Tag Archives: Ben Nelson

One Vote

01 Thursday Jul 2010

Posted by in Congress, Democrats, economy, Politics, Republicans, Unemployment

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

One vote. That’s all more than 2 million Americans needed to have their unemployment benefits extended. One vote.  That’s all that was needed to prevent the unprecedented action by Congress of failing to extend benefits when unemployment is anywhere near our current rate of 9.7%, the previous high being 7.2% in 1983. One vote

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had the votes of 57 Democrats, counting his own. He even had the votes of 2 Republicans, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. And in the post-January 20, 2009 climate of Washington, D.C. that is a major accomplishment. He needed one vote to get the sixty necessary to break the filibuster and pass the extension before the Senate recessed until July 12. One vote.

Unfortunately, not only for Senator Reid but more importantly for those 2+ million Americans, that one vote was, and is, in the possession of possibly the biggest damn fool ever to occupy space in the Senate chamber, Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

Nelson’s reasons for his opposition:

“Tough choices are possible and necessary to not add to the deficit,” Nelson said. “Some also say we need more emergency spending now to keep the recovery going. But in my view it could jeopardize the recovery and would add to our already enormous deficit, likely to be around $1.4 trillion for the second year in a row…. Congress should provide additional unemployment benefits but not as a bailout to the states that worsens the deficit and passes the bills onto our children.”

Do you know who’s making tough choices, you idiot? The long-term unemployed who now have to spend July 4th weekend wondering how, or if, they’ll be able to keep their house, or pay the rent, or keep the lights on. They’re not worried about passing bills on to their children; they’re worried about being able to feed their children.

Advertisement

Lucy and the Football—Again

26 Saturday Jun 2010

Posted by in Congress, Democrats, economy, Politics, Republicans

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

I don’t like to get my blood pressure up this early on a Saturday morning, but this latest action by the Senate in killing the extension of unemployment benefits really pisses me off. And every time one of these lying, elitist assholes opens their mouths it pisses me off that much more.

Like Olympia Snowe, who sent a letter to Harry Reid “urging” him to bring a stand-alone extension of unemployment benefits to the floor of the Senate next week. Nowhere in the letter did she say she would vote for it. That’s because she won’t. And neither would the other Republicans and that idiot Nelson. Snowe is just playing Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown—again. Reid should tell her to take a flying f*****g leap.

When are Snowe, Nelson, and the rest of the obstructionists going to compromise on something. Ever? The bill was watered down to accommodate them–just like the stimulus, health care, and everything else—and they still voted against it. Everything but the $33 billion for unemployment extension was offset, just like they wanted. Still they voted no.

This just in, you morons. People who get unemployment checks don’t put them in the bank. They spend every dime of it on rent, or the mortgage, or food, or clothes. It’s called economic stimulus, dipshits. Get a clue.

Then there’s Diane Feinstein who, even though she voted for the extension, gives ammunition to the obstructionists when she continues to say stupid-ass things like this:

“We have 99 weeks of unemployment insurance now. The question comes, how long do you continue that before people just don’t go back to work at all?” she said…“And there isn’t a lot of documentation on this. Last night for the first time I had somebody from a company tell me they’ve offered jobs to individuals and they said well, ‘I want to not come back to work until my unemployment insurance runs out.’ So we need to start looking at these things. And, we need to start paying for it.”

Bullshit. Nobody’s getting rich off unemployment, Di. The average check for one of Feinstein’s constituents in California is $450 a week. In San Francisco, where Feinstein and her rich hubby live, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1709 a month. Which leaves $91 a month for things like food, electricity, water—minor things like that.

And forgive me but “somebody” from some unnamed company who says that “they’ve” offered jobs to people who would rather stay on unemployment is bullshit too. The unemployment rate in California is 12.4%, there are 6 people for every job opening. People want to work, there just aren’t any jobs to be had. But when you’re sitting on top of a cool 40 mil, like the Feinsteins are, you have no idea what life is like in the real world where the peasants live.

