Umm… About That Bill Senator Bunning Said “Tough Sh*t” To…
Not only did he put 2000 Federal Transportation workers out of work, but he triggered a 21 percent cut in Medicare fees to doctors.
Political gridlock in the Senate triggered a 21 percent cut in Medicare fees to doctors Monday, as the American Medical Association warned of a “meltdown” for seniors and the Obama administration scrambled to contain the damage.
Funding to temporarily stave off the cuts was part of a bill passed last week by the House. But the Senate failed to act on the one-month fix because Republican Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky objected that the $10 billion measure would add to the deficit.
Republican leaders have since pledged to help pass the temporary legislation. The administration, meanwhile, is ordering Medicare billing contractors not to pay any claims from doctors for the first 10 business days of March, hoping the Senate will move swiftly and physicians can be reimbursed in full. Medicare usually pays electronic claims in 14 days.
And to think all Bunning suffered was missing a basketball game. Hope that little stunt was worth it, Senator, because Bunning so owns this mess.
And continues to own it. Just in…
Sen. Jim Bunning continues to object to extending unemployment benefits. On Monday, the Kentucky Republican once again prevented a vote on a bill that would extend eligibility for enhanced unemployment benefits and subsidized health insurance for laid-off workers by 30 days.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) asked for unanimous consent to move forward with the bill. If Congress fails to pass an extension, the National Employment Law Project estimates that 1.2 million people will lose their benefits in March.
If unanimous consent fails, it’s more than Bunning that’s at fault.
True, but he is the poster boy. 🙂
And he reportedly flipped the bird to an ABC News producer.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2010/03/sen-bunning-is-angry-this-is-a-senators-only-elevator.html
Funny stuff, well, except for all of the unemployed people that Jim Bunning has just kicked in the nuts.
Sen. Bunning is having some kind of meltdown. The Democrats will pass a more permanent fix in the jobs bill, but they need a temporary fix now.
And how you know this is theater — Bunning isn’t even suggesting specific cuts, apparently. If you are going to have on about not paying for something you come back to the table with some ideas, yes?
PayGo??
just words, just words.
Um… PAYGO? You mean that thing Bunning and Repubs voted against?
And again — why didn’t Bunning show up with some proposed cuts to pay for this instead of just having a conniption?
PAYGO, I mean the thing Dems voted for and then ingored.
Mean old Bunning didn’t let the dems sneak through a 30 day extension on a “no fingerprints” voice vote at the close of business.
So I guess the New Rule is that is the sockpuppet romeo is defending it, it was definitely meant to be theater.
cassy, “sockpuppet” would be a more effective insult is if you knew what it ment and used it correctly in a sentence.
Sorry, romeo or RICO or lizard or whoever you are — we are completely aware of all internet traditions.
And you are still a sockpuppet.
Hmm… what do the following have in common?
2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts
Medicare Part D/Prescription Drug Act
Every war supplemental funding bill
Answer: Sen. Bunning voted for them all… and none were paid for.
Republicans are secretly happy about Bunning’s antics on the jobs bill. Kind of like in the movie “Independence Day” when the old drunk guy flew up the tailpipe of the alien spaceship, and everybody was happy it was him instead of someone else.
I thought it was Democrats who bragged about passing Paygo. Bunning is just asking them to follow their own rules. They are hypocrites. They could cut the bank bailouts and let Republicans argue that it should only go to the deficit. I give him a thumbs up. Reallocate spending. We need to help those who need it. We don’t need to waste all of the money that we are.
How about cutting foreign aid and the UN and taking care of our own?
oh good. retardlican david forgets that last time we recoiled into isolationism, Hitler took over europe….
btw david, those sentiments of “we should look out for our selves and screw everyone else” is very christian of you…. good boy.
Let’s cut corporate welfare. Aid is chicken feed compared to the money taken off shore by Tom Carper’ s pals every year.
This is the effect of the Bunning block.
Very nice job by McClatchy here.
There are a lot of corporate subsidies that we could cut. The first ones are the tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas. We could apply that to pay for unemployment.
I don’t think that funding dictators at ever higher levels is GOD given right. You would rather burden future generations or “screw” over the hurting among us. That is your right. I disagree.
I doubt that cutting foreign aid back to 12 billion is going to cause World War 3 my Silly nemesis. Isolationism did not cause the war. Giving Hitler foreign aid would have just made him richer sooner and more powerful. Interventionism which put an unfair burden on Germany did. There would be no Hitler without the Treaty of Versailles.
I do wonder how the Medicare cuts are a crisis. Aren’t we suppose to embrace them as part of health care reform plus some?
Look it’s not just him several Repuk’s have held his place while he went out to take a s#*t. so don’t fall for this crap that he is working without the support of the rest of his party.
And let’s not forget that Jim voted for both wars and Tax cuts none of which were paid for under Bush
Republicans did not vote to impose pay go. Democrats did. Why can’t they find 10 billion dollars out of 4 trillion (thousand billion)? It is because they plan to spend the bank bailout money on some new program. Don’t trust the Washington Democrats. They say one thing and do another the next vote. It is all smoke and mirror with these guys.
Bunning is just asking them to follow their own rules. They are hypocrites.
Paygo rules have never applied to emergency spending, which the unemployment extensions are and always have been in every administration. It is you and Bunning who are the hypocrites by pretending otherwise.
Bunning has voted for Unemployment benefits in the past, has voted for budget-busting Bush tax cuts and voted against PAYGO. If he’s just making a point, why did he keep up his filibuster? His stupidity has real consequences – 2000 people were furloughed, people are losing their unemployment and doctor & hospital reimbursements were just cut 21%.
And Bunning is the one objecting to the funding — if he wants to pay for that bill he should show up with the right set of payfors. But he won’t. Pure theater.
“the Obama administration scrambled to contain the damage” In other words, Obomba is calling him right now to apologize and offer him free basketball tickets.
Dig this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alz5d1L0Ggs
This is lack of Leadership on Harry’s part he is the leader he shoul stand up and say we are taking a vote now without Bunning. Put Joe in the chair to overrule any objections.
My understanding is that according to the rules of the broken Senate, you have to wait 48 hours before the cloture vote. So, Bunning’s “hold” will be broken, but not until the middle of this week. That’s why they keep asking him to withdraw it on his own.
Of course, this “hold” wouldn’t be possible if the Senate Minority Leader didn’t support it. So, Mitch McConnell is to blame as well.
The senator who dared believe in ‘paygo’
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/2/10 | Debra J. Saunders
In January, the Senate joined the House in passing “pay-as-you-go” rules to require Congress to pay for new discretionary spending. On Feb. 12, President Obama signed the bill. “Now Congress will have to pay for what it spends, just like everybody else,” Obama crowed. Less than a month later, Obama and fellow Democrats are busily demonizing a lone senator for pushing Washington to spend responsibly. It seems this administration is all for fiscal restraint – as long as you don’t mean it. The story began last week when Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., blocked Senate passage of a bill to extend…
He blocked it again today – http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/02/AR2010030201150.html?hpid=topnews
Senator Bunning is our Marie Antoinette. Plus, he’s bringing a few crazies with him. Here’s Senator John Kyl:
Kyl thinks being unemployed means you’re lazy. I hope soon that Senator Kyl is also unemployed.