Senate Vote on Unemployment Benefits

Republican Senator Jim Bunning’s success in heaping more misery onto the lives of Americans who are struggling to make it through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression speaks for him and his Party. For him, this period of challenge is an exercise in political theater and an opportunity to inflict his mean-spirited actions onto people whose daily anxieties are of less concern to him than scoring ideological points. But then, Bunning’s not running for re-election so his taking one last devastating shot at America’s shrinking and much beleaguered middle class and working families is sadly consistent with a viewpoint that cared little to begin with.

Bunning, like so many in Congress on both sides of the aisle, is too distant from the grim realities confronting working families. While Americans daily examine their checking accounts, trying to find ways of making ends meet, Washington’s leadership muddles on through endless meetings, summits, panel discussions, studies, ad nauseam. And while they talk, thousands agonize through another day without a job. More are driven into bankruptcy due to health care costs. College students finally have to face the reality that their educations must be put on hold. And while more citizens fall further behind, Congress takes its time deciding on whether or not to act. This is unconscionable. Bunning’s gross act of assault upon working Americans compounds the crime of inaction.

For all of the differences currently existing between the Parties, many of Bunning’s Republican colleagues agreed with Democrats that extending unemployment benefits for millions was the right, economically best thing to do. And yet, one man has been allowed to drive another economic dagger into the hearts of America’s middle class. While this goes on, the bankers who precipitated the crisis spend the weekend in their spacious homes, toasting champagne to each other for having successfully suckered the nation into providing the corporate welfare that rewarded them for recklessness. This needs to change. This needs to end now. The Congress needs legislators who’ll stand up to the Bunning’s of the world and confront them with their scorched earth tactics. Congress needs legislators who’ll cast votes for the people and not special interests. Congress needs legislators who understand that layoffs, financial stress, and looming bankruptcy aren’t abstract theories but grim realities. My name is Dr. Fred L. Johnson III, and I’m running for Congress.