Reid Goes There: Brings Up When Bush First Signed Emergency UI Benefits

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That awkward moment when Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) reminds Republicans that unemployment is still higher than when former President Bush first signed emergency unemployment benefits into being.

To make matters worse, the Democratic Senator included a graph that demonstrates just when all of this mess started and how it hasn’t been fixed yet.

Unemployment rate is still higher than when Pres Bush first signed emergency UI. More work left to do. #renewUI pic.twitter.com/FnX3YUTdBQ

— Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) January 7, 2014

Yesterday Reid pointed out that we never did this before, “And the long-term unemployment rate is twice as high as it was any other time we have allowed emergency unemployment benefits to end.” Everything is different under Obama, when the Republicans have to fight reason and dignity in order to desperately try to prove the nation wrong about their choice for President.

So Republicans refuse to pass any kind of jobs bill and now they refuse to help the unemployed, who are suffering from a massive recession caused by Republican policies under their President.

Republicans are once again trying to shift the debate to fiscal responsibility instead of human need, but no one has yet asked the most logical question, and that is: If anyone is to hang an argument on fiscal responsibility, shouldn’t they first be able to demonstrate said responsibility when they are in charge?

It’s hard to take lectures on fiscal responsibility seriously from the party that left the wars off of the budget and said deficits didn’t matter as they drunkenly charged up the credit card that helped create this current situation that they are now blaming on the poor.

If Republicans want to keep imposing the Hunger Games on the American people, then Democrats are going to have to remind everyone how we got here. Harry Reid just did exactly that. The graph of the Bush recession makes the argument against Republicans without even saying a word.

Sarah Jones

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