Republican Senator Jim Bunning has become the new whipping boy for the Democratic Party because of his bold move to filibuster the passage of a $10 billion bill to address the highlighted unemployment benefits extension among other measures.  Senator Bunning should be applauded for the courage to speak out on such a contentious issue, because each and every dime spent by Congress, until the deficit is neutral, should be paid for by cuts or raised revenue.  That bill could have been passed last week had the congressional leadership been willing to make the right moves to fund the bill.  The Democratic leadership seized a political moment and were too ignorant to recognize that they could have emerged heroic if they had chosen to do the right thing.  The Democratic leadership could have easily found the $10 billion in unspent stimulus funds, returned T.A.R.P. funds, or God forbid a cut in spending in the dozens of pork ridden bills already earmarked.

Read some of the complaints from the Democratic geniuses.  Vice-President Joe Biden, "At a time when so many families are in so much pain we shouldn't be shutting the few valves of relief. ... We should be opening that spigot a little wider not shutting it down."  I guess someone forgot to tell the Vice-President there is nothing left on the other side of the spigot, and the sympathy card has been played to death!  Also Vice-President Biden if you really are as concerned about the welfare of the families in so much pain, where were you?  You are President of the Senate, why didn’t you derail this foolishness?

Senator Bunning whether purely politically motivated or not made a common sense statement, "If we can't find $10 billion to pay for something that we all support, we will never pay for anything on the floor of the U.S. Senate."  That was a reasonable question for the Senator to present, but it was immediately rebutted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, "Where was my friend from Kentucky when we had two wars that were unpaid for during the Bush administration?"  Leave it to, soon to be ousted, Harry Reid to play the Bush card!  My guess, Senator Reid, was that your friend was right there on the Senate floor with you playing politics as usual and this may be hard for you to grasp but that was then and now is now.

On 01/28/2010 the Senate reinstated the PAYGO rules in a party line 60-40 vote.  It is unclear why the Republicans would not want to be a part of a measure to assure funding for any appropriation without adding to the deficit.  The intent of this measure enforces a rule requiring tax increases or spending cuts in any bills that increase entitlement spending or cut taxes, so it would appear Senator Bunning had every right to insist appropriate action be taken.

One thing should be clear to all Americans by now that these politicians have no concern for the people that they represent.  Every part of the $10 billion bill could have been discussed and worked out beforehand.  Instead these politicians decided to play with the security and peace of mind of millions of Americans for the political mileage they can generate.  The thought that 535 elected individuals can live as nobility and toy with trusting Americans lives is unconscionable.