Conservatives Just Killed 240,000 Jobs

[marmar]

from AlterNet:



Posted by Terrance Heath at 7:24 pm
October 1, 2010

Conservatives Just Killed 240,000 Jobs
Posted by Terrance Heath on @ 7:24 pm


Conservatives in Congress just fired 240,000 American workers. Conservatives in Congress just killed 240,000 jobs. Conservatives in Congress just essentially added 240,000 more Americans to the ranks of the unemployed. However you frame it, people who want to work and have been working are soon to be out of work, thanks to GOP Senators members who refused to reauthorize — even for three months — a stimulus program so successful it won praise from Republicans like Mississippi governor Haley Barbour.

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/10/01/conservatives-just-killed-240000-jobs/">Steve Benen explains.

At issue is the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Emergency Fund, which should have been one of the most popular programs in Congress. A key component of the Recovery Act, the fund subsidizes jobs with private companies, nonprofits, and government agencies, and has single handedly put more than 240,000 unemployed people back to work in 32 states and the District of Columbia.

Governors, including Mississippi’s Haley Barbour (R), have sung its praises, and urged its extension. In July, CNN called the TANF Emergency Fund "a stimulus program even a Republican can love."

Except, Republicans didn’t love it. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) led the floor fight this week, and was even willing to accept a compromise: instead of a year-long extension that Democrats had requested, Durbin sought a three-month extension, at a cost of just $500 million, in order to keep the fund alive through the end of the year. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) refused to allow it.

"The majority has known this program was going to expire at the end of this month all year and has taken no steps to reauthorize this important social safety net program," said Enzi, who blocked Durbin’s request for "unanimous consent" for a reauthorization.

Of course, GOP Senator Judd Gregg (N,H.) killed a Democratic effort at reauthorization in March of this year. Just last week, GOP Senator Orrin Hatch shot down Democratic Senator Max Baucus’s attempt to reauthorize the program as part of a "tax extenders bill." And the House approved a bill reauthorizing TANF back in May. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/10/01/conservatives-just-killed-240000-jobs/

[nuxvomica]

1. Another Tonya Harding-style move from the Republicans

That's all they got. :mad:

[marmar]

2. Tonya Harding Republicans.......I love that meme.

[DCKit]

4. That might catch on... I'll certainly use it. n/t

[xchrom]

3. Keep 'em poor - keep 'em unemployed. The republican moto. Nt

[Buns_of_Fire]

5. "...known this program was going to expire at the end of this month..."

...and THAT'S his reasoning for blocking unanimous consent?

Yo, Enzi...

"The rebubbalicans have known that the tax cuts for the wealthy were to expire at the end of this year for ten years and took no steps to rationalize this important social safety net for billionaires," said __________...

Name left blank, of course, since we don't seem to have a Democratic Senator willing to toss their crap right back at them.:mad:

[Larry Ogg]

6. Don't worry the conservadems will save us...

And at the same time they will preserve the Republican Party and blame it on us liberals who have
almost no influence within our corporately owned conservative biased pretend democracy.