The Reagan Safety Net by Clay Bennett, Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Yesterday was my oldest daughter's birthday. We played hooky, she from school and I from work, and went to the Smithsonian's American History Museum in Washington DC. As we strolled through the American Presidency exhibit, I came across this political cartoon.
I instantly felt how little GOP attitudes about the social safety net have changed in the intervening 30 years. Sen. Jim Bunning's (R-KY) sole voice objecting to unemployment benefits, COBRA health care subsidies, and transportation funds is just the most recent example in the national spotlight of his party's disregard for those struggling to get by in these hard economic times.
But this callous attitude is being played out at the state level, too. Witness what the Minnesota GOP did yesterday to the health care benefits for the poorest of the poor...
Back in February, the Minnesota Legislature passed a 16 month extension of General Assistance Medical Care, a program designed to cover 32,000 single Minnesotans who make less than $8,000 a year and don't otherwise qualify for Medicaid. This bill passed by wide margins - 47-16 in the Senate and 125-9 in the House. Although Governor Pawlenty threatened to veto the bill, and subsequently did in a grand bit of showboating at the CPAC convention in Washington DC, the vote margins in both houses of the Legislature were large enough to override a veto if the vote tallies held.
So, Pawlenty's cruel veto of health insurance for the sickest and neediest Minnesotans as an act of theater for his expected Presidential run was overridden with the help of an enlightened Minnesota GOP, right?
(Yeah, I laughed as I typed that last sentence.)
The Senate voted to override the Governor's veto by a 45-21 vote (with 45 votes the minimum to override). Yesterday, the House took up the override. In a party-line vote, the House DFL'ers came up 4 votes short of overriding the veto, 86-47.
Thirty-eight House Republicans who voted FOR passage of the bill in February switched their votes to oppose overriding the veto. They thought it was more important to support Pawlenty's quixotic Presidential ambitions than to uphold the principle of their initial vote.
The StarTribune notes the swipe Minnesota's religious leaders took at Pawlenty over his veto and the recent hyping of his evangelism:
The Rev. Grant Stevensen of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in St. Paul took aim at the governor. "Governor, please stop talking to us about God," he said, referring to Pawlenty's recent political speeches, in which he says that "God's in charge."
Said Stevenson on Monday: "Don't pass this off on God. That's no God we've ever heard of, and please stop lecturing us about God. It's offensive. The only God that we're aware of is the one who says, 'If you want to follow me, you will look out for the widows and orphans.'"
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As Meteor Blades showed us yesterday, Sen Jim Bunning's (R-KY) petulant opposition to the extension of unemployment benefits had the side effect of cutting off funding for 41 transportation projects and the furlough of 2,000 Department of Transportation employees.
The Miami Herald estimated that an additional 90,000 people are now out of work due to Bunning's block on transportation funding.
Additionally, people laid off beginning in March won't be eligible to receive subsidies to pay for their COBRA health insurance premiums because of Bunning's actions.
Now Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is supporting Bunning by calling unemployment insurance and COBRA subsidies a “disincentive for them to seek new work.”
Laurie Roberts, writing at her Arizona Republic blog, questions Kyl's understanding of his constituents:
I don't know how many of Kyl'l unemployed constituents he's talked to. I've talked to a fair number of them. They're scared and they're frustrated and some of them lay awake at night, wondering how they're going to pay their bills now that they've been tossed to the street by their employers. But I haven't heard a single one of them talk about the windfall headed their way, courtesy of unemployment insurance.
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The GOP trumpeted victories in the Virginia and New Jersey governor's races and the Massachusetts Senate special election as a popular revolt against an out of touch Washington DC. So the "in touch" GOP heard this message from the people:
- If you are out of work, tough shit.
- If you need health insurance, tough shit.
- Even if you have a job, we won't blink at helping you lose your job to make a political point. Tough shit.
- If you are a Republican running for President, we will turn our back on our constituents to help you!
For a party that constantly repeats "It's better to fight them over there than to fight them over here" in regards to the Global War on Terror, you'd think think the rationale behind the statement might sink in a little. The underlying concept of that statement is if we do a little something now, it saves us from having to do a lot of something later.
Unemployment insurance, COBRA subsidies, health insurance for the poor... these are little things we can do now to help people to stave of financial catastrophe. Helping your neighbor get through a rough patch now saves us all from the collateral damage of bankruptcy, home foreclosure, homelessness.
But to folks like Bunning, Kyl, and Pawlenty (and his Minnesota GOP enablers), you're nothing but a burden. And from my take on Kyl's comment, a lazy one at that.
The GOP isn't just the Party of No anymore. It's not just about gumming up the gears of government. Now they are showing outright contempt for those struggling during this deep recession. Bunning's words to Sen Durbin (D-IL) were really words meant for all of America.
Tough shit.