Until recently, that was the crowning achievement of Bunning’s life.
Last week Bunning single-handedly blocked a bill extending unemployment benefits.
Normally, I wouldn’t bother writing about the obscure inner workings of the Senate but I feel this is important.
Bunning was ripped by just about everyone for supposedly not caring about people who are out of work.
But Bunning was making a point, the government can’t afford to give money to anyone -- no matter how much they need it – if the government doesn’t have it.
No matter how sad you are for the people in Haiti, it doesn’t make sense to give them so much money it puts you in debt, especially when you are already maxed out on all your credit cards.
I know the above analogy is not perfect because at least some of that money will come back to the government in tax receipts, but the point is the same, the government shouldn’t spend money it doesn’t have.
In fact, this is the what got us into the mess, people spending money they don’t have. It wasn’t the evil bankers, it wasn’t George W. Bush nor Barney Frank, it was individual people like you and me who bought houses they couldn’t afford and they didn’t pay their bills.
Many of Bunning’s critics, those who aren’t personally attacking him like MSNBC, are agreeing with Bunning’s point but saying this is not the right time to make this stand.
When it’s actually the only time to make this stand. Bunning is retiring, no politician seeking re-election could afford to take such an unpopular, non-populist position.
And he knew the bill was going to go through anyway, and likely made retroactive, so no one lost anything because of his stance.
Except for maybe the reporter from ABC News who ambushed Bunning on a Senators-Only elevator asking him to explain why he was blocking the bill. That would have been fine if Bunning hadn’t already explained 1000 times that he was blocking it because the Senate couldn’t figure out a way to pay for it.
Note: I hope liberals choosing to argue this point will come up with something better than "George W. Bush sucks."
Instead of thinking that government knows how to spend your money, why won't the democrats support something like a suspension of the payroll tax like Scott Brown is suggesting so everyone individually can figure out where it is best to spend their own $$.
ReplyDeletei'd much rather see the gov't pay down some debt. we don't need to spend every dollar that the treasury prints.
ReplyDelete