White House: Bunning’s Block on Unemployment Benefits is “Fundamentally Not Fair”

I agree..Bunning for president. Its about time someone said no to the spending.Didnt Obama just sign into law a bill to pay as we go? Cut some fat to pay for the monies like the rest of us are doing. So musch for all his rhetoric that he has saved the economy. A trillion dollar stimulus and he still cant pay for unemployment insurance. This guy is a joke. Use some of the 30 billion dollars you were caught with hiding monies in a slush fund.

Bunning for president. Its about time someone said no to the spending.
__________________________________
Sounds like its not YOUR unemployment benefits being cut off.
More political gamesmanship – this time on the backs of people who lost their jobs.

911. President Obama America here.
What happened to President Obama?
411. His rhetoric during the State of the Union address about jobs is just hot air.
Why isn’t Obama doing anything?
Declare a state of emergency and fund the damn bill.
Obama could care less about laid off Americans. We can’t afford food let alone political contributions, so why bother? Besides, yesterday was exhausting. You try slamming a healthcare bill down Americans throat that only benefits corporations, not people.
911. Laid off Americans, REAL PEOPLE are in REAL CRISIS.
It would be different if laid off Americans were greedy corporations seeking needless subsidies to create jobs in India, not the USA.
End the Corporate-cracy.
Help help laid off Americans keep a roof over their head and food on the table.
If nothing happens this weekend, millions of Americans will immediately suffer… and WIFM – President Obama you will go down as the worst President in History.. And I voted for you. I was a life long registered Democrat. Never More.
Americas are madder than hell and not going to take it anymore. I only hope Americans reclaiming our country from corporate greed and corrupt politicians will be without violence.

Ya! Run bunning for President please! The rest of the world will probably throw up fences to keep us in. LOL. He’s a hard core right of hard right neocon. I do want to thank him though for pointing out that the wallstreet bailout was a socialist bailout. They used socialism to save wallstreet. LOL!

Ironically, everyone agrees that the extension will eventually pass. All he did was cost the states millions of dollars in increased paperwork, cutting off and then reinstating people.

President Obama and Senator Reid: I hope you don’t read some of these posts – and if you do, don’t let the idiots who write them get to you. We know what you’re doing, we “the smart ones” think you’re geniuses, and we know you won’t let us down.

Bob Cesca has a rundown on the other effects of Bunnings action:
1) blocked the release of Highway Trust Fund money for the next 30 days, consequently, the Department of Transportation will have to basically shut down and its employees furloughed.
2) No reimbursements to States for previously-committed Federal highway funds. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will not be able to approve any expenditures from the Highway Trust Fund beginning on Monday, March 1. This will prohibit FHWA from reimbursing States for any previously-committed Federal highway funds.
3) Shutdown of Agencies and furloughs of over 4,000 Federal employees. The entire FHWA, the entire Federal Motor Carrier Administration (FMCSA), some portions of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and some portions of the Research and Innovation Transportation Administration (RITA), will cease operations and furlough their employees (totaling over 4,000 employees) beginning on Tuesday, March 2.
and more…

