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EDITORIAL
Why not just pay for them?
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President Barack Obama on Monday took to the bully pulpit to again rail against Republicans for playing politics with unemployment benefits.
Pot, meet kettle.
In a Rose Garden statement Monday morning, the president urged Republicans to jump on board and vote to extend the benefits. "It's time to do what's right, not for the next election, but for the middle class," Mr. Obama said.
The Senate is expected to take up the issue today. Under the plan, unemployment benefits would be extended to 99 weeks, up from the 26 weeks normally covered.
But don't blame the GOP if the effort fails once again.
In fact, Democrats, under the guidance of Majority Leader Harry Reid, believe they can make hay out of the issue in the November elections, which is why they refuse to accept the minor compromise that would have sealed the deal months ago. Instead they'd rather pass the bill without a single GOP vote so they can scatter back home this fall and blame heartless Republicans for the delay.
Who, exactly, is trying to use this issue in "the next election"?
Republicans have one small demand: Pay for the $34 billion extension rather than putting it on the national credit card.
"Everyone agrees on extending the additional unemployment insurance," said Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, "but the Democrat way is to insist we add it to the national debt at the same time."
Why is this notion of paying for the extension even controversial on the left?
This country is trillions of dollars in debt. The annual deficit is estimated at $1.3 trillion. We can't afford to simply keep marching merrily toward insolvency by throwing around a billion here and a billion there as if there are no consequences. If extending unemployment benefits is a national priority, then Congress should make some tough choices and cover the costs by cutting spending somewhere else.
It's time to stop holding the poor and unemployed hostage to the penchant of Sen. Reid's Democrats to drive up the country's debt.
Pay for what you spend, Mr. Reid. This is one reason (among many) that Nevadans currently hold you in low esteem.
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Do any of you on the right realize that a large portion of this debt is the Iraq and Afghanistan wars? Bush did not count the wars in the budget whereas Obama is. Huge difference there. We were financing the wars off the books during Bush's term. Now you are mad when Obama puts it on the books and exposes the truth.
Bobby Gladd: So you are arguing that because Bush didn't pay for the wars, we don't need to pay for anything else? Was the debt run up from Bush's wars a mistake or not? If it was a mistake, why are you comfortable repeating it? Obama was elected on CHANGE, remember?
Bobby.Gladd --- How about a 'Stupid Tax'? You would go bankrupt. Enjoy November.
Where exactly in the constitution are unemployment benefits authorized? Fighting a war is a constitutionally authorized function of government. How's that for hypocritical, moron?
Well, isn't that nice? Now it's racist to say "pot calling the kettle black"? Really? The so called tax cuts for the rich benefitted 85% of wage earners and didn't increase the debt by trillions--that didn't happen until we had a democrat controlled congress and a democrat in the white house. I'm so amused by the lunatic rantings of the race baiters and liberal loons out there in LV.
Pot meet kettle? Oh, now, I get the racial undertones. Nice surreptitious wink to your Tea Party base "R. J".! "Not one single Republican vote"? You guys are catching up with "Faux News" in making things up and saing it often enough to fool the dumb ones and placate the Racist ones. "Tax Cuts For the Rich", increasing the National Debt by Trillions. No problem! Unemployment Benefits for the Unemployed increasing the National Debt. No Way! Keep spouting untruths and Twisted Logic to your readers. Only in Nevada would people believe this crap!
"Republicans have one small demand: Pay for the $34 billion extension rather than putting it on the national credit card.'
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Who wrote this POS editorial? Let me guess.
PAY for it? How about paying for the endless Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the costs of which obliterate the cost of things like UI. Repu'ublicists are quite content to charge those to the national credit card. How about a war tax, you hypocritical morons?
On July 15th, Steve Moore a Wall Street Journal economist ad author said: the "MASSIVE SPENDING" by Democrats has "MADE MATTERS WORSE" and "We must FREEZE government spending". The link to the interview is http://radiotime.com/WebTuner.aspx?ProgramId=43921&TopicId=33220276&
Typically con men feed on dishonest people, but in politics they focus on the unsuspecting. What we've learned from the previous decade is that conservatism is a total failure when it comes to governance. Under Bush and Cheney we've had a massive terrorist attack, two wars, torture and a global financial meltdown. We've had Hurricane Katrina expose how conservatives respond to Americans after a natural disaster hits two states. We've had government corruption at the highest order, which resulted in Cheney's chief of staff being convicted of multiple felonies. We had the horrendous Terry Schiavo affair. We had a news network actively become a propaganda arm of the GOP. We had Wall Street inflate a mortgage bubble that almost turned into another Great Depression.
I can go on and on, but because of a timid media, they will be allowed to perpetrate their newest con. "Only conservatism can save America," will be their motto. If the media actually acted like an independent monitor of the news, we might stand a chance against the new scam, but we know better. Drudge rules their world.
The GOP is brilliant at one thing, and that is tearing people down. Because they left this country in such tatters it's an easy scam to pull off, because hard-working Americans are vulnerable pickings. They have to try and survive in a world destroyed by conservative values. The con is easy. Just blame everything on President Barack Obama. All your job woes, all your fears about how your life will recover and the future that it holds for your children. If we had a real media that would expose the Bush regime for the manifest failure it was, it would be a much harder task, but we don't, and instead news programming has turned more into endless right/left opinion discussions.
A new poll from Public Policy Polling finds that 68 percent of voters see Angle's views as "extremist" as compared to 22 percent who feel that her beliefs are "mainstream."
Reid currently leads Angle in the Nevada Senate race by 8 points, according to a Mason-Dixon survey released last week.