I won’t even get into Nelson. The man is just a hopeless, clueless idiot with a terminal case of HUHAD (head up his ass disease). Why he doesn’t just switch parties and be done with it, I don’t know.

[End of rant]

The Real Cost of Killing the Tax Extenders Bill

24 Thursday Jun 2010

Posted by in budget, Congress, Conservatives, economy, George W. Bush, Politics, Republicans

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The confederation of hypocrites and liars in the United States Senate, aka the Republican caucus plus Ben Nelson, voted today for the third time to kill the “tax extenders” bill which would have extended unemployment benefits, several tax credits, and Medicare funding to states facing budget crises.

Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, George Voinovich of Ohio, John Kyl of Arizona, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska all cited the cost of the bill and what it would add to the deficit, about $33 billion, as the main reason for their “no” votes.

Nice to see this new-found consternation about deficits from these four hypocrites. All four voted for the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, which cost approximately $2.5 trillion, not one dime paid for, all deficit financed. All four voted for Medicare Part D, also in 2003, which cost another trillion dollars, not one cent paid for.

Since these 4 are so concerned about cost, let’s take a look at what the price of their action today will be. From Suzy Khimm at Mother Jones:

“In addition to the millions of Americans who stand to lose unemployment benefits, a huge number of private and public sector employees will lose their jobs due to state budget cuts. Without federal help, states will have to pour in more money to prop up Medicaid, forcing them to make cutbacks in other parts of the budget. As a result, Moody’s chief economist estimates that 200,000 jobs could be axed without federal Medicaid support, and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities puts the number as high as 900,000—jobs belonging to teachers, firemen, police, and social workers, among others.”

The Wonk Room has more:

“[The Atlantic’s Derek] Thompson pointed to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report stating that “without the extended Medicaid funding, Pennsylvania plans to cut funding for domestic violence prevention in half, eliminate all state funds for addressing substance abuse and homelessness, cut funding for child welfare by one-quarter, and cut payments to private hospitals, nursing homes, and doctors across the state — among other steps.” But Pennsylvania is not the only state that will have to take dramatic steps if Congress doesn’t act.

Arizona would have to cut funding for its state court system, Colorado’s likely cuts “include eliminating state aid for full-day kindergarten for 35,000 children, eliminating preschool aid for 21,000 children, and increasing overcrowding in juvenile detention facilities,” while New Mexico “could eliminate a wide range of Medicaid services, including emergency hospital services, inpatient psychiatric care, personal care assistance for the disabled, prescribed medications, and hospice care.”

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com, estimated that 200,000 jobs could be at stake in this debate over Medicaid funding. “If state governments don’t get additional help from the federal government in the coming fiscal year, then the job losses will be at least that large — in all likelihood, measurably larger than that,” Zandi said.”

Do the deficit hypocrites care? Hell no. A pox on all their houses.

Would the GOP Deliberately Sabotage the Economy? Is There Any Doubt?

24 Thursday Jun 2010

Posted by in Congress, Conservatives, economy, financial reform, financial regulation, Politics, Republicans

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Commenting on a Huffington Post piece about how Republicans, and Ben Nelson (excuse my redundancy), appear poised to kill the tax-extenders bill in the Senate, Steve Benen at Washington Monthly writes:

“In the real world, this means millions of jobless Americans will lose their already-modest benefits, and hundreds of thousands of workers will be laid off over the next year, including teachers, police officers, and firefighters. All of this will happen because Republicans are more concerned about the deficit — a deficit they created under Bush/Cheney — than the economy.

It’s unpleasant to think about, and I really hope it’s not true, but it may be time for a discussion about whether GOP lawmakers are trying to deliberately sabotage the economy to help their midterm election strategy.”

What’s to discuss? It’s true. Of course Republicans are trying to deliberately sabotage the economy to help their mid-term election strategy, as well as their 2012 presidential election strategy. Republicans in Congress don’t care about deficits (see Dick Cheney) or the debt, except when they’re out of power. When they were in control of everything in D.C. from 2001-2007 what happened? Were there even any cursory attempts to rein in the deficit and pay down the debt?

