Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) has struck a deal with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to stop his filibuster of the Senate jobs bill:
Bunning has accepted a deal to drop his one-man filibuster of a bill that would extend expiring unemployment benefits for hundreds of thousands of people.
Reid’s office has confirmed to TPMDC that Bunning accepted the deal, but declined to provide details.
Bunning, in exchange for dropping his objection, will get one vote on an amendment to pay for the bill, which will cost an estimated $10 billion. Bunning’s amendment to pay for the bill will be the only amendment allowed on the floor. A final vote was scheduled to begin at 8:30 tonight.
Bunning will also get two votes on amendments for another bill which would extend unemployment benefits for one year, according to Roll Call. A spokesman for Reid would not confirm that detail.
I think the Senator has made his point and it is this: We will never reduce the deficit if we continue to spend money we don’t have.
If a miracle happens and we finally get politicians with the testicular fortitude to cut entitlement programs rather than repeatedly raise taxes, the politicians who do it will be slandered and defamed in much the same way that Senator Bunning has been slandered and defamed merely for demanding that Congress follow its own rules and pay for all new legislation it proposes.
4 responses so far ↓
1 HappyTaxDude // Mar 3, 2010 at 9:44 am
Bunning played ball back when Major League baseball was real and excellent – eight teams to a league – no expansion and watering down of talent. No wonder he’s so “old school” and wants to stop profligate spending by the feds. Too bad the country’s new national pastime is bread and circuses.
2 Peter // Mar 3, 2010 at 5:48 pm
Bunning had a great fast ball.
3 Chad Bordeaux // Mar 3, 2010 at 6:30 pm
It sickens me that people slander and harass this man for simply wanting to pay for these expenditures.
How will we ever get the federal budget deficit under control if someone has to go through what he has gone through just to pay for the jobs bill.
Washington makes me sick.
4 Peter // Mar 4, 2010 at 5:50 pm
Chad,
We claim our politicians lack conviction and then when we find what who doesn’t, we accuse him of wanting to see children die.
We get the legislators we deserve.
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