By now you’re familiar with the monkey wrench Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., fiendishly threw into the works Saturday Thursday night blocking a 30-day extension of unemployment benefits, along with pay for 2,000 transportation workers, COBRA money, some Medicare funding and a whole lot of other necessary things.
Bunning explained his selfish idiocy on the Senate floor today, revealing it as personal/political pique because Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., recently declined to send to the floor for a vote a bill co-sponsored by a Republican and by Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri.
The media are reporting Bunning’s outrageous stunt as his doing alone, and given what a thoroughly nasty piece of work he is, that could very well be the case. But having watched Senate Republicans oppose unemployment compensation extensions in the past, an alternative possibility came to our mind, inspired in part by a remark Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., made on the Senate floor today.
From a Huffington Post item on this:
Unemployment insurance “doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work,” Kyl said during debate over whether unemployment insurance and other benefits that expired amid GOP objections Sunday should be extended.
“I’m sure most of them would like work and probably have tried to seek it, but you can’t argue that it’s a job enhancer. If anything, as I said, it’s a disincentive. And the same thing with the COBRA extension and the other extensions here,” said Kyl.
So, here’s the other possibility. Since Bunning is not seeking re-election and couldn’t care less what the voting public thinks of him anyway, maybe Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and/or other conservative Republicans put him up to blocking the $10 billion extension.
It might not just be a matter of withholding jobless benefits from slacker wannabes, either.
Republicans want people to feel they can’t trust their federal government or rely on it to help them in times of need. Wreaking havoc on hundreds of thousands of out-of-work Americans and their families by leaving them suddenly without expected unemployment checks serves this conservative end quite nicely.
Secondly, Republicans are looking to score gains in the November elections because the public is thoroughly disgusted with congressional incumbents, most of whom are Democrats. Republicans may believe anything that adds to public anger at members of Congress will ultimately work to their benefit on election day.
OK, we know what you’re thinking. If Bunning is a Republican, wouldn’t his selfish move work against Republicans?
The answer is, not necessarily. First, many people know nothing about Bunning, including his party. But even among those who know he’s a Republican, his antics are being framed by the media as the work of a Senate maverick, not the doing of his party.
And then there’s this. Those watching C-SPAN late last Thursday night, when Bunning began repeatedly objecting, thus blocking action on the extension, saw Democrats react strongly
But how many were watching then? Probably far fewer than saw Bunning repeatedly speaking on the Senate floor today, spouting blather about debt and fiscal “responsibility.” Those who watched also saw Reid and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., being only able to question, criticize and condemn Bunning’s action. They could neither persuade Bunning to withdraw his blocking objections nor force the legislation through in spite of him. Thus, Democrats came across sounding weak and appearing impotent in the face of a determined conservative Republican.
Nothing could serve congressional Republicans’ purposes better. They look strong and decisive, Democrats look weak and ineffectual. The Republican base revels in such spectacles. More than a few independents cheer a lone senator supposedly standing by his principles — oblivious to the fact that on at least two occasions, Bunning has voted for jobless benefit extensions that weren’t “paid for” with spending cuts, as Durbin pointed out today.
Again, this is speculation on our part. We have no inside knowledge or proof.
We can’t say it’s true, just that it’s well within the anything-to-win, scorched-earth tactics conservative Republicans are infamous for.
You’d have to be brain dead not to see what the “No Party” has done to this country. If history repeats itself and it usually does we may see the removal of more rethuglicans the next election. Just as happened during FDRs term the country threw the bums out. At that time the Dems gained a very large majority. It’s now quite obvious that the Dems have been trying to solve problems while being blocked at every turn.
And one more little bit of info if anyone actually read that bill, the funding for jobs in the bill was already in the general fund and just needed to be transfered. That would be for highway projects that are funded every year.
SW, you just explained why this country is doomed to fail. The Rushpubliscums have just about got people convinced that this Government won’t work. What they are too stupid to grasp is that the perception isn’t going to end with dems; people understand that it is because of the Rushpubliscums that Government doesn’t work.
If they manage to get the Executive in 2012, the country will unravel in 2013. If they don’t, perhaps we’ll last a year or two beyond that. And maybe we won’t.
I fear, SW, that you attribute far too much strategic thinking to the minority party. They’ve always made it their main tactic to oppose–which is the root of their failure as a majority, “governing” party–quite regardless of considerations in any particular case. They’ve become so enamored of their opposition in itself that they delight in creating new ways to say “no”. Their main priority right now is not to direct the legislative flow in any particular direction, but to see to it that their perfect record of “no” is not broken.
Republicans want people to feel they can’t trust their federal government or rely on it to help them in times of need.
That’s cynicism taken to a whole new level.
“Democrats came across sounding weak and appearing impotent in the face of a determined conservative Republican.”
