Look no further for evidence that Congressional Republicans will be buried in 2008 then the vote yesterday to extend unemployment benefits. Republicans are threatening to block the bill in the Senate and/or President 28 Percent is promising to veto the bill. Please do--and stand back to usher in a filibuster-proof Democratic Senate and a huge new Democratic majority in the House. Here's why.
The cost of this bill is $10 billion--OVER 10 YEARS. That's right--the bill that would extend unemployment benefits across the country by 13 weeks on top of the existing 26 weeks costs just $10 billion over a decade. In states harder hit by unemployment, the extension benefits would be paid out for a full year.
In the House, the vote was 274 to 137, with 49 Republicans--among the most endangered Republicans this Fall--voting with the Democrats. But, far be it for the Republican leadership to back off, according to The Wall Street Journal:
But Republican aides said they were confident they would be able to sustain a veto, noting the absence of 10 lawmakers who they said would oppose the benefits extension.
Please veto this bill. And, then, sustain the veto. And, then, let the American public decide between two parties. A Republican Party that:
Will not spend $1 billion a year (basically, a rounding error in a multi-trillion budget) to help the hardest hit Americans who are paying over $4 a gallon for gas.
Will not consider taxing oil companies that have reaped tens of billions of dollars in profits in the past couple of years (Exxon’s $40.6 billion profit in 2007 is roughly equal to receiving "$30 for every person in China and $132 for every U.S. resident.").
Will continue to support spending $341 million PER DAY for the Iraq war/occupation.
No wonder the Senate Republican campaign leader, in a different article today, gives a gloomy assessment of his party's prospects to The Wall Street Journal:
Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, who is in charge of defending the 23 Senate Republican seats up for election, said his best-case scenario would be a three-seat loss on Election Day.
Democrats are poised to increase their majority in both chambers of Congress. "The chances of [Republicans] getting back in to the majority, obviously, it would be fairly miraculous," Sen. Ensign told reporters Thursday. To lose no more than three seats "would be a terrific night for us," he said. "I don't want to slip below the four-seat loss."
So, sure, veto or block the bill. And write your political obituary, you cold-hearted THUGS (UPDATED: a commenter correctly noted that my initial draft referring to "cold-hearted pigs" was a slander on nice, cute pigs so I have changed the wording).