Hickory Dickory Dock, the Republicans run out the clock.

[babylonsister]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/11/30/924372/-GOP-blocks-renewal-of-jobless-benefits-extension?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

GOP blocks renewal of jobless benefits extension
by Meteor Blades
Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 05:00:05 PM PST


Hickory Dickory Dock, the Republicans run out the clock. Thus did 800,000 jobless Americans lose their extended unemployment compensation benefits Tuesday. That means their final check comes next week. Without action by Congress, another 1.2 million could lose their benefits by the end of December. With the standalone bill defeated, as expected, Democratic leaders say they'll try again, which most probably means attaching the extension to some other legislation, possibly the extension of tax cuts.

In a rambling speech in which he appealed to the Senate gallery twice, Sen. Scott Brown chided the Democrats for spending too much time on food safety instead of negotiating with Republicans earlier this month to get a mutually agreeable extension passed. From the GOP perspective (and that of some conservative Democrats), such an agreement would require finding an offset, that is, taking funds from other federal programs to cover the $56.4 billion cost of the 13-month-long benefits extension introduced by Sen. Max Baucus Monday night. That's despite the fact that always in the past when unemployment benefits have been extended, it's been an emergency measure that doesn't require offsets.

snip//

If the unemployment extension continues to be blocked, economists say it could cost the economy up to $5 billion. In the short run, that means putting the chop on holiday spending. In the longer run, a million more people could lose their jobs, with hundreds of thousands of them winding up impoverished, homeless and getting many of their meals from soup kitchens. For a lot of Senators today, none of that makes a damn bit of difference.

[leftstreet]

1. Excellent! The Democrats can't be blamed! Mission Accomplished!

:puke:

[BrklynLiberal]

7. WRONG>> The repukes will find a way to blame the dems..no matter what. they have been able to do

so up until now.....All the problems that Bush left for Obama...ALL OBAMA'S and the Dems' FAULT

[Zoeisright]

2. Well, for a more pleasant sounding headline, and a more accurate one, it should be:

Hickory Dickory Dock

The Repukes Run Out the Clock.

And may every one of those greedy, mean scrooges rot in hell.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Sadly, they will not be doing that...

[w8liftinglady]

3. It saddens me as I think back to a recent editorial I wrote

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/w8liftinglady/107

snip-
2009, 4.26 million Texans lived below the poverty level of $22,000/year for a family of four. We rate sixth in the nation for citizens who live below the poverty level. “People who were teetering on the edge tended to fall over into poverty. That was largely affected by our dramatic increase in the unemployment rate,” said Frances Deviney, a senior fellow at the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin. The Texas poverty rate likely would have been “quite a bit higher if not for the great infusion of money” that came through the federal government in extended unemployment benefits, she said.



what the hell will happen now?

[BeyondGeography]

4. At least Obama called them a bunch of game-playing weasels today

In my head.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Golly..maybe the Dems should have forced some of these issues months BEFORE the midterms

instead of waiting until there were only weeks left in their majority...duh.

Stupidity? incompetency? the ultimate in poor strategy? I do not want to believe this is all intentional..but it sure does get difficulter and difficulter.