WASHINGTON — The effort to end a Senate standoff over unemployment benefitsand health coverage for the jobless escalated on Tuesday morning as Senator Susan Collins, the moderate Republican from Maine, became the latest lawmaker, and the first Republican, to try to override the objection of Senator Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky.
The White House, meanwhile, called Mr. Bunning’s actions “irrational.”
Ms. Collins took the floor shortly after the Senate convened. Her effort was being made on “behalf of numerous members of the Republican caucus who have expressed concerns to me.”
“There are 500 Mainers whose benefits expired on Sunday,” Ms. Collins said. But Mr. Bunning, her colleague, continued to lodge his objection.
The effort by a Republican to end Mr. Bunning’s fight showed that the intensifying dispute is become a serious distraction in the Senate and a political liability for Republicans.
The White House spokesman’s criticism was couched in unusually strong language at a time when the administration is trying to be seen as searching for bipartisan comity.
“I don’t know how you negotiate with the irrational,” Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, told reporters at an informal morning briefing. “I don’t know how you prevent one person who decides they hold in the palm of their hand the livelihood of hundreds of thousands who have lost their jobs.”
Mr. Bunning has single-handedly blocked consideration of a bill to extend expiring unemployment and related health benefits for 30 days, arguing that the Senate should first find a way to pay for the expense.
Democrats, including President Obama, have hailed new rules they adopted called pay-go that are intended to prevent new spending without offsetting spending cuts or tax increases, but they are not subjecting this bill to those rules.
“If we can’t find $10 billion to pay for it, we’re not going to pay for anything,” Mr. Bunning said on the floor on Monday.
Mr. Gibbs defended not applying the pay-go rules to this legislation, saying “this is an emergency situation.”
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, again urged Mr. Bunning to reconsider, saying his push to pay for the $10 billion costs of the added coverage out of stimulus money had been heard.
“His point has been made,” Mr. Reid said.
The impasse has threatened transportation projects and some other programs, as the United States Department of Transportation said it furloughed 2,000 workers on Monday. With no quick resolution in sight, Democrats characterized the decision by one Republican to block the jobless aid and highway construction financing as an example of the practical consequences of regular opposition by Senate Republicans.
Senator Bunning, who is insisting on a point of parliamentary procedure to block the legislation, offered to lift his objection if an agreement was made to use unspent economic stimulus money to cover the $10 billion cost of the unemployment aid, which would go to those who have already exhausted their benefits.
“We cannot keep adding to the debt,” Mr. Bunning said Monday. “It’s over $14 trillion and going up fast.”
But Democrats said that Republicans had not been concerned about requiring Bush administration initiatives to be paid for and that the unemployment aid amounted to an emergency.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid indicated he had solution to get the unemployment bill through bypassing Sen. Bunning. Bunning is one of the most unpopular men in the Senate and he is not seeking re-election.
Perhaps some Democratic activists will find a legal way to keep him from voting when the unemployment vote comes up again. Rightardia suspects another Republican like Sen. John Kyl would stand in for Bunning to prevent people from getting their unemployment insurance.
Republicans would have easily supported any bills that would provide emergency appropriation for the Afghn war or tax cuts for the affluent. The Democratic Party has been able to balance the budget and has acted more fiscally conservative than the GOP since the Carter era. The only time the GOP has claimed to be fiscally conservative is when it has been out of power.
source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/us/politics/03cong.html
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