Mike Thompson: What planet have republicans been living on?

Extended unemployment benefits

Exactly what planet have Republicans been living on for the past few years? In May, unemployment benefits began to expire for more than one million Americans. The response of Senate Republicans has been to repeatedly stymie attempts to pass a benefits extension, hanging unemployed Americans out to dry. Unless something is done, on July 1, extended unemployment benefits for 87,000 jobless Michiganders alone will expire.

Senate Republicans claim to have found religion on deficit reduction - never mind all that spending like drunken sailors stuff during the years they ran Congress and the White House. But if deficit reduction is their goal, Republicans picked a pathetic hill on which to make a stand. As the New York Times opined, “even as (the Senate) blocked the extension of unemployment benefits, they succeeded in preserving a tax loophole that benefits wealthy money managers at private equity firms and other investment partnerships.”

Deficit reduction wasn’t an issue for Republicans when they enthusiastically supported President Obama’s awful idea to escalate the war in Afghanistan. It will cost Americans $1 million dollars for each of the 30,000 additional soldiers Obama wants to deploy to that quagmire. This to fight, as CIA Director Leon Panetta estimates, the 50 to 100 remaining members of Al Qaeda left in Afghanistan. For the deployment cost of just 2,000 of those troops, we could end Michigan’s budget woes for the year.

Deficit reduction wasn’t an issue for Republicans when the estate tax was allowed to expire in January of this year. Meaning that in 2010, heirs can inherit the estates of dearly departed billionaires tax-free, never mind the effect of the lost revenue on the deficit. And deficit reduction has also slipped the minds of Republicans as they battle to extend Bush era tax cuts for the rich that are due to expire in December.


more (with good toon)

http://www.freep.com/article/20100630/BLOG24/100630001/Extended-unemployment-benefits

:thumbsup: