McCarthy laments the manner in which the GOP let Sen. Jim Bunning hang out to dry in the latest budget battle on Capitol Hill. Bunning objected to the Senate passing by unanimous consent a $10 billion bill extending unemployment insurance (yet again) without offsetting these expenditures with spending cuts or revenue increases as required by the PAYGO rules adopted by Congress. While the bill's cost is modest when compared to the $3.6 trillion in 2010 anticipated outlays, the GOP had before them an excellent opportunity to highlight the hypocrisy and irresponsibility of the Dem's spending addiction. All they had to do was to stand with Bunning and refuse to join in the passage of an extension of unemployment benefits without corresponding offsets.
Instead, Bunning stood alone as he took waves of withering fire from Democrats and their sycophantic allies in the press for daring to oppose our compassionate and beneficent government's gift of taxpayer dollars to the poor, hungry and pitiful masses who remain on the government dole primarily because of the self same government's incompetent stewardship of our economy. He clearly had no desire to take the proverbial food out of the mouths of the unemployed; rather he was trying to make a rather serious point, to wit: if extending a helping hand to our unemployed fellow citizens is a priority then we ought to be able to cut a measly $10 billion from some dreary corner of the unspent stimulus to pay for it.
And what did his Republican colleagues do? Why, they ran for the hills of course. According to McCarthy, Susan Collins of Maine took to the floor to declare that Bunning's views about accountability “do not represent a majority of the Republican caucus.” Indeed. For all the talk by GOP leaders of how they have learned from their mistakes leading up to their election debacle in 2006, when it comes time to act they shrink from the fight.
In fairness to the Senate GOP, its leaders may have concluded that they have to carefully husband the "shoot" in their eyes, and that this was not the time to pick a fight with the Dems. There is no question that they have held the line to oppose big ticket items like the stimulus and health care reform (to this point, anyway), and there will be higher-stake opportunities to stand firm against Leviathan.
In truth, Bunning's procedural ploy could not have changed the outcome, and indeed he finally relented to give the Dems the victory that was assured them from the beginning. Still, it would have been nice if his fellow Republicans had reinforced his message that a government that cannot pay for unemployment benefits for its citizens out of an existing $3.6 trillion budget is a government that is truly out of control
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