This country owes 12 TRILLION dollars. We are broke. Our politicians are spending money like drunken sailors, adding billions everyday to our national debt. By the end of Obama’s first term, we will owe 19 TRILLION DOLLARS (that is three years from now.) If you add up the assets of everybody in this country, including the assets of William Buffett and Bill Gates, we would not still not be able to pay off 12 Trillion dollars. Does anybody even know how many ZEROES there are in a TRILLION dollars?
What people don’t understand (or even believe) is that we are moving towards CHAOS. Very soon, the government is going to break down.
Think.
What happens to the person who is broke…maxed out on credit…and continues to try to spend more…What if, despite being broke, he keeps trying to spend after borrowing from relatives. Isn’t it obvious that eventually this person’s world is going to collapse. It is inevitable and unstoppable. Now substitute this person for the Federal government. This is what our Federal Govt is doing. ..Spending like money grows on trees.
We are in a very dangerous place in America, because we are becoming so indebted that soon (once the collapse happens) our savings accounts, our 401ks, our homes will all be worthless. Our bank accounts will be filled with worthless dollar bills that might as well be MONOPOLY MONEY. There will be political and human chaos in the United States of America. It won’t just be 30 million suffering, unemployed, trying to survive…it will be all of us….all of us trying to find a way to eat, pay for heat, live….can you imagine that world??? It is a dangerous vision.
So in my opinion, this lone senator…Senator Bunning…is looking at the 12 trillion dollar debt of this country and PLEADING with Congress to either stop spending…or find a way to pay for the money it wishes to spend. (Wouldn’t you do the same thing to the broke spendaholic on the street who won’t stop borrowing in order to spend?). He is pleading with congress to take the money from the stimulus package. FIND THE MONEY…don’t just spend and add to the 12 TRILLION.
Bunning, in my opinion is not the enemy. We need people like Bunning to plead with government to stop spending before their actions take ALL of us down. Maybe it’s too late. Maybe people need to believe in the fairytale that we can spend like this forever and get away with it. I don’t just like I didn’t believe in that housing bubble(salaries weren’t going up, but houses were valued and selling at ridiculous prices in my state…come on!!!)
Anyway for those skeptical of what i say…look at this website… The spending never ends.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html

I know, why don’t we tell the fine upright(eous) Senator from the great state of Hubris . . . I mean Kentucky what we think of his morally superior (than thou) position. Send him an email right now:

It figures this comes from a man who made plenty of money playing a child’s game. I think he needs to get a real job for once in his life. The Senate doesn’t count.

So what you are saying KC is that is better to save 10 billion, a fraction of a fraction of that 12-13 trillion dollars (that was mostly ran up by Republican demi-God Reagan), than to ensure millions of people won’t have to be put on welfare or become homeless? I agree that we should be fiscally responsible, but not on the backs of the people who are already in dire straits. This isn’t a party matter, this is a matter of whether you actually care about your fellow man or not. Bottom line. You realize most of our deficit we actually owe to our self, since much of the debt is owed to the World Bank, which is basically ran by the most powerful nations in the world. Guess who is one of those nations, the US. No one expects us to pay our debts because we give almost every nation billions of dollars in aide every year. Try again.

Amen KC! I agree with you 100%! Great post!

Forgot to mention that I am a life long republican but this enough to make me go across the aisle.

Bunning has said he wants the benefits to be offset elsewhere in the budget, or paid for with unused stimulus funds, and argued that the costs would add to the deficit.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a no win situation on this one. People need some type of income right now with unemployment at near record levels. For Bunning to stand in the way of their livelihoods is indeed wrong. However, Obama has made it perfectly clear that PAYGO is the way to go. “Going forward” (a favorite catchphrase of this administration), Obama says, will bring about a system where nothing happens until there is a way to balance it out financially. So, if we are to base this “block” on what Obama has said, then Bunning would technically be correct. Until someone can show where the funding will come from, then, according to the President himself, it should not be enacted.
This is a very sticky, tricky situation that, if you think about it, Obama has put Congress in. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with PAYGO-it’s the only way to keep things honest. But what happens in situations like this? Who gets the blame? Bunning, for blocking more spending, but in the process denying a LOAD of people finances they desperately need? Or Obama, for putting rules in place that, when followed, set up what seems to be bad judgement?
What bugs me is that some folks will go after Bunning, some folks will say we can’t afford this, and everyone will be going back and forth in a big, rolling argument. Meanwhile, Obama comes out smelling like a rose, as always.

Semantics don’t matter, you get the funding by the same exact means as you did before, by going to Human Services and applying for it through a case worker, which is why they have info on it at that site called welfareinfo.com… What is your point anyways? That only single people will be affected by this.

Shoe, it would be very easy to go ad hominem tu quoque on Bunning, as he voted against paygo recently. In fact, he is fairly consistent as politicians go, and would be perfectly happy if the government did nothing else except provide agricultural subsidies.
Don’t you see though, what a radical he is? He is so far out there he is willing to allow ideology to trump common sense, and his duty to the people.
Bunning’s action “has shut down” the nation’s surface transportation programs.
The highway funding portion is covered by long-term Highway Trust Fund receipts and does not add to the deficit.