Works every time. The millions of voters who aren’t solidly Left or Right tend to be attracted to the party that appears strong, decisive, determined. And right now none of those adjectives apply to the current Democratic “leadership.”
They just let all kinds of riff raff on this here Internet thingy allowing them to go leave messages on these here blog things
. Roll Call is saying, the dems are going to make the old coot stay on the floor and do it the right way. Linky goodness below. While I hope this is the case, I won’t hold my breath. I think I will try be a bigger ass than Bunning though, so I am off to kick some small children. I won’t really but that would make me a bigger ass.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/43730-1.html?ET=rollcall:e6826:80078555a:&st=email
Nothing the Republicans do is without motive in my opinion, so what you suggest seems quite plausible. Bunning has nothing lo lose, so he is probably returning a few favors to his buddies or the promise of a future favor. It’s all so rotten.
Demeur, I sure hope more Republicans will be thrown out in November, but that’s not what polls indicate. They suggest incumbents are the main target of voters’ ire. Things could change between now and November, and I hope they will.
JR, the country is in big trouble, but I’m not ready to say it’s doomed. I prefer to think it’s always darkest shortly before dawn.
Jeff, the word from McConnell prior to Bunning’s stunt was that most Senate Republicans were prepared to vote for the extension. In light of what has happened, that sudden willingness can be interpreted two ways, with one of them extremely devious.
Kvatch, every few years Republicans outperform in the area of corrosive cynicism. Remember Gingrich shutting down the federal government three times, wasting hundreds of millions each time? Remember the Whitewater investigation that morphed into “get anything you can on the Clintons”? The impeachment?
Tom, alas I must agree. People are more inclined to follow someone who’s leading and who appears able and determined to get where he/she is going.
Jess, thanks for the link. Bunning bloviating for endless hours should be enough to cost Republicans a lot of votes. Unfortunately, few watch C-SPAN and the MSM are so right-wing friendly, it could end up helping the forces of evil.
Holte, I learned years ago that giving Republicans the benefit of the doubt always leaves one feeling like a sucker who’s been had.
y’know, the republicans – they tend to think that because they’re a bunch of deadbeats, that everyone must be a deadbeat.
I think you’re right. The Republicans seem to have only one objective: to obstruct.
Bee, people do tend to judge others by their own characteristics. I’m all in favor of congressional Republicans being thrown out of their jobs and having to get out and get a job in the private sector they’re such big fans of. Then again, we’ve got too many lobbyists already.
LP, obstruction is exactly what Republicans are about.
I’ve been reading quite a bit about this ole guy Bunning. Seems he’s been a cantankerous s.o.b. going back to his baseball career. He was even quoted as saying that McConnell is controlling. Duh, but for a Republican to publicly make such a bold observation might cost him the election, so to speak. And it has and M&M is behind it, imo.
Politics aside, I think I’d be cantankerous as hell and mentally unstable as well, if I had 9 kids. But he’s still an a-hole.
Bunning was pointedly not backed up by his Republican colleagues.
Our federal spending is increasing at a somewhat geometric pace. I would think it stops at some point. The form it takes will probably be more Bunnings standing forth in Congress.
At some point a population has to support itself. Checks from Congress don’t make for a good long term plan.
From a March 2 New York Times story:
“Not all senators were engaged in Bunning-bashing. ‘He’s my hero this week,’ said Senator Jim DeMint, the conservative Republican from South Carolina. . .”
“The fight spread to the House as well, with Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, saying Mr. Bunning has ‘got a legitimate argument that he’s making.’”
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., also endorsed Bunning’s selfish idiocy on the Senate floor. I saw it.
Funny, how Bunning didn’t have a problem with voting for emergency extensions for unemployment pay, with no offsets, when Bush was president. Funny, how this champion of fiscal responsibility didn’t have a problem when Republicans threw out pay-go in 2002.
“At some point a population has to support itself. Checks from Congress don’t make for a good long term plan.”
Rigging things so the economy gets wrecked, throwing millions out of jobs, and causing banks and other businesses to fail is an even worse long-term plan. That’s what Republicans and their big-money backers on Wall Street and in corporate America did. What you see now is damage control and first aid they made necessary.
Having more and more people go bankrupt, with no chance for a job, no money, no home and no food on the table might be your favored long-term plan, RSF. Fortunately, most Americans are more enlightened and less selfish than that.
Leadership did not organize to support Bunning.
Bunning didn’t have a problem with voting for emergency…
Our only hope is to get some sinners to repent.
Republicans did their share, but much of the lax regulation and reckless spending was abetted by Democrats.
Under the way Washington operates now, there is always a crisis, we always need an emergency spending plan, more needs to be done. Always. But history has shown us that socialists eventually run out of money. At some point the populace has to earn its keep.
People are more resilient than you think. Often it is better to make a hard decision now than let one be forced upon you later.