Blame the Unemployed (Because They Want It).

Tom Delay: People Are Unemployed Because They Want To Be
Sam Stein
From Huffington Post


Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay called Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) "brave" on Sunday for launching a one-man filibuster of unemployment benefits, arguing that they dissuaded people from going out and finding work.

Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," the Texas Republican said that Bunning's fiscal responsibility was commendable, even if his shenanigans (refusing to allow unemployment benefits to be considered by unanimous consent) nearly brought the Senate to a halt.

"Nothing would have happened if the Democrats had just paid for [the benefits]," Delay said. "People would have gotten their unemployment compensation. I think Bunning was brave in standing up there and taking it on by himself."

Asked whether it was bad strategy to make a budget stand on a $10 billion extension of unemployment (as opposed to, say, the Bush's $720 billion prescription drug package), Delay insisted that if the PR had been done right, Bunning would have been applauded. Helping the unemployed with federal assistance, he said, was unsound policy.

"You know," Delay said, "there is an argument to be made that these extensions, the unemployment benefits keeps people from going and finding jobs. In fact there are some studies that have been done that show people stay on unemployment compensation and they don't look for a job until two or three weeks before they know the benefits are going to run out.

Host Candy Crowley: Congressman, that's a hard sell, isn't it?

Delay: it's the truth.

Crowley: People are unemployed because they want to be?
Delay: well, it is the truth. and people in the real world know it. And they have friends and they know it. Sure, we ought to be helping people that are unemployed find a job, but we also have budget considerations that are incredibly important, especially now that Obama is spending monies that we don't have.

Tom Delay is not above kicking someone when they are down or capitalizing on other people’s tragedy. Do not forget this is the guy who used a terminally brain dead woman as a political football. This is the guy who allowed corporations and lobbyist to write their own regulatory legislation and conduct business on the House floor while congress was in session. Tom Delay member of the 'The Family' Christian Cult and friends with other criminals like Jack Abramoff. I can also tell you about Jim Bunning having lived in Kentucky and watching him run one of the dirtiest campaigns in recent memory. Jim Bunning, former baseball player and current Mitch McConnell page, won a narrow race in 2004 by hinting that his opponent, Daniel Mongiardo, was a possible homosexual and that he looked like 'one of Saddam's Hussein's sons. It is real hard to find two bigger Scumbags, even in the GOP.