I had been on welfare, back when it was called welfare. I am not ashamed of it. People who resent people less fortunate than them don’t matter to me anyways. My friend is on similar programs now that pay similar benefits. Of course it varies from state to state. A rose by any other name. That is my point. A vertically challenged person is still short in my book.

Yes Jim it is clear that American workers do not need your help. Are you crazy? I know you have decided not to run for reelection so why stoop to such a stupid jester to show your superior understanding of right and wrong? America needs leaders that will stand for something not run away and explain their actions by using old party slogans. Do the people’s work and forget the party line. America and you deserve better.

Of course, that assumes that 1) the Democrats really want to pass healh insurance reform, and 2) the IOKIYAR press bias isn’t in effect.

Democrats always conclude with the kneejerk reaction that cutting taxes means that our highways will suddenly vanish into thin air, or that the traffic lights will suddenly stop working, or fire departments will explode into a million pieces, or the National Parks will be sucked into outer space.
The wringing of limp Democrat wrists is the fear tactic of the century. Democrats trust in government and think the rest of Americans are stupid. I’d take a public citizen’s advice on what to do with my money any day over a government employee’s.

Let’s not forget how in 2005, the Democrats fillibustered president Bush’s appointees into positions of his administration. Then they cried like swine when Bush mentioned the nuclear option the Democrats calling it a “temper tantrum” . . . “arrogant power grab” . . . “changing the rules” . . . “erosion of democracy”. Now five years later, they the Democrats are attempting to adopt and deploy the very thing they went ape about in 2005. How do you spell hypocrisy? D-E-M-O-C-R-A-T.

Let’s not forget how in 2005,
Posted by: EPU
and how was it that ‘W’ passed his tax cuts

Nuclear option: coined by GOP to describe a process to change Senate filibuster rules
Reconciliation:defined by the US Committee on rules as part of the congressional budget process; used many times by the GOP

Ezra Klein at the Washington Post:
“Senate reform, however, could have no better friend than Bunning. Last year, ending the filibuster was a quixotic blogger obsession. Now it’s the subject of a petition by the Senate majority whip. Former Republican majority leader Bill Frist says his colleagues are “overdoing” the filibuster. This is how change begins, and without Bunning making clear exactly what the problem is, it would be impossible.”

look at the liberal hypocrites crying about a repub doing what the dems showed during the bush years……………..repubs have learned the ways of obstruction from the democrats and now the dem hypocrites dont like their own medicine – imagine that – friggen LIBERAL HYPOCRITES covering for OBAMA LIAR

Historically, the use of reconciliation came into being in the late 70′s, and was first used to legislate major changes in social programs by Reagan in 1981.

This will pass next week and then we will spend a ton of extra money to reinstate the bennies. So basically this jerk wad has cost us more.

I wonder if Bunning filibustered when GW Bush was throwing unneeded billions at the Iraq war and huge corporations like Halliburton?
As I recall, Bush added more to the deficit than all the presidents before him put together.

