Senator Bunning Stops Unemployment Extension: David Loftus

Jim Bunning has done a great thing. By being such a moronic obstructionist on a classic blue-collar Democrat issue, he’s managed to accomplish something that should have happened many months ago: forced Congressional Democrats to relocate their spines and grow some cojones.

Ever since Obama’s election, Republicans and extremist Teabaggers have been lying steadily, with impunity, to the public about everything from the basics of health care reform (“the government is going to take over medical care!”; “you’re going to see death panels!”) to the President’s birthplace and citizenship status. The time was long past that Democrats (were they in fact the majority party in Congress? they sure didn’t act like it) called their opponents to the floor on all their verbal horse manure.

Bunning, who says he is opposed to extending unemployment benefits and COBRA support because it adds to the federal deficit, didn’t appear bothered by the notion of pursuing a war in Iraq that has cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $704 billion and continues to eat roughly $2 billion per week, with no benefit to Americans (other than the employees of war profiteers like Halliburton, Bechtel, General Dynamics, Chevron and ExxonMobil.

But Senator Bunning isn’t the most parsimonious of money managers. The former Major League Baseball pitcher for the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies has a non-profit Jim Bunning Foundation which the Lexington Herald Leader reported back on Dec. 18, 2008 had paid less than 25 percent of its intake to charity. The foundation has taken in about $504,000 since 1996, of which $180,000 went in salary to Mr. Bunning for roughly one hour of work for the foundation per week. Since the Republican Party doesn’t appear willing to hold their friend’s unethical feet to the fire, I suggest the IRS investigate this obvious tax dodge. Would that the other obstructionist Republicans on Capitol Hill were as arrogantly stupid as this one.