJobs.
I do have an idea on how to restructure unemployment benefits. If you collect unemployment, you should be required to go back to school and obtain skills for a new job. We all know there will be a shortage of skilled medical personnel in the years ahead as the boomers retire. There is a shortage of nurses now. There are various jobs in the medical community that only require 6 months of training. So unemployment may be extended as long as the recipient takes re-training classes. (extended throught the end of training and support in finding another job.)
ReplyDeleteThe problem is, people want their old jobs back, their outsourced jobs; and that is not going to happen.
The other problem is, there is not staff to help those unemployed, find another job. You can't even get them to staff enough people to answer their phones if you have a question.
ReplyDeleteI apologise, but, in my opinion, you are not right. I am assured.
ReplyDelete