This isn’t about healthcare reform and it should be about politics! WE WANT TO WORK. When you walk into a job center you see hopelessness, despair, frustration & anger. These are good people who lost their jobs due to the economy & in many instances corp greed. They are doing everything to find employment.
In the past when I applied for a job I got a call, got the interview & the job. I am that good at what I do. This time I have sent out 100’s of resumes for any type of job. I expanded the search to anything I could do well. I have gone through extensive interviews only to be told that a candidate was hired from within meaning (as explained to me by their HR people) they promoted someone they could pay less although I would have taken that job for whatever they offered. Still I have hope. Hope that there are still fair employers out there & that a job is coming. Hope that this nightmare will soon be over.
Once 26 weeks was enough time to find a job. Not now. When an employer receives 500 resumes for each position, it takes weeks & months to get a call. There are screening processes in place like never before. Answer 1 question wrong & it is over. Everything is done online. We are a name on paper. It is disheartening. I am looking at a job that pays $10/hr. After taxes it will be $8. After gas to drive the 70 mile round trip to the job it will be $4. Do I pay rent or buy food? Buy food or medication. Do the math. I can pick up another part time job after I work this one, but it won’t be enough.
In a few days benefits will be gone for many of us. Thinks about this: Where will we go when we lose our homes? The streets? Shelters that are too full? How will we live, maybe that is the idea. Population control. How will we afford gas for interviews? Insurance so we are not an uninsured motorist? God forbid we have an accident. How will we eat & our children go to school? How will we shower or bathe for interviews & school or get medicine. If we are lucky enough to have a place to live how will we afford a phone to be able to take calls for interviews, heat, electric, water? How will we wash our clothes to be presentable at interviews? How will we use a computer, because the job ctr computers are packed as are the library’s. What about the taxes we still have to pay. How are we going to pay taxes due when we can’t afford to live? Every day more people are losing their jobs. Where are the jobs coming from? There are people working 3 &4 jobs just to be able to live-nothing more-no extras.
The representatives in this country are taking much for granted. They have enough to eat, are sleeping in a warm home, on clean sheets maybe watching tv They can afford their medication and to throw leftovers away after dinner. They aren’t cold in an effort to keep their heating bills low. When shopping if they even do that, they don’t have to decide between 2 products because of price or how far it could be stretched? Our representatives in Washington & our President need to think about these things.
I am among these people. We have become statistics. The implications of being downsized & having to depend on the govt for your very existence is far reaching. I couldn’t have survived without it, but I want to earn my own way, make my own contribution, but when it goes on day after day, week after week, month after month, you get beaten down & wonder if it will ever end. You say there is no incentive for us to find jobs? You are wrong. Most of us come from lives where work is part of who we are. WE WANT TO WORK we don’t need incentives to get out & look. We don’t want to wait until there are no more benefits or we are at the end of our benefits, that doesn’t even make sense!
The President, whom I greatly respect, has not done enough work on the economy & jobs. His first & it seems only priority is healthcare reform. So as we waited for Congress to come to a decision to extend our benefits, he took them into a healthcare summit to play politics &here we sit with nothing resolved. I think that sums it all up.
I am glad you are obviously among those who do not have to work, or who did not lose their job & grateful that you have not had to experience what we have & how worthless it makes you feel. How can there be people out there with this self righteous attitude? We too want JOBS. We want to be part of working America, but until then, the govt created this scenario, now help is needed until it resolves. You want to do something besides spouting ignorant perceptions? Help us spread the word. Contact the President & your representatives. Speak up & fight with us because believe it or not, there is a chance that one day it could be you & it feels a whole lot different on this side. Sen. Bunning needs to realize we are people, not political hay.

Unemployment benefits were in the bipartisan Senate bill that Reid scrapped last week for his partisan jobs bill. Now he and the dems are blaming Bunning for the delay in getting the benefits package passed. The blame lies with Harry Reid, not Bunning.

The democrats and republicans remind me of little kids fighting over a toy. someone should give them a swat on the butt or a time out and say now can you get along. well sounds funny but it is not. these people control are lives and are destroying this country more everyday to see who can discredit who to win more votes in November. Well I used to be a republican but for now on I will vote 3rd party.hey cant be any worse.

It appears that selfish is the new order of the day for Sen. Jim Bunning. We have to remember that his salary is atleast $174,000, so why should he care what happens to the people that are unemployed through no fault of their own. Why did he not try to help the people of his state?

Unemployment benefits were in the bipartisan Senate bill that Reid scrapped last week for his partisan jobs bill. Now he and the dems are blaming Bunning for the delay in getting the benefits package passed. The blame lies with Harry Reid, not Bunning.
Posted by: Get Real | Feb 27, 2010 10:05:41 PM
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Bull hockey. The bill Reid scrapped was chalk full of new tax cuts for the wealthy as well as boatloads of other republican only type perks that were used to death under Bush. At some point the minority party needs to get they can’t call all the damn shots the same as when they held the majority. I would agree with the deficit as ugly as it is it makes no sense to give away even more right now. These same cuts under Bush did NOT bring us jobs. Talk about adding to the damn deficit. So this is your clue Bunning is talking out his hoo-hoo on the reason. I speculate he’s pulling this to set up his next job when he retires.

This looks like the Republican nuclear option.

