WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: SENATOR JIM BUNNING. Bunning blocked last minute attempts in Senate to extend federal unemployment benefits, extend federal subsidies on COBRA payments, and block an automatic Medicare reduction. If Bunning gets his way the unemployed will starve and Granny will die because she won’t be able to see a doctor. Bunning is a one man death panel.
The Kansas City Star writes:
Retiring Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning Friday continued to single-handily hold up extension of unemployment benefits to more than a million Americans starting next week. Budget hawk? Or just plain mean? What a piece of work he is.
From CNN:
“After Feb. 28, the jobless will no longer be able to apply for federal unemployment benefits, as well as the COBRA health insurance subsidy. That means those who run out of their 26 weeks of state-paid coverage after that date would not be able to apply for any extra weeks of federal benefits.”
Bunning is on his high horse about the national debt and how this extension must be paid for or it will add to the national debt.
Nice-sounding rhetoric, but read enough of his exchanges in recent days and it’s obvious he’s still smarting from the fact he’s not running for re-election, partly because his own Republican Party leaders wanted a change in Kentucky.
Guess Bunning will show them how effective he is, even if it comes at the expense of the nation’s unemployed.
Politico reports on Bunning’s response:
Senate Democrats spent Thursday night hammering away at Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) for single-handedly holding up action in the upper chamber – but he blurted out a message to one of them on the Senate floor: “Tough s—t.”
In an unusual display in the normally sleepy chamber, Bunning – without the support of GOP leadership – has blocked efforts to quickly approve a series of extensions to measures that would otherwise expire Sunday, including unemployment insurance and the Cobra program that allows people who lose their health benefits to continue getting coverage.
And that has led to a furious exchange on the floor, with Democrats attacking the senator, who has refused to relent on his objection, in unusually harsh terms.
“Tough s—t,” Bunning said as he was seated in the back row, overheard by the floor staff and others in attendance.
