Though I can never improve on the case he makes, I must bring attention to Nobel Award-winning economist
Paul Krugman's excellent commentary in the March 4 edition of the New York Times, entitled "
Senator Bunning’s Universe."
You remember
Senator Jim Bunning. He's the
asshat who, using Senate rules, single-handedly held up the extension of unemployment benefits for 1.2 million Americans, and held up federal transportation funding, furloughing not only federal transportation workers, but other state and private workers employed on federal transportation projects.
During the floor debate,
Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) implored Bunning to think about those people in need, and Bunning's response was:
"Tough shit."
Eventually, Bunning relented, but not before unemployment benefits were interrupted for about 100,000 people.
Krugman doesn't just zero in on Bunning. Though he calls it "Bunning's Universe," it's actually the universe in which most of the GOP reside these days.
And a strange universe it is. For the sake of clarification, I'm going to refer to the GOP universe as "Bizarro World™," or BW™ for short.
The rest of us live in Reality World™.
In BW™:
Unemployment benefits merely encourage people to not work!
Yep. You read that right.
Unemployment benefits are for lazy people, who just want to suckle at the government teat!
I'm not making this up.
Aside from Asshat Bunning and his boorish petulance, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, Jon Kyle (R-AZ) defended Bunning's position with this statement:
(unemployment relief) "doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work." (emphasis mine)
No reason to find a job, because (woohoo!) you'll be living high on the hog with that kinda dough!
Krugman also notes that Senator Kyle has announced the GOP plan to hold hostage the extension of unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for the jobless for the rest of the year. Why? The GOP wants to eliminate the "estate tax" (many in the GOP refer to it as the "death" tax - because that sounds much scarier).
From Krugman commentary:
"Now, the House has already passed a bill that, by exempting the assets of couples up to $7 million, would leave 99.75 percent of estates tax-free. But that doesn’t seem to be enough for Mr. Kyl; he’s willing to hold up desperately needed aid to the unemployed on behalf of the remaining 0.25 percent. That’s a very clear statement of priorities." (emphasis mine)
So - As Krugman correctly points out, the disconnect between BW™ and Reality World™ is not only an intellectual one... it's a moral one, as well. In spite of all their posturing, the fact is this: the GOP really doesn't give a rat's ass about working-class Americans.
In BW™, the only people that matter are the rich (and corporations, since according to the SCOTUS, they're people, too). Screw the rest.
Why am I ranting about this?
Because our own senior Senator from Alaska,
"Lock-Step" Lisa Murkowski,
also lives in Bizarro World™. She'll be on board with
every obstructionist scheme her party employs, but will be trotting back home to Alaska, claiming credit for everything good thing that happens... in spite of her effort to stop it.
Tea Partiers?
Instead of screaming incoherently about "the gummint," try taking a look at who actually gives a damn about you.
With a few rare exceptions, it ain't the GOP.