Impeaching or Expelling Bunning
would force his fellow
Republicans, each to go on Record
with a roll call vote, either
approving or disapproving of
Bunning’s Actions in putting a
hold on an extension of
Un-Employment Insurance Benfits!

I have the distinct displeasure to have to claim Bunning as my Senator…wish he would run again just so I could vote against one more time.
But I would like to ask all of you who are criticizing him a question: Why are you upset with him in reference to what he wanted the Senate to do?
He didn’t say he did not want to extend unemployment benefits. He didn’t say he didn’t want to extend help to the unemployed with their COBRA premiums. He did not say he want to deny one single thing in the bill. He just wanted it paid for..up front.
Remember pay-as-you-go that we all got upset about when President Bush through it out? Remember how so excited you liberals were when President Obama put it back into effect? Remember that…wasn’t that long ago.
All Bunning wanted was to use some of the stimulous money to pay for these benefits. That’s all.
So why all this anger and hate because a Republican wanted to do exactly what President Obama wants done?

ASHAMED TO BE A REPUBLICAN! Peay for this ignorant moron.

Funny how during campaigning the candidates tell you how important you are to them and then when they are in office you are just another statistic. I am enraged that politicians can simply leave and not vote for unimportant reasons like watching their basketball team play. Meanwhile the American public who voted them into office is left behind to watch helplessly as congress fights like children and plays with our futures. Shame on Reid and on Bunning for their recent actions and failures to act to protect the futures of 400,000 unemployed Americans and their families.
I have written to my congressmen, Sherrod Brown and Voinovich regarding unemployment benefit extensions and I have also written an email to Bunning’s office regarding his recent block of unemployment benefit extensions. We all have to be active in our government and pay attention to what they are doing. We are in this recession/ depression because no one was watching what Wall Street and the Banks were doing.

Someone has to stop the spending. Doesn’t matter who it is. It is simply out of control, and has to stop.
Obama should have thoguht about that, when he wasted an entire year on health care, when he should have been working on jobs.

Seriously, I don’t care what his reason is for blocking this extension…does he realize what he is doing to millions of people. He makes me ashamed to be a republican right now. I am tired of the games and non-sense in the government…on both sides of the table. We need to fire everyone and start over!!!! How are we going to recover from this?? We cannot stimulate the economy if we are losing our homes and cars because he blocked an extension of the unemployment benefits. He is putting hard working American’s on the streets to prove his point and it is UNEXCEPTABLE!!! I agree with his reasons, but not his means!!!!

Where was the Republican concern about deficit spending when we were knowingly spending hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq while enormous tax breaks for the top 2 percent of wage earners? The Democrats are too feeble, they need to go after the grand old party of hypocrisy with a vengeance and hold them accountable for their litany of double standards.

Since when have the Dems been “fair”????

Doesn’t matter that Bunning is retiring; Dems and the White House need to make this case of obstructionism on steroids a campaign centerpiece and make it stick like glue to the GOP.

what is wrong with you people? since when is the fact you once held a job, entitle you to lifetime wellfare? just how many weeks would you think fair? admit it, you think you never should be cut off from unemployment? I say, after awhile, you should just call it what it is. wellfare. and you will want it paid in a little credit card, so your neighbors won’t know they are supporting you

Bunning is a hero! Just doing what the lame dems can’t……Where do they think all this money is coming from to let people sit at home on their butts?? There are jobs out there, they may not be what you want, but they are out there and I for one am tired of these dead beats taking advantage of the system……..Go find a job!

Unemployment benefits have already been extended several times. There comes a point where it has to stop. There are many that choose to remain on unemployment rather than finding a job. That is a fact.

Starve, I think not. Those without jobs can get food stamps.

If there isn’t jobs and no more unemployment extended benefits i guess i will have to go to welfare now and get help since ive already lost my home and my car because here in michigan there is no jobs my husband lost his job a good paying job because his factory closed down and didnt want to pay there workers he does have a job for what unemployment paid him now but he was bringing home 2800 in a month now it is 1300 and i get underemployment because my job cut my hours so how am i gonna do it i guess no more of that so SENATOR I HOPE YOU FEEL BAD FOR ALL THESE PEOPLE YOU ARE CUTTING .

