Congress Chooses not to Protect 1.3 Million Americans

The President of the United States, Barack Obama, supported a bill that would guarantee that there will be no government shutdown for the next two years. In a calculated effort on the recent bi-partisan budget bill that just passed, it seems that some Democrats, including the President, forgot about 1.3 million Americans that are now going to loose their unemployment insurance. This vote, supported by the Democrats and Republicans, plays right into the hands of the Republicans. They are now off of their political hook. Regardless of what was accomplished, what wasn't accomplished was the protection of 1.3 million Americans that will now loose their unemployment compensation right after Christmas. Why? Because there wasn't any resolution included in the present bill that was passed to protect the unemployed.
Does anyone seem to care? The front line GOP, the so called hard line conservatives, to include John Boehner, Paul Ryan and others voted positivly on a bill to replace the sequester. Does this mean that future bills will now be passed with a simple majority? There has to be a catch. Ted Cruz, along with 62 Republicans voted against the Ryan/Murray bill. It seems that the Democrats have taken the easy way out, or did they? Running down to the wire just before the holiday recess, the Democrats passed the bill that gives the Republicans ammunition to now say that they have done what their constituents wanted. Every Senator that voted for the bill seems to be thinking about themselves here. Another senator Rand Paul, who openly stated that the unemployed do not need another extension, seems perfectly happy to now go on his long Christmas/New Year holiday vacation, while others who have no job, and not enough money to put food on the table, must suffer through the holidays with no income. Rand Paul's excuse is that the unemployed do not need another extention on-top of the one that they already have.
What Rand Paul fails to realize is that most of the 1.3 million people without work legitamately cannot find a job. The facts are that out of every available job out there, three people looking for work apply for that one available job. So the people outnumber the available jobs by at least 3 to 1. It is mathmatically impossible for everyone without work to be able to find work. The other issue is the lack of training people must acquire to qualify for the new position.
Rand Paul, a senator who has aspirations to become President some day, is falling way short in his ability to support the middle and lower class people who need basic funds just to survive.
Rand Paul will again have a plate of turkey for Christmas, and so will John Boehner and Ted Cruz. Mr. Cruz was against the bill, but for the wrong reasons, as his were stricktly selfish and he consistantly deposes anything that has any support for Obama's health care bill. Mr. Cruz is another man that is playing with aspirations to run for President in 2016, but if Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are the best that the Conservative party can come up with, then maybe the Republicans should turn the nomination over to Chris Christie. But with Chris Christie's reputation, he definitely is not the best candidate either. Mike Huckabee is tossing the idea to run for the White House at the moment, and is weighing his options. One of his options was to end his talk show, which is an indication that Huckabee may be seriously considering a run for the White House. I'm sure there will be others who will run for the White house.

The front line GOP, the so called hard line conservatives, to include John Boehner, Paul Ryan and others voted positivly on a bill to replace the suquester. Does this mean that bills will now be passed with a simple majority? There has to be a catch. Ted Cruz, along with 62 Republicans voted against the Ryan/Murray bill. It seems that the Democrats have taken the easy way out, or did they? Running down to the wire just before the holiday recess, the Democrats passed the bill that gives the Republicans ammunition to now say that they have done what their constituents wanted. Every Senator that voted for the bill seems to be thinking about themselves here. Senator Rand Paul, who openly stated that the unemployed do not need another extension, seems perfectly happy to now go on his long Christmas/New Year holiday vacation, while others who have no job, and not enough money to put food on the table, must suffer through the holidays with no income. Rand Paul's excuse is that the unemployed do not need another extention on-top of the one that they already have.
What Rand Paul fails to realize is that most of the 1.3 million people without work legitamately cannot find a job. The facts are that out of every available job out there, three people looking for work apply for that one available job. So the people outnumber the available jobs by at least 3 to 1. It is mathmatically impossible for everyone without work to be able to find work. The other issue is the lack of training people must acquire to qualify for a new job to qualify for the new position.
Rand Paul, a senator who has aspirations to become President some day, is falling way short in his ability to support the middle and lower class people who need basic funds just to survive.
Rand Paul will again have a plate of Turkey for Christmas, and so will John Boehner and Ted Cruz. Mr. Cruz was against the bill, but for the wrong reasons, as his were stricktly selfish and he consistantly deposes anything that has any support for Obama's health care bill. Mr. Cruz is another man that is playing with aspirations to run for President in 2016, but if Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are the best that the Conservative party can come up with, then maybe the Republicans should turn the nomination over to Chris Christie. But with Chris Christie's reputation, he definitely is not the best candidate either. Mike Huckabee is tossing the idea to run for the White House at the moment, and is weighing his options. One of his options was to end his talk show, which is an indication that Huckabee may be seriously considering a run for the White House.
I'm sure there will be others who will run for the Whitehouse to become the 45th President of the United States, but with all things considered, it will take some coming together by the Republicans to get a viable nominee for President in the White House. If Hilary Clinton runs, she will be far ahead of everyone from both parties to actually be elected as next President.
If Clinton becomes President, what will the Republicans, or Conservatives or the tea party do now in their efforts to continuously obstruct the President?! The Republicans should recognize that they already dropped the ball again for the next major election in 2016, and they should consider getting a well qualified person ready for the 2020 elections.  Even with these facts, Mike Huckabee is tossing the idea to run for president, as he has ended his talk shows on TV and radio. This is a good indication that he has something up his sleeve.  If Hilary Clinton runs, she will be far ahead of everyone from both parties to actually be elected as next President.
If Clinton becomes President, what will the Republicans, or Conservatives or the tea party do now in their efforts to continuously obstruct the President?!
For me, it is a sad day to see the Democratic President of the United States, namely Barack Obama be used by a select few of Republcans, just so some issues can be resolved just before the holidays, at the expense of the poor and unemployed.

