The value of obstructionism

Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky is obstructing a 10 billion dollar bill.  That bill includes unemployment extensions.  Let me be more specific, that bill includes my federal unemployment benefits extension.

Every story has many sides.  And the MSM often misses the nuances of the situation.

Bunning is getting run through the ringer, personally, for this.

Bunning is just trying to make a point.  And it is an important point.  The sponsors of this bill are just piling on more unfunded debt.  The Senate could pass the bill if they would just vote.

What Bunning is blocking is a procedural event.  Normally bills get passed here without a vote.  The problem is that no one wants to vote for this bill, because they don't want to be called out for voting for unfunded spending. They will have to vote for it sometime, but they want to wait and do it later when no one is watching.  Everyone is watching right now.

Bunning is trying to get the other Senators to amend the bill to make this spending part of the huge stimulus package that they passed last year, presumably by cutting some of the unspent money from that bill.  But that bill is full of earmarks and pork that no Senator wants to see cut.

I hate that my family is going to suffer for this.  But Bunning is right.  We can't just spend like drunken sailors.

This bill, or another like it, will get passed soon.  I hope that it is funded with cuts from somewhere else.