The GOP has once again aligned themselves against the victims of the Republican Recession.
In a 56-40 vote, the cloture vote on extending jobless benefits, FMAP state funding, and tax extensions failed. Ben Nelson and Lieberman joined Republicans, Byrd did not vote, and Reid voted yes, without changing his vote, signaling that this iteration of the bill is indeed dead.
Reid followed the vote by attempting to pass the emergency provisions of the bill, the "doc fix," unemployment benefits extension, and FMAP as well as the homebuyer tax credit, as separate bills under unanimous consent. McConnell objected to each, so we’re stuck in further limbo.
All afternoon, Republican Senators stood up and said that the American people were demanding that the deficit be cut, that the Congress stop spending. Republican Senators, and the moderate Dems who enable them, are full of shit. Gallup says so:
Among four pieces of legislation Congress could consider this year, Americans are most supportive of authorizing more economic stimulus spending. Specifically, according to a June 11-13 USA Today/Gallup poll, 60% of Americans say they would favor "additional government spending to create jobs and stimulate the economy."
… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Daily Kos>
We expected this from the Republicans. They don’t care how many people suffer, because they want to blame the human misery they are causing on Obama and Democrats.
However, there is no longer any reason whatsoever to support Traitor Joe LIEberman. There is no excuse for the Democratic Caucus to keep this Republican as Chair of Homeland Security.
8 Responses to “GOP Blocks Unemployment Extensions Again”
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Grrrrrr We must tell Joey the shaft Lieberman to go play with his buddies. He’s not welcome in our house anymore. Caucus with the slime you snake. As for bend over Nelson, he should have been sent packing a long time ago. Any of the Dems. who stood against the Health bill should be gone. That goes for the Blanch too. Their nothing more than enemy sympathizers.
Tim, I agree on Lieberman. On Lincoln, she has won the primary and is not as bad as her GOP opponant. I support her reelection, but do not think she deserves any key committee assignments. Ben Nelson is similar. Nebraska is a very Red state as are most of his constituents. No key committee assignments for him either.
They’re hurting the people who are hurting the most (myself included). Withholding jobless benefits is the WORST thing you can do in a recession. Assholes all – especially Lierberdouche.
Lisa, I’m so sorry. {{{hug}}}
It is shameful.
This is so not real..How can the people who represent the American people sit in a room and state that they are doing what the American people want? The unemployment extension is needed and it is good business to pass it. What in the hell do they think is going to happen when all these millions of people are left. Will there creditors be patient, how long can they go without food, how will the children of these people be affected? This is not where the bad money is being spent and anyone with a brain knows this. This is not the time to forget so many working Americans. The unemployed this time are your skilled workers, your educated, your hard working people that do in fact vote. The ones in Washington that are fighting are not getting any help. The media isn’t covering this like they should. Who in their right mind would let this story go? If I were in the media I would be showing America just how big of a assholes they really are. I would ruin their careers. I would love to see them answer to the millions of Americans standing in their front yards with their families watching how much they are hated. People write to your representatives. Storm your local news and politicians and make them do what is right for you. All politics are local make some noise. NY is doing the right thing but other states ie Texas, Ark and so on they are in the way.
Welcome Dee. Thanks for coming and sharing your views. I have a friend who volunteers at a food bank. The majority of people coming in are now middle class. Oregon is better than most, but we have a huge state budget shortfall right now.
I have no doubt that the unemployment extension is needed and that those who need it are your average hard-working, educated Americans. My question for you is two-fold.
1. How would you propose fixing the current system so that the money does in fact go only to those who can best use it to find jobs (as opposed to those who simply play the system for selfish gain) and
2. How long do you believe unemployment benefits should be provided to those out of work?
In some places it can run up to 99 weeks currently (rather than go into that more, I’ll just throw out this link to a brief video about the burden of our current benefits program: http://alturl.com/xn93). Imagine how much more efficiently we could use the money already going into the system to help the diligent-but-unemployed rather than burdening our already weak economy. Maybe more money is needed. But it seems prudent to me to first reevaluate the system as it stands to see how it could be restructured.
Hi Dan, and welcome. Your questions raise valid problems.
1. The only fix I see is to use more diligence in discovering individual cases in which people take the money without looking for work. Any time there is a system in which benefits are distributed, there will be some abuse. However, those resourses would be far better served by targeting them to the abuse of corporate welfare. No bid contracts are a prime example. Fraudulant billing by just Halliburton and KBR run into the billions.
2. It depends on the circumstances. In a healthy economy, six months are more than enough. Now, after the GOP have almost destroyed the economy, we need to provide it until there are jobs available. Structural unemployment is at an all time high. If every job could be matched to a potential US worker, jobs exisy for less than 83% of the workers.
I could not evaluate your link, because it is dead..