Last Night 26 Republican Senators Voted To Shut Down The Government Again

Last night 26 Senate Republicans-- basically, the hardcore lunatic fringe-- voted to shut down government operations. The day before the House passed the bill-- and, remember, everyone knows that's the crazy, dysfunctional end of Congress controlled by the Koch brothers and their teabagger brigades-- 359-67, just the lunatic fringe, kooks like Bachmann (MN), DesJarlais (TN), Salmon (AZ), Pompeo (KS), Coffman (CO), Rohrabacher (CA), Pearce (NM), Steve King (IA), Gohmert (TX), Jordan (OH), Huelskamp (KS), Broun/Gingrey (GA) and Amash (MI), voting against it. The Senate equivalents, of course, were the same old crew: Cruz (TX), Lee (UT), Rubio (FL), Toomey (PA), Sessions (AL), Inhofe (OK) and the spineless jellyfish who are afraid of them, like Portman (OH), Thune (DS), Burr (NC), Flake (AZ), Heller (NV) and Miss McConnell (KY).

Do Republicans even need to make excuses any more for their merciless war against the American working class? Voting to take away health insurance 48 times, maneuvering to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, cutting the foodstamps program to shreds, trying to turn neighbors and against neighbors based on race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexual preference, refusing to allow votes on immigration reform or on increasing the minimum wage. The GOP only stands for one thing now: A War Against The Poor. They are the relentless, sworn enemies of America. This week, the NY Times Editorial Board finally had had it with them. The paper of record exposed their bloodthirsty jihad.

Republican senators are pulling out every fake excuse they can think of for filibustering an extension of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed on Tuesday. The majority leader, Harry Reid, was mean to us and wouldn’t let us offer amendments, they say. Democrats refused to pay for the benefits. It’s President Obama’s fault people can’t find work because he won’t approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The truth is the Republican Party simply does not believe that job-seekers who have been out of work for six months or longer deserve government assistance. The most hardhearted believe cutting benefits will give people an incentive to get back to work. The most cynical are hoping for widespread misery, which they can then pin on “Obama’s economy” for political gain in the elections this fall. Whatever the reason, nearly five million unemployed people will go without benefits by the end of 2014, unless the party backs down.

The most appalling demand from Republicans was that the benefits be paid for with cuts to other programs. For example, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire proposed requiring that parents have a Social Security number to receive the child tax credit-- a move that would eliminate an important anti-poverty measure for millions of children who are citizens though their parents are not.

In the past, Congress has generally extended emergency jobless benefits without demanding an offset. The current level of long-term unemployment, about 2.6 percent, is much higher than it was when previous emergency jobless benefits expired and were renewed.

The demand for offsets is highly selective. Last month, a group of more than 60 tax breaks expired, and members of both parties said they were willing to renew them without finding an offset. These breaks are the usual Washington mix of important and useless, ranging from wind-production credits to a deduction for racehorse owners; they would cost $50 billion a year to renew. A year of unemployment insurance costs about $26 billion. Republicans are happy to give out government benefits, but not to those who need them the most.

Sounds almost like Paul Krugman wrote it, doesn't it? Or Martin Luther King (who actually said "The profit motive, when it is the sole basis of an economic system, encourages a cutthroat competition and selfish ambition that inspires men to be more concerned about making a living than making a life.") Or pretty much like any of the awesome Blue America candidates. Pennsylvania Liberal Lion and state Senator Daylin Leach: "The Republican obstruction on unemployment can legitimately be called many things: irrational, cynical, harmful to the economy, etc. But at the end of the day they are simply cruel. These people are clearly, and consistently indifferent to the suffering of other people, even children. This is why most of them are unfit to be in a position of responsibility."

Or like former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich: