Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Saturday, February 27, 2010

GOP Senator to America's unemployed: "TOUGH S**T!"


That sentiment from Jim Bunning (R-KY) is just a variation on "I've got mine.  Screw you!"  But that outburst from Bunning is especially heartless coming at a time when so many Americans are out of work and suffering.

Out of work, no health coverage, and coping with the effects of devastating weather, Americans deserve better than to be told "tough s**t!"
 
CNN reports:

"The Senate adjourned Friday without approving extensions of cash and health insurance benefits for the unemployed after a lone senator blocked swift passage due to his insistence that Congress first pay for the $10 billion package.


Retiring Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Kentucky, led a spirited Senate debate with Democrats over the issue -- at one time cursing at another senator on the floor. Bunning said he doesn't oppose extending the programs -- he just doesn't want to add to the deficit.

According to two Democratic aides on the Senate floor Thursday night, Bunning muttered 'tough s---' as Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, criticized Bunning's stance on the package.

An aide to Merkley said the senator didn't hear the remark. A spokesman for Bunning said he was aware of the reports about the senator's language but didn't have a comment.

On Friday, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, sent Bunning a letter asking him to 'stand down immediately' from his stance."

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

That my friend is a matter of opinion!

TAO said...

No, its actually a matter of alzheimers...

Which is what Bunning is suffering.

The guy that never saw a agriculture subsidy that he did not like...especially sugar cane....

Oh, and rattlesnake nation wants to make it appear as if Bunning is some sort of patriot...

He's not, he is an old man who suffers from alzheimers who could barely stumble through his speaking engagements during his last campaign, in fact his staff axed most of them...

Now, he just does whatever McConnell tells him to do and then whines because he misses the UK/SC game...

Not a case of principles here rattlesnake so find yourself another hero...

Arthurstone said...

Respectfully disagree.

It isn't alzheimers.

Bunning is a notoriously parsimonious, mean-spirited errand boy for big agriculture and uber-'patriot' who enjoys one of the worst attendance records in the senate.

All in all a fairly typical Republican.

My favorite bit from his latest stunt was the Senator whining he was missing the UK basketball game on television while additional debate & further procedurals continued.

The horror. The horror.

TAO said...

Now, Arthur, he has aged and gotten worse...

I went to an event where he was the featured guest...

He couldn't remember what was on his notes by the time he had lifted his head to speak the words...

Shaw Kenawe said...

And he's the guy who's holding up additional unemployment funding for out-of-work Americans?

I didn't deliberately do this, but it is curious to see two men of the GOP featured just under the photo of President Obama:

One who is proud of his approval of torture and who continues to defend the use of a criminal procedure and the other one telling Americans who are out of work "tough s**t!"

What embarrassments to America they both are.

Arthurstone said...

I don't doubt he's gotten more forgetful.

I just don't want any misunderstanding as to what a mean-spirited selfish brute Bunning actually is.

He was a blot on the landscape before his memory started to fail him.

Cheers!

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

Let's look at it from RN's point of view. He wants honesty from our politicians, as do all off us. Jim Bunning is an asshole. Thatnis without question. But I have to begrudgingly admire the honesty with which he displays his assholeness. He could have blathered some right wing banality about freedom or enhanced interrogation. But he gave an honest "tough shit."

dmarks said...

Bunning is making excessive pay and benefits in the Senate. As a retired Senator, he'll continue to get richer and richer on the public dole. 1/3 of his currnet salary could be cut in order to instead provide decent unemployment benefits to 4 or so American families, and he'd still be living high on the hog on the public dole.

Arthurstone said...

Point taken Truth.

And there's something completely refreshing about a guy who'd rather watch college basketball on TV than grapple with serious issues.

It is a splendid example of f**kyouidity.

dmarks said...

Arthur, I think there are some votes in the Senate where I'd rather see this guy sit at home and watch basketball. You'd probably want him to sit at home for all of the votes :)

Arthurstone said...

I'm glad this fossil is retiring.

He won't be missed.

Cheers!

Leslie Parsley said...

Sounds a bit like, "let them eat cake."

Either he has alzheimer's, which I don't doubt, or he's a raging alcoholic, which I don't doubt either. Makes for an interesting combination. One mean bastard.

dmarks said...

So, he drinks to forget he has alzheimers?

Oso said...

dmarks,

"So, he drinks to forget he has alzheimers?"

ROFLMAO

Leslie Parsley said...

dmarks - chortle, chortle.

Sue said...

Shaw I replied over at my blog to the Jones video, we have way too many great liberal blogs to worry about posting the same things, the more the better right!? LOL!!

As for this idiot Bunning, saying tough shit, screw you is typical rethug talking points. Plain and simple, they hate us simple folk!

Arthurstone said...

Thanks for posting the Van Jones video.

The smears of Jones led by the buffoon Glenn Beck are merely another in an endless string of red-baiting episodes and general trashing of those who practice progressive politics in the US of A.

Since the very beginning of the nation of the consistent themes in American politics. Shameful.

libhom said...

Bunning is doing exactly what the GOP wants. He is making people suffer in hopes that his party will benefit in the fall.

dmarks said...

"and general trashing of those who practice progressive politics in the US of A."

Only if one considers actual Maoist ideology as part of "progressive politics". I'd expect Bunning, Beck, or Limbaugh not to know that there was a difference.

Arthurstone said...

I'm waiting to read Jones in his own words express admiration for Mao & Pol Pot.

And I'm waiting to meet some government emloyees earning, as some claim' 'millionaires salaries'.

But I'm not holding my breath.

dmarks said...

I provided the links elsewhere.

dmarks said...

As for the rest of it, you can read here, two government employees that pulled in $6 million each in 2009. There are others lower, of course. Axelrod pulls in a massive $200,000 salary plus benefits. That will pull him a million well before a two-term Obama administration is over. It could be cut in half, and he'd still be rich from it.

Shaw Kenawe said...

dmarks,

Are you aware that MLK associated with Communists, and some were part of his Civil Rights movement?

Would you paint him a communist sympathizer because of that? Or a communist himself?

Arthurstone said...

Yawn.

'Government employees' is a stretch. I don't disagree companies accepting bailout funds should hold execs accountable and not overpay, but until late 2008!these were private concerns.

Where are the state Dept., military or civil service employees becoming millionaires through earning government salaries?

Arthurstone said...

I can help.

My second cousin George moved to the PNW to work at Boeing Defense on some secret project connected with the Anti-missile Defense program. Hush hush engineering and doctoring test results earned Boeing a couple billion a year in this workfare for engineers program. George earned 75 -80k a year and retired to Arizona at 60.

Is that what you're talking about?

George also frequently held forth on the importance of limited government, self-reliance and the whole bootstrap pulling myth.

In other words. He was a conservative on the dole.

A not uncommon species.

dmarks said...

Shaw: Entirely different. There's nothing to show that Dr. King belonged to such extremist groups, even if his friends did. Hey, I have friends who have belonged to such hate groups too.

Arthur: Government employees is not a stretch. Fannie and Freddie are government agencies. You obviously confused them with private companies like AIG and Goldman-Sachs.

Also, the number of government employees making over $100,000 a year has been soaring over the last 18 months.

We have been talking just federal so far. Michigan has been having a big budget crisis. The governor, a Democrat, has been steadfastly refusing the cut the waste. She threatens to gut education and social service and public safety functions, while leaving excessive government pensions and place. And, not surprisingly, she protects the idea of paying government employees $500,000+ a year.

dmarks said...

Back on subject.... waiting to see if Bunning will not be a hypocrite, and forgo his millionaire-level unemployment package that former Senators get.