I think he's doing the right thing.200,000 people is a lot, and $10,000,000,000 is not really a lot of money for the government, but if we just keep extending the benefits indefinitely, it will eventually become a regular thing.
3/2/2010 7:11:49 PM
3/2/2010 7:36:22 PM
Two votes? He can do that crap?
3/2/2010 7:41:30 PM
he's saying that he'll put up two amendments to a bill for a vote.
3/2/2010 7:42:22 PM
One vote for the amendment, one vote for the bill. At least according to Durbin in the article.[Edited on March 2, 2010 at 7:43 PM. Reason : .]
3/2/2010 7:42:52 PM
I think its pretty cool the Dems passed paygo and now they are ignoring it already.I applaud Bunning, just wish he wouldn't have caved.
3/2/2010 8:36:51 PM
Hah. Reading comprehension fail.
3/2/2010 8:45:30 PM
It wasn't a good way to write the sentence, and if you didn't click the link there's no way you would have seen the details.Hell, even if you did click the link you'd be fully justified in skimming any paragraph you see Durbin's name mentioned.
3/2/2010 8:53:23 PM
Bunning is an idiot. Seriously. He's screwing thousands of his own constituents. Hey, I'm all for balancing the budget, but save your grandstanding for a bill that doesn't immediately impact the ability of thousands to pay their bills due to lay-offs. Asshole.
3/2/2010 9:32:45 PM
There’s no bill that any rep. can stall on that’s not going to hurt some of their constituents.When we have massive debt and deficits, there are some people that are going to be disappointed.
3/2/2010 9:46:13 PM
Whether or not delaying unemployment benefits and cobra extension is right or wrong, or causing furloughs, or accepting a deal he could have accepted last week is right or wrong, or voting against pay as you go rules/voting for unpaid legislation in the past but then selectively caring about it here and blaming the democrats as he did it is right or wrong... he has made it clear that the GOP are willing to use procedural methods to affect legislation in Congress which makes it that much easier for Dems to make the case on the reconciliation procedure. Not that the massive number of filibuster threats forcing cloture bloats didn't already do that, but this one was so much more public both because of the issue he picked but also I think in part because he flipped off the media and snapped at ABC & CNN news people.[Edited on March 2, 2010 at 10:26 PM. Reason : .]
3/2/2010 10:24:35 PM
The Republicans have already distanced themselves from Bunning. He is a big enough douche that the party made sure he wouldn't have funding for another campaign. So he is "retiring", and doing whatever the hell he wants in the mean time.
3/2/2010 10:31:21 PM
Those thousands of constituents he's "screwing" have had unemployment benefits given to them for months longer than they were promised, paid for with money that wasn't congress' to give to begin with.
3/3/2010 11:24:20 AM
I get that he's taking a stand.But I'm having a hard time thinking of a worse issue on which to take a stand.
3/3/2010 11:30:30 AM
Where else would a stand go noticed?
3/3/2010 11:32:12 AM
I disagree. I think many Americans will recognize that he is taking a stand for the American way of life. Although some will realize everyone is Congress agrees they must end, the only disagreement is over when.
3/3/2010 11:33:37 AM
^ "the american way of life"?lolwhen did you become such a hack?
3/3/2010 12:57:25 PM
I don't think hack would be an appropriate term. Though it's freely tossed around at people in TSB, Bunning is not seeking reelection and is not getting support from the GOP.
3/3/2010 1:05:56 PM
moron, I agree with you.
3/3/2010 1:06:51 PM
This is funny. A politician, not running for re-election, does the right thing, since he's no longer buying votes. Then he gets crucified by the left for trying to introduce a little fiscal discipline. This concept that we can keep creating debt to pay the bills is like a religion. Totally irrational and without merit, yet people stubbornly believe in its truth. And, just like religion, no one has a problem seeing why mounting debt is a problem in other countries. People on the left and right talk about sovereign debt crises all around the world. Everyone knows, and would freely admit, that Greece and the UK are running into debt problems. Yet, to suggest that we need to cut back and run a balanced budget here is to be an "obstructionist" in the current political climate. Of course, our sovereign debt crisis is going to put the other ones to shame.
3/3/2010 2:55:15 PM
I wonder how many people supporting Bunning here would still do so if he'd taken a slightly different tack. That is, instead of "We can't keep spending money!" he said "We need to raise taxes to pay for all this spending!"The "fiscal responsibility" argument gets a little tougher to swallow when people the people using it only see the "cut spending" half of the occasion.---I like the stand he's making, just not the subject he's making it on. Surely there is some other expenditure that doesn't have the direct potential to throw people out of their homes or into hunger or into cold.
3/3/2010 5:39:25 PM
3/3/2010 6:20:33 PM
!
3/3/2010 6:34:37 PM
The best part was that he died on a hill for nothing considering his amendment got voted down. He blathered on about paying as you go yet voted against "Pay-Go" when he had the chance a few years ago! What a clown. How can you people on the right defend this as a "principled practice"?
3/3/2010 6:43:16 PM
3/3/2010 7:17:26 PM
That republicans are only willing to vote their principles when they are no longer up for re-election says more about voters than republicans. All that remains to say is that democrats are no better.
3/4/2010 12:03:21 AM
3/4/2010 12:16:39 AM
^ i thought you graduated... are you going back for a graduate degree?
3/4/2010 12:22:31 AM
It turns out that a BA in political science from an engineering school does not make doors fly open, especially when you performed with a certain level of...how can I put this delicately...drunken mediocrity. Certainly not in the miserable economy we've had the last couple of years.So yes, I went back for grad school. And yes, I went to NC State. Partly because I like it here and am familiar with the campus. Also because, by the time I found out it was considered a bad idea to go to grad school at the same place you got your bachelors, it was too late to apply anywhere else.Poor decisions all around.
3/4/2010 12:26:51 AM
3/4/2010 12:59:11 AM
3/4/2010 1:03:34 AM
3/4/2010 2:53:55 AM
^ Note Andrew Jackson was passing new never before seen legislation that led to that Supreme Court challenge. I used him as an example of someone slashing spending in a quick way.
3/4/2010 9:48:34 AM
3/4/2010 12:27:59 PM
this man has contributed so much humor to my life, i'm loving it
3/4/2010 3:02:08 PM
^^ It has never been a burden upon large institutions requiring them to set up political action committees and launder their money through the various loopholes. The only entities that have ever been prosecuted under the laws struck down by the supreme court were small potatoes. As such, eliminating the laws will cause more speech from small entities which will tend to crowd speech from the big entities. The argument is this: the more people talking, the less influence an individual speaker has. Well, now, there will be more entities talking that just the big corporations which were never hampered by the law because they were exempted from it.
3/5/2010 9:47:18 AM
Ron Paul: Bunning has the right idea but is initially going after the wrong spending....http://libertymaven.com/2010/03/03/ron-paul-talks-bunning-and-economy-on-fox-business/9183/
3/5/2010 10:16:27 AM