I government keeps extending benefits, then where is the incentive to hire and not put that money towards productivity and profits?
Secondly all Bunning is proposing is paying for the programs to stay deficit neutral… Naturally the Democrats in charge find this appauling…. And Bunning gets tarred and feathered. Oh my freaking God!
If you want to pay for this crap, bring the troops HOME, and steal back the taxpayers money that O’bomb’a gave to his buddies on Wall St.
NO, you won’t hue and cry about THAT, you’ll beg for ANOTHER subsidy that mandates YOU to take a health care plan you don’t even need or want or guy audited by the IRS with wages garnished like your a criminal… WHY in the HELL should ANY man pay for pregnancy coverage in HIS OWN health care plan?
Rationality left the idiots in charge in DC a long time ago! Please for the sake of humanity FIRE all the incumbents for a “change”!!!

I am sorry people are having difficult times. My prayers are with you. I was unemployed twice this year and had to suck up a complete career change, regardless of my education focus. When they hand me a shovel thats what I do.
To what extent is it our governments obligation.
If we dont have the money is it ok to take loans from communist china to pay for extra unemployement? How does this apply to a household? If you live beyond your means you will become a broke..I guess thats what the future has in store for all Americans. I dont live beyond my means but my government does..

I thought the TARP banker bailout was supposed to keep unemployment UNDER 8%? What happened… Oh right, the Republicans fault… Sorry, I almost used my brain without permission for a minute.
Somebody call Obama so I know what to think… Or better yet the Daily Kos or Huffington Post. ABC is just to suttle for me… Nothing is sinking in! Damn stubborn common sense!

This is why we need term limits. They are all bums.

Do any of you out there understand what is being done here by the Party of No? I have to admit I did not. But right now as we blog Republicans are “relieving Bunning on the floor to keep this bill from being passed to help the unemployed”. So in reality it is a form of “filibuster” that is occurring thta once again shows that the Republicans DO NOT CARE about working class Americans.

The bum republicans aren’t stopping anything. dumBO is! Use the porkulus money dumBO instead of saving it to buy yourself more votes. Washington is corrupt! Vote out all incumbents! Especially dumBO!

“Not fair”? Attention: We are in lean times and have dug ourselves so far into a hole that we can’t see the light of day. It’s high time we took a page out of our grandparents’/great-grandparents’ playbook and start living within our means. We all need to make adjustments now. Many of us have done so on the familial level. Now, let’s see when this government can start to set an example for the American people instead of making things worse.

catman…I take it you didn’t like what I related to everyone in my 6:54 post so now you think you can use a “distraction” tactic to get me unfocused. It isn’t going to happen. I am wise to conservative’s tricks. That is why you are known as the party of “obstructionism” and “distraction”.

cndfox…your party needs a bogeyman to keep the heat off themselves for the most rediculous promisses that any rational person knew were unfulfillable given the finanacial affairs of this country. obama prommissed the undelverable to a desperate audiance and the rubber is meeting the road.the only real distractions are comming from the inept democrats while they flit around the world on our nickle.you have been had by the dreams of someones father, not the rpublicans…they always are what they are.

jesse i agree in part what you are saying. they ALL are to blame however and i agree they ALL should have their wages and health care cut until they can create a job or an enviorment thats healthy for job creation.i live in california and we are as bankrupt as greece and yet we keep spending and apending. i will trade clean air for jobs like china does. we have made job creation impossible.

Okay, everyone follow along…As of last Thursday, when most senators left DC for the weekend, there was no opposition among them to this bill. No mentions of pay-go, no objections to it passing as-was. Suddenly upon the bill reaching the unanimous consent motion, up pops Big Jim Potato Head with an objection…all of a sudden he wants to satisfy pay-go and pay for this bill out of stimulus funds…Um gee, how come NOOOOOBODY else hung around the senate chambers from the GOP to object and beat the drum on pay-go? Out of the entire GOP side of the senate, Big Jim is suddenly going to be the shining beacon of fiscal responsibility for the whole party? Did anyone watch the exchange between Bunning and Durbin?
Apparently, Potato Head has his own version of the bill that is on the floor now, with his OWN little sets of ammendments in it…Okay, so Durbin says fine, put it on the floor for a vote…NOOOOO says Big Jim, because as he outright told Durbin THERE IS NO GOP SUPPORT FOR HIS AMMENDED VERSION AT IT WILL FAIL…Soooo Potato head holds out to get HIS bill with HIS ammendments passed on unanimous consent so not even his OWN PARTY can object to it..

