The deficit spending stand and Sen. Bunning

Sen. Bunning, by himself, temporarily put a stop to a short term extension of unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits. He felt the cost of the bill should be covered and not add to our ever growing deficit. He apparently did not disagree with the substance of the bill, only its funding.

Sen. Bunning is not running for a third term, so his stand on this issue could be considered a little wobbly at the knees, but it is a stand on deficit spending all the same.

But, let's see how his actions were characterized in Yahoo (McClatchy News Newspapers) and what the possible ramifications of his actions might be.

Some unemployment benefits could dry up Monday. Newly laid-off workers wouldn't get federal help with health insurance premiums.


Road and transit bills could go unpaid, Medicare payments to doctors would stay high and rural satellite reception could be affected...

What else? How about John Burton piling on....

"More than 200,000 people here in California stand to lose their unemployment benefits when they need them most," said John Burton , the chairman of the California Democratic Party .

This could also occur....

Among the provisions set to expire are the flood insurance program, Small Business Administration loans, a change in Medicare payments to doctors, some transportation funding and, most prominently, help for the unemployed.

And this...

Anyone laid off after March 1 no longer would be able to get federal help to pay health insurance premiums; the program now pays 65 percent of the cost for certain workers.

Rural television watchers could be affected because the bill would extend the copyright used by satellite television companies.

My, as though any of that is likely. But,according to the article, it appears the world may end because Bunning had the audacity to ask that a bill be paid for and not add to the deficit. Mind you, Bunning does not have any fundamental issue with the bill. He only wants it to be paid for. That is why he stopped it.

The article then quickly deteriorated into the expected bashing of a conservative, in this case Bunning.

Last year, he cursed at reporters during a telephone press call and refused to release the results of an internal political poll. The results are "none of your g--d--- business," he said.

That same year, he said U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg , who was being treated for pancreatic cancer, would be dead by year's end. He apologized for the statement.

During the 2004 campaign, Bunning said that Democratic challenger Daniel Mongiardo , then a state senator and now Kentucky's lieutenant governor, looked
"like one of Saddam Hussein's sons." Mongiardo is an Italian-American. Bunning later apologized for the statement.

By article's end one is left with the distinct feeling Sen. Bunning is a nut for expecting or government to pay its for its bills. Although I believe we should all carry the burden of cutting the deficit, I also believe he could have made his point with a different bill.



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