Bunning ends filibuster, but 205,000 people won't get a check this week

[babylonsister]

http://www.openleft.com/diary/17647/bunning-ends-filibuster-but-205000-people-wont-get-a-check-this-week

Bunning ends filibuster, but 205,000 people won't get a check this week
by: Chris Bowers
Tue Mar 02, 2010 at 19:56


Jim Bunning has ended his filibuster of unemployment and COBRA benefits extensions:

Sen. Jim Bunning's (R-Ky.) one-man filibuster ended on Tuesday.

Bunning agreed to stop blocking legislation to extend benefits and COBRA health plan subsidies to the unemployed after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) agreed to allow him a vote on an amendment to pay for the $10 billion bill.

It's the same deal Bunning was offered last week, but Bunning at the time decided to continue his fight. He'd been holding up an extension of the benefits since Thursday.

However, Bunning still did real damage. 205,000 people will not get an unemployment check this week:

Andrew Stettner of NELP says that, no matter what, some 205,000 people won't get a check this week, since it takes anywhere from two to six weeks for the states to get their bureaucracies geared up. "We've already crossed the Rubicon. Now, we have to play catch-up," he says.

With that 2-6 week delay, this could be extended pain for hundreds of thousands of Americans.

I'd really like to hear all the principled defenses of the filibuster now. Better yet, I dare someone to defend the filibuster to one of those hundreds of thousands of Americans.

This won't be the last time that a Republican like Bunning, assisted by a handful of true wingnut Senators, does something like this. It is time to end the filibuster.