Bunning is nothing more than a grumpy OLD man who should not be in the Senate – we need term limits NOW.
I would luv to see his income tax return and doubt his children and grandchildren are hurt financially.
When watching CSPAN today, I wanted to reach through the TV and just slap him.

How is this 1 Jack$#@ holding up the entire US’s unemployment benefits? Those of us that have lost our job due to no fault on our own part are screwed because of him!!! If I were him I would watch my back for that head of household that is counting on Unemployment to keep a roof over their families head and food.
As for me, I’m just screwed as of now. Perhaps being a single person, I should spit out a baby and go on welfare…They seem to be better off than those of us that work, or have tried to work for a living. I am 36 and have worked 2 jobs most of my adult years and have paid in many tax $’s, yet I can’t get any help. I THINK EVERYONE AFFECTED BY BUNNING SHOULD SHOW UP AND MOVE INTO HIS HOUSE…SINCE SO MANY OF US WILL PROBABLY END UP HOMELESS BECAUSE OF HIM!!!!!!!!!

Bunning is right. Employment won’t go up until we quit paying people not to work. Liberals never quite get it.

Bunning should have to live off of the unemployment that I WAS receiving, in order to support his family and that money alone. 1. If he is unhappy with himself then be unhappy and stop taking it out on the unemployed portion of the nation. 2. He and the Republican party along with their famous ex president Bush have put the strongest nation in financial turmoil. Now he decides to boycott helping the fellow Americans in which unemployment is a means of support to the people that are trying to better themselves, not everyone uses it as a crutch. 3. He should get his behind off of his shoulders and look out for his fellow Americans, not punish us for our jobs closing. We were what everyone referred to “employees” who thought we had job security. If he does not want to give us the unemployment, can he give us what we really want, JOB SECURITY! JERK!!! I HOPE YOUR TEAM LOST THE GAME.

@ Flash Override. Not everyone is abusing the unemployment system in America. For instance, Im a single mom of 2 who found out in her 3rd trimester that my job was closing the week before xmas in 2008. Before deciding to go back to school, I searched for a job 4 days out of a 5 day work week. Don’t think that laziness is an excuse, the amount of jobs in this area are few to none. If you were in my situation, what would you do? I really want to know! I have tried to put back finances for this type of siuation, but it never is enough. Don’t judge the book by its cover the story may enrich your life for the better also!

Maybe I’ve missed something but it was never an issue of Bunning being against extending unemployment benefits. He was against the government going more in debt to finance it. I applaud someone in public office FINALLY saying enough is enough. If this a such a critical “emergency” issue, cut something of less priority to finance it. That’s all the man was putting forth.

This is just plan evil and there is no other to cut it… How about we take the 10 million we spend each month in Iraq on the war on muslims and give everyone health insurance and unemployment… You people that complain about the Presidents spending never never ever said anything when Bush spending us into a rescission and gas was $4.50 a gallon…. You all are hypocrites and pathetic to the fullest extent to play politics with peoples lives!

Senator Bummings needs to remember who pays his salary, his health care, his pension and all his other perts. They are paid by the average American worker. All of these things should be withheld from him. I’d be interested in knowing how he voted on the pay raise for himself and his staff. The American people don’t need people like this in Washington.

For one thing, putting money into the hands of the unemployed is good economic stimulus for local economies, because they pretty much need to spend it immediately on necessities. And second, to the folks who say “Get a Job”, there are 6 job seekers out there for every available job, and that’s not counting the underemployed and the folks who have completely given up looking. So are these folks supposed to split each job six ways? This is simple math, you can’t can’t find a job that isn’t out there. Quit saying “Get a job” like wanting a job makes one miraculously appear, or like folks want to be out of work. Do YOU want to be out of work? NO? Well, most other people don’t either. Case closed.