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WEEKLY ADDRESS: Time to Replace the Sequester with a Balanced Approach to Deficit Reduction

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

April 27, 2013

WASHINGTON, DC— In this week’s address, President Obama said that because Republicans in Congress allowed a series of harmful, automatic budget cuts—called the sequester—to take effect, important programs like Head Start are now forced to reduce their services. After travelers were stuck for hours in airports and on planes this past week, members of Congress passed a temporary band-aid measure to stop the cuts that impact airlines — but they must do more to stop cuts to vital services for the American people.  That’s why it’s time for a balanced approach to deficit reduction that makes smarter cuts and reforms in the tax code while creating jobs and strengthening the middle class.
The audio of the address and video of the address will be available online at www.whitehouse.gov at 6:00 a.m. ET, Saturday, April 27, 2013.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
April 27, 2013
 

Hi, everybody.  Our top priority as a nation must be growing the economy, creating good jobs, and rebuilding opportunity for the middle class.
But two months ago, Congress allowed a series of automatic budget cuts to fall across the federal government that would do the opposite.  In Washington-speak, these cuts were called the “sequester.”  It was a bad idea then.  And as the country saw this week, it’s a bad idea now.
Because of these reckless cuts, there are parents whose kids just got kicked out of Head Start programs scrambling for a solution.  There are seniors who depend on programs like Meals on Wheels to live independently looking for help.  There are military communities – families that have already sacrificed enough – coping under new strains.  All because of these cuts.
This week, the sequester hurt travelers, who were stuck for hours in airports and on planes, and rightly frustrated by it.  And, maybe because they fly home each weekend, the Members of Congress who insisted these cuts take hold finally realized that they actually apply to them too.
Republicans claimed victory when the sequester first took effect, and now they’ve decided it was a bad idea all along.  Well, first, they should look at their own budget.  If the cuts they propose were applied across the board, the FAA would suffer cuts three times deeper.
So Congress passed a temporary fix.  A Band-Aid.  But these cuts are scheduled to keep falling across other parts of the government that provide vital services for the American people.  And we can’t just keep putting Band-Aids on every cut.  It’s not a responsible way to govern.  There is only one way to truly fix the sequester: by replacing it before it causes further damage.
A couple weeks ago, I put forward a budget that replaces the next several years of these dumb cuts with smarter cuts; reforms our tax code to close wasteful special interest loopholes; and invests in things like education, research, and manufacturing that will create new jobs right now.
So I hope Members of Congress will find the same sense of urgency and bipartisan cooperation to help the families still in the crosshairs of these cuts.  They may not feel the pain felt by kids kicked off Head Start, or the 750,000 Americans projected to lose their jobs because of these cuts, or the long-term unemployed who will be further hurt by them.  But that pain is real.
The American people worked too hard, for too long, rebuilding from one economic crisis just to see your elected officials keep causing more.  Our economy is growing.  Our deficits are shrinking.  We’re creating jobs on a consistent basis.  But we need to do more to help middle-class families get ahead, and give more folks a chance to earn their way into the middle class.  And we can, if we work together.  That’s what you expect.  That’s what I’m going to work every single day to help deliver.  Thank you.

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