Senate Republican holds up jobless benefits (AGAIN)

WASHINGTON – As Congress raced to leave Washington for its Easter recess, a Republican senator blocked a stopgap bill to extend jobless benefits, saying its $9 billion cost should not be added to the national debt.

As a result, some people who have been out of work for more than six months will at least temporarily lose benefits. Newly jobless people won't be eligible to sign up for generous health insurance subsidies.

At the center of the battle is Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who's insisting that the measure be "paid for" so as not to add to the nation's $12.7 trillion debt. "What we are doing is stealing future opportunity from our children," Coburn said Thursday.
Republicans offered legislation to finance the monthlong extension of jobless benefits by rescinding unspent money from last year's economic stimulus bill. The effort was killed on a party-line vote.

news.yahoo.com...

Is this garbage going to happen everytime there is an unemployment extenstion. THis guy keeps bitching about the stimulus money...why doesn't he demand that we use money from corporate welfare or unspent money that goes towards the war in Iraq and Afghanistan?

The only spending they attack is the stimulus package because it's Obama's legislation...and they are willing to do that and hurt THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY at the same time.

Insanity!!

Hopefully this doesn't effect too many people out there. This is just another slap in the face for those struggling in this country.




I'm sure this will make Easter much better for many Americans....and their children!!!!!!

This BS makes me sick to my stomach.

[edit on 26-3-2010 by David9176]

Why not trim some of that excessive military budget, or scale back on congressional perks - or god forbid, ask Congressmen like Sen. Tom Coburn to take a pay cut, so as to not add to the national debt.

I guess it's easier to kick those who are down.

You know what they say?

Once you learn a dance step its hard to stop

Will the bashers show up on their massive horses???

reply to post by Janky Red

Will the bashers show up on their massive horses???

Ah...you mean the American Patriots on ATS who love to bash the unemployed...and any other American struggling through no fault of their own?

I'm sure they'll show up....after all...this is their cup o' tea!!

I can see it now...

"wow...do these people want an endless handout of my tax dollars?"
"These people are just lazy!"
"There are plenty of jobs out there!"

Well my mom has been unemployed since february 2009 and she will only be receiving 1 more check in tear 2. She asked if she will be allowed into tear 3 and the lady at unemployment told her that there must be money in tear 3 and she won't know until she gets there so she is freaking out. I hope this won't effect us, we're already down and out, next step is homelessness. Thank you Tom Coburn you sleezy little rat!

reply to post by David9176


We spend nearly $600 billion on the military a year. That is a third more than we did during the cold war. The military budget was increased by a total of nearly $1 trillion over the time of the Bush administration. Yes I am excluding the costs of the wars on this estimation.

So why on earth do Republicans continue to attack the stimulus which atleast is going back into the states when we happily spend billions upon billions on the military industrial complex?

Its astounding isnt it? But conservatives and armed chair revolutionaries alike continue to keep shut.

Mouth shut.

Heck, I'm just a dumb Aussie but don;t your Dems hold a majority??
Why not ask them why some voted against instead of blaming one Republican?

Different country but same BS polotics.

I'm sure the votes are rigged to always have a close two party situation so one can always blame the other. But thats just my view..

I'm bew so please correct me if I'm wrong..

It's ok to spend billions paying big companies to rebuild a country that we blew apart for no real reason at all but not a penny to help this countries citizens get back on their feet. Sounds very republican if you ask me.

My cousin was laid off about 2 years ago and began collecting unemployment. It wasn't until they told him his unemployment runs out this month that he decided to REALLY look for a job. He went through truck driver training and had the whole damn thing subsidized (federal gov't, state and company hiring)and now is working. Sometimes people get used to getting a check for not working. Is that the case accross the board? No. However that is a major problem with extending things that far out, is people become complacent and procrastinate. Is it tough finding jobs out there right now? Yes. But alot of these job pollsters also claim that alot of people polled have stopped looking for jobs.

This only shows how bad the situation with unemployment really is, we are living on appropriations, budgets cuts and extensions and they all Temporary, never mean to be run in a long time.

But obviously with the situation in the US economic front no getting any better and now more debt added to the deficit the money is going to start drying out sometimes.

Unless taxes are raised to make demands meet.

What Marg said!

Also from Salon.com

Barack Obama campaigned on a platform of increased defense spending. True to his word, Obama's 2010 fiscal year budget calls for $527 billion in defense spending (not including the costs of Iraq and Afghanistan). That is more than the U.S. allocated for defense in 2009 and equals what the Bush administration budgeted for 2010:

The Obama administration has given the Pentagon a $527 billion limit, excluding war costs, for its fiscal 2010 defense budget, an official with the White House’s Office of Management and Budget said Monday.

If enacted, that would be an 8 percent increase from the $487.7 billion allocated for fiscal 2009, and it would match what the Bush administration estimated last year for the Pentagon in fiscal 2010.

So Obama proposes that the U.S. spend $40 billion more this year than it spent last year.

So you see, it's not just Republicans that are for large defense budgets.

reply to post by justinsweatt


One of the things about the defense budget is that most of it, is not for the military is goes to finance the private contractors sucking of it.

My husband is a contractor, but Obama started to in source jobs, since November last year, my husband's job will be a civil job by next October at a very substantial cut.

Then the government can claim once again that is creating jobs while just turning civilian contracting jobs into government jobs.



[edit on 26-3-2010 by marg6043]