The Senate passed (and paid-for) a 5 month Unemployment Insurance extension.
The House simply passed on their excuses ... for NOT acting on the Senate Bill.
Senate Passes Unemployment Benefits Extension, But Fate Uncertain in House
by Arlette Saenz, abcnews.go.com -- Apr 8, 2014
[...]
House Speaker John Boehner has indicated that he would only consider extending unemployment insurance if it included provisions to create more jobs.
“As the speaker said months ago, we are willing to look at extending emergency unemployment insurance as long as it includes provisions to help create more private-sector jobs -- but, last week, Senate Democratic Leaders ruled out adding any jobs measures at all. The American people are still asking, ‘where are the jobs?’ and House Republicans are focused on our jobs agenda for families and small businesses,” Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner said Monday.
The Senate’s measure would reauthorize unemployment benefits for five months, starting with retroactive payments dating back to Dec. 28, when the previous bill expired.
[...]
It's like Boehner was driving down a country road back in Ohio, and he happens along a family stranded on the side of the road, with a broken-down vehicle. The always clueless Speaker slows down just enough to shout out the window:
"I've give you a ride into town, but first you got to prove to me, the car is easily fixable?
Nope, well then 'you're on your own' ... maybe you should try pushing harder, eh?"
In Boehner-world, you are only "in Need" -- when he's says you are. Afterall, he's heard a lot of hard-luck stories in his day, tending bar and what not.
So he's kind of a "expert" on hard-luck.
At dishing it out.
Of course Speaker Boehner is not alone among Republicans, when it comes to "blaming the victim." Elizabeth Warren has a few choice words for that heartless M.O. of theirs:
Elizabeth Warren Destroys Paul Ryan's 'Vision' in 80 Seconds
link to clip
link to longer clip
Senator Warren Transcript: (many thanks to huffingtonpost.com -- Luke Johnson)
"Paul Ryan looks around, sees three unemployed workers for every job opening in America, and blames the people who can't find a job. In 2008, this economy crashed, wiping out millions of jobs."
"Paul Ryan says don't blame Wall Street: the guys who made billions of dollars cheating American families; don't blame decades of deregulation that took the cops off the beat while the big banks looted the American economy. Don't blame the Republican Secretary of the Treasury, and the Republican president who set in motion a no-strings-attached bailout for the biggest banks. Nope. Paul Ryan says keep the monies flowing to the powerful corporations, keep their huge tax breaks, keep the special deals for the too-big-to-fail banks and put the blame on hardworking, play-by-the-rules Americans who lost their jobs."
"That may be Paul Ryan's vision of how America works, but that is not our vision of this great country."
PS.
THAT's called having a Clue and having some compassion too ... for our fellow unemployed Americans -- 2 out of 3 of them,
are competing for Jobs that do not exist.
Maybe John Boehner and Paul Ryan can look in the mirror -- the next time our Economy breaks-down. And then STOP and DO something about it! Besides driving right on by ...