Hatch Defends Sole Senator’s Block on Unemployment Bill
Updated: 03/02/2010 07:59:57 PM MST
Washington » Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, called his colleague “gutsy” for repeatedly blocking a vote on a short extension of unemployment benefits, Medicare payments and transportation funding.
A few hours later Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning relented, striking a deal that allowed the Senate to quickly pass the $10 billion bill late Tuesday on a vote of 78 to 19.
Democrats had painted Bunning and the Republicans as obstructionists who hurt those already suffering in an economic recession. Bunning’s use of a procedural block had already resulted in at least 2,000 federal workers being temporarily furloughed and could have impact unemployment payments in some states.
Bunning defended his actions, saying the bill would add to the national debt and that Democrats should have found a way to pay for it. In the deal, Senate leaders allowed Bunning to offer an amendment that would close a tax loophole for the paper industry to pay for the bill. That amendment failed.
Before a deal was struck, Hatch backed Bunning’s rationale.
“Senator Bunning’s making a point — a valid point,” he said. “The fact is we’ve been living for too many years on borrowed money.”
The fact is, Senator Hatch, Senator Bennett, and Senator Bunning, you were loudly supportive and voted for the tax breaks for the wealthy, the unfunded war in Iraq, and increased payments in prescription drugs on your watch. You hypocrites that are now screaming to balance the budget are the ones who broke it. You are phonies. You and your George Bush enlarged the national debt greater than any other president since your own Ronald Reagan.
The time for you to bemoan our deficits was then, not in support of the ridiculous senate rule that allows one person to hold up the democratic process.
Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, declined to comment about what people in Washington were calling Bunning’s blockade.
Hatch and Bennett voted against the final bill, which brought an end to a stream of Democrats going to the Senate floor to protest against Bunning.
“Today we have a clear cut example to show the American people just what’s wrong with Washington, D.C.,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash, said a few hours before the final vote. “That is because today one single Republican senator is standing in the way of the unemployment benefits of 400,000 Americans.”
Bunning, who is retiring at the end of the year, also faced criticism from Republican Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said he was “hurting the American people.”
But Hatch said Democrats are playing the situation for maximum political effect.
“Looks more like they want a PR stunt than to actually help people,” he said, arguing Democrats could have forced a vote sooner.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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Lost unemployment benefits
The U.S. Department of Labor said Monday that 400,000 Americans will lose unemployment benefits as of the week ending March 13 — nearly 3 million by May — if Congress does not extend emergency unemployment compensation and full federal funding for the extended benefits program. The number of impacted individuals include:
» Utah: 2,700
» Wyoming: 900
» Colorado: 9,000
» Arizona: 8,300
» New York: 54,300
» Florida: 49,600
» Georgia: 41,000
» Texas: 27,400
» Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico and California are among 21 states in which no one will be impacted
Source: White House Media Affairs Office