Carla Flati – 3/7/10

This page was last updated on March 7, 2010.

Obama’s critics are silent on Bunning; Carla Flati; Beaver County Times; March 7, 2010.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“I’m sure that all of the Republicans who write letters to the editor on a daily basis calling our president just about every name in the book are so proud of their U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, who single handedly tried to veto emergency unemployment benefits to millions of working class Americans who have lost their jobs.”

[RWC] We should all be glad we don’t depend on Ms. Flati for our news. Sen. Bunning (R-KY) actually supports extending the unemployment benefits. Here’s what happened.

It all starts with a federal law named “Pay-Go,” short for “pay as you go.” According to this law, every spending bill has to provide the funding for the bill, via spending cuts elsewhere or tax increases. All Republicans and 15 Democrats voted against the bill, but it passed Congress on February 4, 2010. On February 12^th, with great fanfare, President Obama signed “Pay-Go” into law saying this would put us on the road to fiscal responsibility.

Let’s jump ahead a couple of weeks. Though a bi-partisan bill (about $85 billion) existed to extend unemployment benefits and other federal programs and it met the requirements of “Pay-Go,” Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) unilaterally scrapped it and replaced it with a $15 billion bill. The problem was Mr. Reid’s bill paid for only about $5 billion, leaving $10 billion unfunded and the bill in violation of the “Pay-Go” law just passed.

Enter Mr. Bunning. Though Mr. Bunning supports the unemployment extension (a mistake in my opinion), he correctly noted Mr. Reid’s bill violated the Democrats’ brand new “Pay-Go” law and simply demanded the spending bill specify the funding source for the remaining $10 billion. Instead of following their own law, Senate Democrats chose to paint Mr. Bunning as the bad guy when it is Senate Democrats who are breaking the law. As Mr. Bunning wrote in a USA Today op-ed piece, “If the Senate cannot find $10 billion to pay for a measure we all support, we will never pay for anything.”

I suspect what really annoys lefties is Mr. Bunning exposed their “Pay-Go” law as the PR stunt it was.

“I’m guessing that they also think Fox News is the real deal.”

[RWC] It would be interesting to know where Ms. Flati got her news on this topic.

“I pray for them every day.”