A synopsis is a brief summary or general survey of something, and if
one looked back from the bipartisan budget deal up until Senate repugicans
blocked
an unemployment benefit extension on Tuesday and Wednesday, the result
would be a synopsis of every repugican tactic over the past five years
to hurt Americans and obstruct the economy. Shortly after the bipartisan
budget deal was announced and it was clear there was no provision to
extend unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed, it was
obvious to this column that repugicans would not extend the benefits.
In fact, yesterday Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said “
this has obviously been fixed to guarantee that you get no outcome,” and it was fixed before the budget agreement was announced as a “victory” for Washington and America on December 10
th 2013.
Insiders reported that Democrats tried to get unemployment benefits extended for
1.3 million unemployed
Americans in the bipartisan budget deal, but Republicans led by Paul
Ryan said no. At the time the big repugican lie was a promise they
would take up and address the issue early in 2014, but they never
intended to address extending benefits unless Democrats found funding
and
delayed
implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Last week, six repugicans
said they supported “consideration” of a 3-month extension of benefits,
though most of them said they could only consider an extension and that
they would only vote for legislation if it were paid for. Harry Reid and
Democrats found funding for the extension for eleven months, but repugicans still said no and it gave credence to Reid’s words that “
this has obviously been fixed to guarantee that you get no outcome.”
It was always fixed to guarantee there would be no outcome, and it is
why Democratic negotiators failed the people when they believed repugicans during the budget talks.
The repugicans also exposed their penchant for double standards in
requiring the extension be paid for. When the shrub was pretending,
unemployment benefits were extended five times with “
no strings attached any of those times.”
It reveals another typical repugican tactic since 2011 that some
observers predicted would occur when repugicans said they would address
the UI issue in 2014; demand funding and a hostage payment. It is a
case of repugicans punishing Americans for re-electing an African
American because when a white repugican was president, they made sure
their out-of-work constituents were saved from falling into poverty. The repugicans have amassed quite a double-standard record of holding a
Black man occupying the Oval Office to different standards than just
over five years ago when the shrub, a white repugican, was pretending. The repugicans still claim their tactics are not driven by racial animus
and bristle at the mere suggestion, but it is clearly their motivation
for their obstructionism.
The repugican cabal is also typically punishing its own constituents in primarily
Southern states such as Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, South
Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky where the long-term
jobless rate is significantly higher
when compared to the rest of the nation. Of sixteen senators
representing the eight Southern states, fourteen are repugicans with
one Democrat each from North Carolina and Florida. Many of the fourteen repugicans were already
on record against an extension despite aggressive
local news coverage and
polls
showing substantial bipartisan support for extending the emergency
benefits. However, repugicans in Southern states have little to fear
from voters who reliably vote against their own self-interests and make
no mistake, repugicans who voted against an extension are hurting their
constituents and their home state economies as much as voters in blue
states. Democrats estimated that the economy lost
$400 million in activity in the first week without benefits, but Harvard economist Lawrence Katz put the number at
$1 billion.
Over the course of a year the adverse effects on the economies in
states where more people are missing benefit checks, many of which are
deep red, will be catastrophic and still, they will re-elect repugicans
because they promise to oppose everything the Black man in the White
House supports.
Like everything repugicans have done over the past three years,
blocking an extension for unemployment benefits is meant to cause the
most damage to the greatest number of Americans possible. The CBO
already warned that failure to extend benefits will effectively kill at
least
200,000 jobs
due to reduced consumer spending, and it gives the repugican cabal the value-added
benefit of adding 200,000 Americans to the unemployment rolls. As of
December 28
th repugicans added 1.3 million more Americans to
poverty rolls, but that number is deceiving and does not begin to
accurately expose the repugican damage to the population and the
economy.
When benefits began running out on December 28, the immediate number
of Americans affected was 1.3 million, but that number rises to 3.2
million through June 2014 and balloons to nearly 5 million by the end of
the year
according
to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). The most
encouraging news for repugicans is that within the initial 1.3 million
Americans losing their lifeline, there are
2.3 million children
that may finally elevate America to first place as the nation with the
highest percentage of children living in poverty in the developed world.
As the numbers increase over the course of the year, 200,000 jobs lost
becomes 740,000, and 2.3 million children becomes 8.5 million new
children living in poverty.
By blocking the extension efforts in the Senate, repugicans maintained their record of eschewing the
will of the people
for the blessings of their wealthy paymasters who gave repugicans on
the fence the impetus to vote against extending benefits. Like the
Heritage Foundation, NRA, and Americans for Prosperity, the wingnut
Club For Growth warned
all senators to vote no and reminded repugicans that they were keeping
a “scorecard” with a comprehensive rating of how well, or how poorly,
each member of Congress supported pro-growth, free-market policies that
would be distributed to their members and to the public. It is unclear
how killing more jobs, sending millions into poverty, and harming the
economy is pro-growth and supporting free-market policies, but there is
no accounting for the mindset of 21
st century extremist
conservatives. For the record, pro-growth, free-market policies are
favorite Koch brother terms for a transformed America controlled by rich
industrialists with free rein to conduct business without restrictive
labor laws, taxes, and regulations that are the repugicans’ solution to
ending poverty.
The dastardly plot to eliminate the life-line for millions of
Americans struggling to find work in the repugican-obstructed economy
began during the bi-cameral budget negotiations months ago. Throughout
the process and leading up to votes in the Senate, repugicans employed
their tried-and-true tactics of lying, demanding a hostage payment, and
moving the goalposts, and the effects on the people and the economy
follow a pattern repugicans perfected over the past three years. They
are on pace to kill hundreds and hundreds-of-thousands of jobs, send
millions of Americans and their children into poverty, and lay waste to
the economy at the national and state level; then they are going on
vacation next week. It is the perfect summary of repugican malfeasance
that obstructed economic recovery and devastated the people over the
past three years all wrapped up in the span of two short months.
Today is - Pooh (Winnie the) Day 
On
February 4, 1968, Lizzie Bravo was quite possibly the most surprised
human being on earth. It seemed like another routine "waiting to see the
Beatles" day, when all of a sudden Paul McCartney emerged and walked
toward the group of thrilled young ladies. Paul asked the assembled
female fans if any of them could hold a high note.
