Bunning’s Victim Count Rises
Sen. Jim Bunning definitely knew he was taking aim at jobless workers when he blocked the urgently-needed extension of unemployment benefits. Did he know or does he care that he was also causing this?
The Department of Transportation will furlough nearly 2,000 employees without pay Monday, temporarily shutting down highway reimbursements to states worth hundreds of millions of dollars, national anti-drunk driving efforts, and multi-million dollar construction projects across the country.
The action comes as a result of Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning’s decision to block key legislation that would have extended several critical priorities for middle class families. That legislation covered tax credits for COBRA health coverage, unemployment insurance for 400,000 people, as well as the short-term extension of the Highway Trust Fund. The Fund supports all surface transportation programs for the nation – highways, bridges, transit and safety inspections, as well as efforts to encourage seat belt use and to fight distracted and impaired driving.
“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,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “This means that construction workers will be sent home from job sites because federal inspectors must be furloughed.”
Oh, and this too:
On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) also pointed out that 1.5 million people may also “be unable to watch local TV stations” beginning today — also because of Bunning’s block on the bill, which includes a “satellite television extension” allowing rural residents to watch local TV stations via satellite. According to MultiChannel news, without the extension, “satellite operators will not be allowed to import distant affiliate TV station signals to viewers who cannot receive a viewable version of their local affiliate.”
Presumably a loss of local TV service to rural residents will affect at least a few people in Kentucky. But Bunning’s already made it pretty clear that he doesn’t care about them—after all, 59,558 Kentuckians could lose their unemployment benefits by June because of the extension he has gone to such trouble to block.
Tags: Jim Bunning, jobless benefits extension, unemployment
I know this may sound wrong..by no means would i want to hurt or cause financial stress to certain people, but i wonder how things in Mr. bunning’s state would go if only the people who voted his dumb a** in didn’t get the extensions? I didn’t vote him in, so why should i have to be up late at night wondering how my family is going to survive past next week? when we have no income coming into our home! We use to visit Kentucky on vacation, well there wouldn’t be anymore of that if only his state was affected by his ignorance. Again, I wouldn’t want that to happen to Kentuckian’s, but it just is aggrevating that 1 person in 1 state that i do not live in is going to hurt the entire country! My family is going to suffer, and that is just the start of what else this will have an effect on, lets talk about the housing market, how many people are gonna lose there house over this? how many people will be the stores buying ANYTHING! how many people will be affording gas, electric, water etc..this is unreal that 1 person can do this to us ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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