Quite the contrary. With 2 wars and tax cuts and Medicare Part D, all on the credit card, the debt exploded.

You bet your ass the GOP wants the economy in the tank, as far in as possible. If unemployment is double what it is now and we go into a double-dip recession, or in their wettest dreams a depression, the champagne corks will be popping and ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’ will be blaring from the speakers in Michael Steele’s office. Do you think they care about the pain and suffering it would cause the American people? They care about one thing and one thing only—power. That’s it. If the “small people” have to bear the brunt of that quest, so be it.

Of course once they get it, their faux concern about the deficit and excessive spending will go out the door as they come in. Just like it did before.

Senate Turns Down Extension of Unemployment Benefits

17 Thursday Jun 2010

Posted by in budget, Congress, Democrats, economy, Politics, Republicans

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Republicrats in the Senate gave a big middle finger to the long-term unemployed yesterday, as 12 Democrats joined all the Republicans in voting down the extension of unemployment benefits, citing their hypocritical concerns about increasing the deficit as the reason:

“I’ve said all along that we have to be able to pay for what we’re spending,” said Sen. Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat who voted against the bill. “$77 billion or more of this is not paid for and that translates into deficit spending and adding to the debt, and the American people are right: We’ve got to stop doing that.”

Funny, Sen. Nelson didn’t have any problem with deficit spending when he voted for $165 billion to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for 2008 and 2009.

Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) also voted again the extension over her concerns that unemployment benefits are so generous that they encourage people to not look for a job:

“We have 99 weeks of unemployment insurance,” Feinstein said. “The question comes, how long do you continue before people just don’t want to go back to work at all?”

Right DiFi, the unemployed are getting fat and happy living on benefits that are about one-third of their previous wages. This coming from the ninth richest member of Congress whose assets in 2005 were estimated at $40 million. And oh by the way, whose husband, Richard Blum, just happens to own two defense contractors that benefitted greatly from Sen. Feinstein’s time as chairman of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee.

Feinstein was echoing what Congressman John Linder (R-GA) said last week:

“Georgia Republican Rep. John Linder suggested Thursday that extended unemployment benefits keep people from looking for work…”[N]early two years of unemployment benefits are too much of an allure for some,” said Linder.”

OK, Rep. Linder, let’s apply your logic to the Pentagon. Since you also voted for the $165 billion in funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, isn’t that “too much of an allure” for the continuation of both wars? Let’s cut off their funding and end their addiction.

Last but not least, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) turned up the stoopid yesterday with his proposal that the unemployed undergo drug tests in order to receive benefits. Right, Orrin. The 46% of the unemployed who have been out of work for more than 6 months, the highest number since the Labor Department started keeping that statistic in 1948, would rather sit around the house, get high and watch the tube than go to work. Idiot.

I propose that members of Congress undergo drug testing. Or maybe more appropriately, brain scans.

The Orifice of Omaha and His Errand Boy Benny

27 Tuesday Apr 2010

Posted by in Congress, economy, financial reform, financial regulation, Politics, special interests, Wall Street

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

“Financial weapons of mass destruction” eh, Warren? What’s up with this ? (emphasis added) :

“The Senate Agriculture Committee inserted language into its derivatives bill last week [a provision pushed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc] at the request of Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.) that would have exempted any existing derivatives contracts from new collateral requirements—the money set aside to cover potential losses…a change one analyst predicted could force the Nebraska company to set aside up to $8 billion.

Berkshire has $63 billion in derivatives contracts, and Mr. Buffett has boasted he holds very little collateral against these products.”

Then after that was taken out of the legislation, lo and behold Buffett’s boy Benny:

“…did an abrupt about-face and became the only Democrat to help filibuster legislation to revamp Wall Street regulations…”He was on board until today and the only thing that changed was the removal of that provision,” said one Democratic aide, who definitively said Nelson changed his vote because the Buffett carveout was removed.”

Yes boys and girls and sports fans everywhere, the Orifice of Omaha is just another member of the oligarchy, gaming the system for his own personal gain. And Benny Nelson is nothing more than his errand boy.