Posted on 02/26/2010 10:24:36 AM PST by LouAvul
Senate Democrats spent Thursday night hammering away at Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) for single-handedly holding up action in the upper chamber – but he blurted out a message to one of them on the Senate floor: “Tough s—t.”
In an unusual display in the normally sleepy chamber, Bunning – without the support of GOP leadership – has blocked efforts to quickly approve a series of extensions to measures that would otherwise expire Sunday, including unemployment insurance and the Cobra program that allows people who lose their health benefits to continue getting coverage.
And that has led to a furious exchange on the floor, with Democrats attacking the senator, who has refused to relent on his objection, in unusually harsh terms.
In a colloquy with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Jeff Merkley, a freshman Democrat from Oregon, was pleading for Bunning to drop his objection, when the Kentucky Republican got fed up.
“Tough s—t,” Bunning said as he was seated in the back row, overheard by the floor staff and others in attendance.
A spokesman for Bunning did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s rare for senators to curse at one another on the floor of the chamber. In 2004, Dick Cheney famously told Sen. Patrick Leahy to “f—- yourself” when the vice president appeared for a photo session in the upper chamber.
Bunning is furious about increased spending in the Senate – but he’s waging a lonely battle to stop it. The senior senator from his state, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, with whom he has a frosty relationship, is not backing him up. If he refuses to relent, Democrats will have to file cloture to shut down debate, pushing back final action until next week.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Good to know that Bunning hasn’t forgotten how to throw a brushback pitch.
Do you post much?
Your links are wrong.
You links go to FR, not politico.
Bunning isn’t worried about reelection, so the Democrats screaming “YOU HATE UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE!!!” isn’t going to work on him.
In the end, that is the ONLY thing this “Jobs” bill is about, making Republicans vote against “Jobs”.
We have some REAL WHACKOS running the White House and Congress now, folks
We're going to miss him.
The only thing out of line about Cheney's quoted remark is that he shouldn't have insulted Leahy's horse.
If memory serves correctly, Bunning pitched a perfect game
Kudos to Sen. Bunning.
Now if he can convince some of his colleagues to get some backbone before he leaves . . . .
I’m aghast! He’s supposed to say, “Tough sh-t, to my esteemed colleague, the Gentleman from ......”
LOL!
And I do post quite a bit. Try not to be so condescending.
Looks ok to me by the title
“The fact that the Capon Mitch McConnell doesn’t get along with him, makes him all that much better of a senator.”
Yeah, and if McConnell hasn’t been able to get along with a guy like Bunning it really makes you wonder about the guy McConnell is pushing for Bunning’s replacement, Trey Grayson. If McConnell is for Grayson, I think I would have to back either Rand Paul or Bill Johnson for Senate if I were a Kentuckian.
Father's Day 1964. I remember it well, in black and white.
That was a very rude comment. BTW, unless you changed it, it worked fine for me :)
STAND YOUR GROUND! I wish we had more of his type instead of the herd of RINO's we have representing us! 
Cobra is a red herring for the Rats. Company paid insurance is often so high that the unemployed cannot afford it anyway.
True.
Magoffin County, has 21.4 percent of its residents unemployed, Durbin said
******
And whose fault is that, Durbin?!
lol
nice, I am tired of the PC crap, lets start telling it like it is!
Unless the former employer has a nexus in only one state, COBRA insurance related disputes can only be handled in federal court. State insurance commissions are forbidden to intercede.
Of course, the rest of the story is very unflattering to the Democrats. They’ve had this deadline for months. They know they can pass a bill to fix it. But instead, they did NOTHING, wasting their time on health care.
Now, it’s so late they were trying to pass a 1-month extension so they could get time to do the real bill, which they expect will pass easily.
So while it’s great that Bunning is stopping this, the democrats have nobody to blame but themselves for not taking care of this months ago. All they had to do is fashion the new bill, bring it up last month, and file cloture. They could be voting today on the real bill, not a one-month extension.
But Harry Reid is incompetent. He failed to get dozens of political nominations through a senate where he had 60 votes. ALL he had to do was bring up all of them, and file cloture papers for each, and he could have finished them all. But he was too busy.
Tried calling his offices to thank him and couldn’t get thru...It’s time someone stands up to all this ‘crap’....
“Rockefeller also noted that Bunning’s objection could turn off televisions for more than 1 million households, since the package has provisions dealing with the switch to digital TV.”
What a frigging travesty! No TV. Oh what are we to do?
Country is broke and these asshats are spending money on crap like this.
The Dems are both insane and unrepentently cynical. They know that the logical outcome of their UIC extensions is that you will end up with a generation of people who end up permanently on the government dole. If the limits are not respected, you end up with another unfunded entitlement program and create a huge incentive for many workers to give up searching for a job. It’s always easy to promise more, more, more when you’re not the one suffering the consequences of your reckless political posturing.
Yes he did, in 1964, the year the Phillies almost went to the World Series. Probably the only better pitcher from that era was Nolan Ryan, though there would be others in the same class— Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton and possibly some others.
“tough s...” said Bunning, and then threw a fastball under his chin.
Why are we even dealing with this any more? Wasn't this done a year ago? Even more proof that a government program never goes away.
Only? Ahem, Koufax, Marichal, and Drysdale.
I’ve long believed that Al Franken would usher in a return of fisticuffs to the Senate floor, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Bunning was the one who administered the a$$-whoopin’.
Statistically, once unemployment runs out, people are many times more likely to find jobs.
It’s amazing how the employers know when your unemployment runs out and offer more jobs.
I know, I know, this recession IS different, because we have a guy that is intentionally NOT allowing job creation.
Absolutely correct! The last time I had employer paid health insurance and when I left, the wonderful cobra deal would have made my monthly insurance payments over $1000 just for me, and this was in 2001
Grayson, is a Nasty/Dirty/Obscene name here in Central Florida!
How about the ads on TV for USPS shipping boxes? How much did that cost?
Drysdale was very good, certainly in the same class, but he played for contenders most of his career. Bunning didn't.
Juan Marichal, as great a pitcher as he was, will always be tainted for attacking John Roseboro with a baseball bat. Plus, his team was seldom out of contention.
That is because many people no longer really have health insurance, we have a pre-paid health plan.
Although I personally don't approve of profanity in most situations, Senator Bunning used it quite aptly in this case. He's a man of great courage to stand firm on a matter of principle.
I had a pilot friend who was laid off by a major airline after 9/11. They paid for his family's health insurance for a year, then it went into COBRA. The policy under COBRA would have cost $1,500/month ($18,000/year "Gold Plated" Union negotiated policy). He went to his local independent insurance agent and bought insurance for his family for $500/month. It had a higher deductible, and didn't pay for everything (probably didn't cover fertility drugs, for example), but provided the coverage he and his family needed.
This is what is wrong with insurance. State mandates, and ridiculous coverages drive the cost through the roof. The first exposure many have to paying for insurance themselves is in a COBRA situation, and they freak at the cost of insurance, thinking all health insurance must be so expensive.
The COBRA subsidies passed by Congress are nothing more than corporate welfare to the insurance industry. The same insurers offer much lower priced policies.
There is only one reason to buy into COBRA: If you have a pre-existing condition which would otherwise prevent you from being able to buy insurance.
State mandates are part of it, but mostly the price is going up because we are moving away from health insurance to prepaid health care, i.e. $15 co-pays for a doctor’s visit no matter how much it actually costs.
Stand up and fight for what is Right!
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