The basis for his objection was a law recently passed by the Democrat controlled Congress and signed by President Obama called “Pay-Go”. This legislation calls on Congress to pay for spending bills without adding to our national debt. This $10 billion extension of unemployment flies in the face of that Pay-Go law.
While watching CNN rip Bunning apart on Tuesday, the question I found they repeated over and over was, “Why now?” The anchor and reporter both alleged that his actions were immediately causing Americans to suffer and simply a partisan ploy by an abrasive old man who is not respected by his party. For some reason it never occurred to the anchor that Bunning might be listening to the majority of the American people who are calling for a reduction in out of control federal spending. Bunning admits he has cast some bad votes in his thousands of votes over the years, but the idea of Congress treating American’s tax dollars as an endless slush fund for their personal benefit must end.
In the end, the Democrat controlled Senate, which had passed “Pay-Go” just a few weeks ago, passed the Temporary Extension Act of 2010 without providing a way to pay for the benefits granted in the bill.
What Bunning did, took great political courage. He stood up for the majority of Americans who want runaway federal spending stopped. His actions revealed the hypocrisy of the majority – they claim to utilize fiscal discipline with laws such as “Pay-Go”, but actually are only paying lip service to the principles of fiscal responsibility. Senator Bunning’s words say it best,
“If the Senate cannot find $10 billion to pay for a measure we all support, we will never pay for anything.”
“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”-Thomas Jefferson