The idiocy of the Republican Party base continues to be dumbfounding. By using religion as a poly and playing upon the inherent racism of the typical aging white evangelical voter, the Congressional Republicans continue to convince the cretins within the party base to ultimately vote against their own best interest. These fools cannot see beyond the bait of dog whistle racism and claims of religiosity to realize they are being played for idiots. And they are idiots unfortunately. A piece in The Guardian looks at the manner in which the cuts to unemployment benefits will hit Republican controlled states. As I have said before, one truly needs to have a lobotomy to be a Republican nowadays. Here are story excerpts:
The sad truth is that most Congressional Republicans do not give a rat's ass about the average American. Oh, they give lip service that they care, but actions speak louder than words.
Senior Republican senators including Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul represent some of the states most affected by the controversial cancellation of long-term unemployment benefits, according to a Guardian analysis of data released this week.
Around 1.3 million people lost unemployment insurance benefits last week, after a bipartisan budget deal on federal spending failed to include a reauthorisation of the program. A further 72,000 job-seekers are expected lose their benefits from Saturday, a rolling tally that will continue through the year.
Figures released this week by the Department of Labor, and analysed by House Democrats, provided the first state-by-state breakdown of the first tranche of American job-seekers whose benefits were cut off. The knock-on impact has been estimated to be costing the US economy up to a billion dollars a week.
in addition to the 34 Democratic senators feeling the most pain as a result of of the benefits cuts, there are 16 Republicans.
They include high-profile figures such as Rubio, who represents Florida, where 73,000 job-seekers have lost, on average, $231 a week.
Four in every 1,000 people lost benefits in Kentucky, which has an 8.2% unemployment rate and is represented by McConnell, the Senate minority leader, and Paul, who like Rubio is considered a potential presidential candidate for 2016.
The data is particularly embarrassing for Paul, who in recent weeks has been one of the most visible defenders of the decision to cut the extended jobless benefit programme.
For decades, Republican and Democratic administrations have authorised the extended insurance for job-seekers during times of exceptionally high unemployment.
On Saturday, President Barack Obama used his weekly address to urge Congress to reinstate jobless benefits – specifically drawing attention to Republicans with high unemployment rates in their states.
"Republicans in Congress went home for the holidays and let that lifeline expire," the president said. "And for many of their constituents who are unemployed through no fault of their own, that decision will leave them with no income at all."
A Senate vote on a bipartisan bill to reintroduce the benefits is expected early next week, possibly as soon as Monday. The bill has been authored by Democrat Jack Reed and Republican Dean Heller, who represent the two states – Rhode Island and Nevada respectively – with the highest overall unemployment rates, both at 9%. Their bill reintroduces the benefits for three months, allowing Congress time to find a more permanent fix.
The battle over unemployment benefits is expected to dominate Capitol Hill when both houses return next week. On Tuesday, Obama will host several long-term job-seekers who lost their benefits in the East Room of the White House.
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