Lost a lot of faith in the Republicans

If the Republicans can't even stand together on fiscal responsibility. Even though Obama passed PayGo weeks prior and that means the Senate is already breaking the new rule. Not that I'm really shocked that no one there has any fiscal responsibility anyways.

Senators approved a bill extending unemployment benefits, highway funding and other federal programs Tuesday night after Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) dropped his days-long blockade of the bill.

The Senate approved the measure 78 to 19.

Bunning had held up the Senate's consideration of the package of 30-day extensions since Thursday, arguing that the measures were not paid for. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said they were, but Bunning stood firm until reaching accord on a deal Tuesday.

That agreement allowed a vote on the package and also gave Bunning a vote on his amendment forcing the $10 billion bill to be offset with the closing of a tax loophole that has benefited the paper industry. The amendment failed, with 43 senators voting for it.

Very disheartening that my new Senator, Scott Brown, who ran as a fiscal conservative, voted for this bill too.

So much for fiscal responsibility in the Senate. So much for PayGo.

The only Senators I have respect for at this very moment are:

The 19 ‘no’ votes included GOP Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), John Barrasso (Wyo.), Robert Bennett (Utah), Bunning, Richard Burr (N.C.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), Bob Corker (Tenn.), John Cornyn (Texas), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Jim DeMint (S.C.), John Ensign (Nev.), Mike Enzi (Wyo.), Judd Gregg (N.H.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Mike Johanns (Neb.), Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Jim Risch (Idaho), Jeff Sessions (Ala.) and John Thune (S.D.).

Sad to say, any Republican who didn't vote No on this should be challenged and voted out in the next primary.

Update: Found the letter Jim Bunning read to the Senate. Couldn't be more right.

Dear Senator Jim Bunning,

I haven’t worked a full 40 hour week in probably two years now, but I fully support your decision to stand up to those in Congress who want nothing more than to spend the tax payers money, even the money they do not have, on unemployment extension benefits.

So far this year I have worked a total of one week here in Louisville, Kentucky. My employer is a sheet metal fabrication plant with it’s main headquarters based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Normally the Louisville branch would employ upwards of fifty people on any given day if business were good. Recently that number has dwindled to about four.

This country is sooner or later going to implode because of the massive amounts of debt run up over the past 40 or 50 years. Selling the nation’s soul to countries like Communist China in order to finance our life style and allow the government to further debase the currency is shear lunacy. Throwing away hundreds of billions of dollar so executives on Wall Street can keep their multi-million dollar bonuses while others in society worry about keeping the electricity on and their children fed only helps to move this country closer to a long overdue revolution. The problem is by then we won’t even own it anymore.

Politicians, on both side, enjoy getting in front of the television cameras and talk about their support of the “pay as you go” plan, but when it comes down to actually doing what they say, they all run for cover and vote for anything that they think will win them another vote and another term. Your stance in holding them to their words and expecting them to actually do what they voted for is a refreshing concept in the otherwise corrupt and hypocritical power base known as Washington, D.C.

It’s too bad Senator Mitch McConnell and some of the other elected officials do not have your backbone or your sense of decency when it comes to keeping their promises to the American public.

Sincerely,

(Name & street address withheld)
Louisville, Kentucky