Posts Tagged ‘Jim Bunning’

On unemployment benefits, Delay likes delay

March 9, 2010Jon Brooks 1 Comment »

On Sunday, former Republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay defended Sen. Jim Bunning’s recent blocking of an unemployment benefits extension.

From the The Huffington Post:

You know,” Delay said, “there is an argument to be made that these extensions, the unemployment benefits keeps people from going and finding jobs. In fact there are some studies that have been done that show people stay on unemployment compensation and they don’t look for a job until two or three weeks before they know the benefits are going to run out.

Host Candy Crowley: Congressman, that’s a hard sell, isn’t it?

Delay: it’s the truth.

Crowley: People are unemployed because they want to be?

Delay: well, it is the truth. and people in the real world know it. And they have friends and they know it. Sure, we ought to be helping people that are unemployed find a job, but we also have budget considerations that are incredibly important, especially now that Obama is spending monies that we don’t have.

Some reaction from various sites:

From Hullabaloo

I would guess that this is going to catch on among the dittoheads. The right is reasoning that they can appeal to a good number of the majority who are employed and make them question why they should subsidize all those losers who are not. It worked with health care. Empathy for your fellow man, or even a selfish sense that you might personally need some assistance someday, is being attacked by the right wing head on. And I would guess that there are more than a few people who secretly have thought these things but didn’t have the social support necessary to say it out loud. Now they do.

This isn’t a widely accepted point of view. Yet. But its infecting the body politic.

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No funning about Bunning

March 2, 2010Jon Brooks 1 Comment »

As we posted earlier, a certain amount of grudging and jealous admiration is held by some Democrats for Republican Senator Jim Bunning, who is standing on principle by single-handedly blocking an extension of unemployment and COBRA benefits. However, if you are one of the couple of hundred thousand who is being immediately denied these funds, [...]

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Bunning envy

March 2, 2010Jon Brooks 4 Comments »

Retiring senator Jim Bunning, Republican from Kentucky, has single-handedly blocked an extension of unemployment and COBRA benefits originally doled out in the stimulus bill. Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog! Go! has a run down of federal highway funding, which includes money for thousands of federal employees who will now be furloughed, that is also not flowing [...]

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