Today, in a 57 to 41 cloture vote, 1.2 million Americans lost their unemployment benefits. This is truly a sad day for the millions of jobless people in the United States.
For weeks, the Democrats in the Senate have been negotiating with their counterparts on the right to try to find some middle ground on the bill. After cutting the bill down by almost $100 billion, at Republican urging I might add, every single Republican Senator voted no on the package. Because of this no vote, 1.2 million people will not be paying their bills, will not be paying their mortgages, and will not be returning the money to the economy. If anyone in the world can explain how this is a good thing for the economy, email me at leftwingliberalshow@gmail.com.
Now, you may be wondering, why would the Republicans want to vote against this bill? Well, Kentucky Senator, and majority leader, Mitch McConnell explained, "The only thing Republicans have oppoesed in this debate are job killing taxes and adding to the national debt." Hmm, well one problem, the only provisions in this bill that dealth with taxes were extensions of the TAX CUTS that were included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus package). I was under the impression that Republicans were all for tax cuts, thats all that comes out of their mouths in times of economic hardship. And about that adding to the national debt thing, no matter what you say, the best way to stimulate the economy is to increase government spending when the private sector cannot maintain satisfactory ecomonic conditions on its own.
Also, there is a key factor here, the Republicans voted this way because there is an election in November. The economy is beginning to show some pretty strong signs of improvement and it is a proven fact that when the economy is bad, the party out of power gets elected. The Republicans got scared and wanted to try to stop the recovery because there is an election just around the corner. Ezra Klein put is best, "Today, the recession ended for the Senate, and the election began."
So I guess the point I am trying to make is, odds are most of the 1.2 million people that lost their benefits today are going to vote in the elections. Well, although the Republicans may have had the election on their mind in this vote, they just gave the Democrats a 1.2 million member voting bloc.
A Special Note
For weeks, the Democrats in the Senate have been negotiating with their counterparts on the right to try to find some middle ground on the bill. After cutting the bill down by almost $100 billion, at Republican urging I might add, every single Republican Senator voted no on the package. Because of this no vote, 1.2 million people will not be paying their bills, will not be paying their mortgages, and will not be returning the money to the economy. If anyone in the world can explain how this is a good thing for the economy, email me at leftwingliberalshow@gmail.com.
Now, you may be wondering, why would the Republicans want to vote against this bill? Well, Kentucky Senator, and majority leader, Mitch McConnell explained, "The only thing Republicans have oppoesed in this debate are job killing taxes and adding to the national debt." Hmm, well one problem, the only provisions in this bill that dealth with taxes were extensions of the TAX CUTS that were included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus package). I was under the impression that Republicans were all for tax cuts, thats all that comes out of their mouths in times of economic hardship. And about that adding to the national debt thing, no matter what you say, the best way to stimulate the economy is to increase government spending when the private sector cannot maintain satisfactory ecomonic conditions on its own.
Also, there is a key factor here, the Republicans voted this way because there is an election in November. The economy is beginning to show some pretty strong signs of improvement and it is a proven fact that when the economy is bad, the party out of power gets elected. The Republicans got scared and wanted to try to stop the recovery because there is an election just around the corner. Ezra Klein put is best, "Today, the recession ended for the Senate, and the election began."
So I guess the point I am trying to make is, odds are most of the 1.2 million people that lost their benefits today are going to vote in the elections. Well, although the Republicans may have had the election on their mind in this vote, they just gave the Democrats a 1.2 million member voting bloc.
A Special Note
You may have noticed that the vote was 57-41, and there are only 40 Republican senators. Democratic Senator Ben Nelson from Nebraska joined in the no votes. So Mr. Nelson, are there no unemployed people in Nebraksa? I don't think so! I think when you get voted out, you might wonder where your unemployment benefits are.
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