Crossposted from Hillbilly Report.
By now everyone knows about the block Jim Bunning decided to put on unemployment benefits. However, this move did not just effect the unemployed. All across America many federal programs will furlough 2,000 other workers without pay and will indefinately end construction projects across the country.
Just look at what the idiocy of one Kentucky Republican will do for folks all across the nation:
Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning’s block of short-term funding for a host of federal programs that expired Sunday night will force the Department of Transportation to furlough nearly 2,000 employees without pay, the department said Monday.
The funding snafu also will temporarily cancel highway reimbursements to states worth hundreds of millions of dollars and shut down multi-million dollar construction projects across the country, said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.co...
LaHood was keenly disappointed in the move:
"As American families are struggling in tough economic times, I am keenly disappointed that political games are putting a stop to important construction projects around the country," LaHood said in a statement. "This means that construction workers will be sent home from job sites because federal inspectors must be furloughed."
Federal projects shut down by the furlough include more than $24 million in Idaho's Nez Perce National Forest and $86 million for bridge replacements in the Washington, D.C., area. Kentucky does not have projects that will be affected.
Yes, this is your typical Republican. End unemployment benefits for those who lost their jobs because of their irresponsible actions and put other workers in other states out of work. Yes, just crashing the economy was not enough for Bunning he seeks to extend as much pain as possible out of revenge for not being allowed by the McConnell machine to run again:
According to the National Employment Law Project, a research group, some 1.2 million unemployed workers, including 14,000 in Kentucky, would lose federal jobless benefits this month. The U.S. Labor Department figures about one-third will lose benefits in the first two weeks of the month.
Letting the highway program lapse could mean an estimated 90,000 jobs lost. As many as 2 million families with satellite television service could lose access to local television stations because a copyright law expired Sunday night.
According to the law project, states hardest hit by the Monday cutoff could be California, where an estimated 201,274 people could lose jobless benefits, and Florida, where the total is an estimated 105,016. Other potential state totals: Georgia, 48,284; Texas, 82,850 and Illinois, 65,431.
And listening to Mitch McConnell one would think that Bunning had cost all these jobs in Communist China:
"Senator McConnell supports extending unemployment benefits and is disappointed they have expired," said Robert Steurer, a McConnell spokesman. "He believes this should have been addressed weeks ago when there was a bipartisan agreement to do so. However, he hopes this issue is resolved quickly so that Kentuckians who are out of work will have their benefits restored soon."
Then why does McConnell do nothing?? He is the "leader" of the Republicans in the Senate, is he really that impotent??
The sad part is that benefits and funding will be delayed until at least the end of the week:
The bill, which also could include tax breaks that expired at the end of last year, is expected to attract several amendments that could slow it down, and though Republican leaders say the measure will eventually pass, approval is likely to be delayed until the end of the week. And once the Senate passes the measure, it still needs the consent of the House of Representatives.
Democrat Dan Mongiardo who is running for Bunning's seat pledged to hold a protest rally against the Bunning decision. He too has been victim of some of Bunning's looney "Tough Shit" comments in the past:
Kentucky Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo, a Democratic candidate for Bunning’s seat, pledged to hold a protest rally if unemployment benefits are not restored. Mongiardo also encouraged Kentuckians to call Bunning’s offices to complain.
During the 2004 campaign, Bunning said Mongiardo, looked "like one of Saddam Hussein’s sons." Mongiardo is an Italian-American. Bunning later apologized for the statement.
Jack Conway also blasted the move, but declined to join Mongiardo in a rally to protest:
"I think I think we an all agree the actions of our junior senator the other night ... does not speak for the Democrats, independents and Republicans of Kentucky," Conway told a crowd of more than 200 at a Democratic dinner in Fayette County.
http://www.courier-journal.com/...
Jack Conway will not be at a Daniel Mongiardo-lead rally against Jim Bunning on Tuesday.
Conway says his duties as Attorney General will keep him in Washington D-C to deal with a tobacco settlement issue, but he says that he finds Bunning’s actions quote petty and petulant.
Democrats are uniformly criticizing him. Republican candidates are supporting Bunning.
http://www.whas11.com/...
Yes, Republicans are supporting him to the point that tea-bag hero Rand Paul is actually planning to rally in support of the move:
Meanwhile, Kentucky Republican Rand Paul’s campaign for the U.S. Senate will hold a rally at 3 p.m. Tuesday in front of U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning’s Lexington office to support Bunning.
I sure hope that Kentucky is listening. While McConnell issued his statement to save the face of the Republican Party nationally, the candidates in this race show that actually Kentucky Republicans and most Republicans everywhere wholeheartedly support Bunning's idiotic and selfish "protest".
I hope this leads national Democrats to choose between Mongiardo and Conway and give either man the resources they need in this race. While I am still undecided I will say one thing. Either man would be a huge improvement upon Bunning, McConnell, Paul or Grayson who have shown just how much scorn they have over those who have suffered most from the failed Republican rule of the last decade.
Are you listening America?? Jim Bunning speaks for the Republican Party and if you are unemployed, without health insurance, are having your house foreclosed on, or have lost thousands out of your 401k, the immortal words of Jim Bunning echo down from the failed Republican Party that caused all this to happen. Tough Shit.