{"id":2241,"date":"2010-03-01T23:00:46","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T04:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbach.net\/blog\/?p=2241"},"modified":"2021-08-09T13:07:35","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T17:07:35","slug":"republican-blocks-unemployment-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/republican-blocks-unemployment-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican Blocks Unemployment Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2250\" style=\"border: 0pt none; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px;\" title=\"Republican Blocks Unemployment Benefits\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/recession-e1561332072466.jpg?resize=67%2C67&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Republican Blocks Unemployment Benefits\" width=\"67\" height=\"67\" \/>Jim Bunning, a <strong>Republican from Kentucky<\/strong>, is single-handedly blocking Senate action needed to prevent an estimated 1.2 million American workers from prematurely losing their unemployment benefits next month. As Democratic senators asked again and again for unanimous consent for a vote on a 30-day extension Thursday night, <a href=\"https:\/\/votesmart.org\/candidate\/political-courage-test\/26874\/jim-bunning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bunning<\/a> refused to go along.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jim_Bunning\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright \" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/e\/ef\/Jim_Bunning_official_photo.jpg\" width=\"58\" height=\"73\" \/><\/a>According to the <em><a title=\"Huffington Post\" href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2010\/02\/26\/jim-bunning-repeatedly-bl_n_477910.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Huffington Post<\/a><\/em>, when Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) begged him to drop his objection, <em>Politico<\/em> <a title=\"Politico\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/stories\/0210\/33566.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reports<\/a>, Bunning replied: &#8220;<em><strong>Tough shit.<\/strong><\/em>&#8221; And at one point during the debate, which dragged on till nearly midnight, Bunning complained of missing a basketball game.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>I have missed the Kentucky-South Carolina game that started at 9:00,<\/em>&#8221; he said,\u00a0 &#8220;<em>and it&#8217;s the only redeeming chance we had to beat South Carolina since they&#8217;re the only team that has beaten Kentucky this year<\/em>.&#8221; <em><a title=\"Daily Kos\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20121111155143\/http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/tv\/w\/002587\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daily Kos<\/a><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20121111155143\/http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/tv\/w\/002587\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">produced a video<\/a> of Bunning&#8217;s obstruction.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailymotion.com\/embed\/video\/x31y6a1?autoPlay=1\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The <em>Huffington Post<\/em> says the stakes are enormous: provisions of last year&#8217;s stimulus bill that allow extra weeks of unemployment benefits and COBRA health coverage are set to expire on Feb. 28. State workforce agencies have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2010\/02\/25\/state-workforce-agencies_n_476639.html\" target=\"_hplink\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">already sent out letters<\/a> informing recipients that they&#8217;ll be ineligible for extra &#8220;tiers&#8221; of benefits starting next month. The National Employment Law Project estimates that <strong>1.2 million people will prematurely lose benefits<\/strong> in March.<\/p>\n<p>Judy Conti, a lobbyist for the NELP, said that even when Bunning is eventually thwarted and the extension is passed, state governments will still have to deal with the extra administrative costs of shutting down and restarting the extended benefits programs.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-94105\" title=\"GOP Blocks Unemployment Benefits\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Smirk.jpg?resize=51%2C70&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"GOP Blocks Unemployment Benefits\" width=\"51\" height=\"70\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Smirk.jpg?resize=110%2C150&amp;ssl=1 110w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Smirk.jpg?resize=55%2C75&amp;ssl=1 55w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Smirk.jpg?w=441&amp;ssl=1 441w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 51px) 100vw, 51px\" \/>Ms. Conti said, &#8220;<em>Once the program is retroactively reauthorized, the federal government is going to send the same amount of money, but his own state government is going to have to spend even more money.<\/em>&#8221; She continued, &#8220;<em>What happened last night was an <strong>absolute disgrace<\/strong>. There is a time and a place a purpose for debate on deficit reduction, but you don&#8217;t make your stand on the back of the unemployed. It is <strong>ill-informed, counterproductive, and just cruel<\/strong>.<\/em>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/John_Cornyn\/Issues_and_analysis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Cornyn<\/a> (R-TX) took the floor to stick up for Bunning and stated, &#8220;<em>I admire the courage of the junior senator from Kentucky.<\/em>&#8221; And with that, the Senate adjourned for the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><a title=\"Ralph Bach\" href=\"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/new-resume\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ralph Bach<\/a>\u00a0has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his\u00a0<a title=\"Bach Seat\" href=\"https:\/\/rbach.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bach Seat<\/a> about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on <a class=\"broken_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/rb48334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">LinkedIn<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ralph.bach.14\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rbach48334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>. Email the Bach Seat\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:\/\/bach.seat@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republican senator Jim Bunning from KY personally blocked action needed to prevent 1.2M American workers from prematurely losing their unemployment benefits<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[3240,155,154,45,37],"class_list":["post-2241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-3240","tag-bunning","tag-gop","tag-politics","tag-recession"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2241"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130747,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2241\/revisions\/130747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}