Bernie Sanders Slams Republican Hypocrites Who Voted For 5 UI Extensions Under Bush

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:37 pm

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Sen. Bernie Sanders is making Republicans pay for refusing to extend unemployment benefits by pointing out their hypocrisy, and slamming the immoral treachery of the GOP as they devastate millions of Americans for political gain.

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Sen. Sanders said,

I think there’s just an enormous amount of politics here. Ed, when Bush was president Republicans voted for five extensions of emergency unemployment without any offsets. That was when Bush was president. Obama is president it becomes a different story. What these guys want to do, I believe, is pretend that they are concerned about these 1.3 million workers, and I want to thank you very much for really talking about what happens to somebody’s life when they have no income coming in. What it means in terms of rent, or a cell phone, or your ability to get a job. That is something our Republican colleagues are not thinking about at all.

So what they are talking about now are quote unquote offsets. Not under Bush, but now they want it under Obama, and what these offsets will be is taking money from Peter to help pay Paul. What they want to do is cut the Affordable Care Act. They want to cut health insurance. These guys have been vicious about cutting food stamps. They want to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. They want to cut any and all programs which benefit the working families of our country. That’s what they want to do now. That’s what they’ve always wanted to do.

Sen. Sanders suggested some offsets of his own like forcing tax dodging corporations to pay taxes. Sanders also hammered Republicans hypocrites for supporting repeal of the estate tax, while opposing an extension in unemployment benefits. Their hypocrisy is obvious, but it doesn’t matter to Senate Republicans who are trying to use a potential unemployment benefits extension as leverage to cut Obamacare.

This group of congressional Republicans are the biggest group of hypocrites possibly in the history of the legislative branch. Many of these same Republican senators who oppose helping the unemployed voted repeatedly to fund two wars that cost the taxpayers trillions of dollars, but they didn’t worry about offsets then.

The American people aren’t going to fall for their transparent act of pretending to care about the long term unemployed while refusing to extend an economic lifeline that would keep them afloat while they look for a new job. What Senate Republicans are doing is morally wrong, bad economics, and horrible politics.

Mitch McConnell is wrong if he believes that hurting the unemployed is the path to Republicans taking back the Senate. The heartless actions of these foolish ideologues are destined to backfire, as champions of the working class like Bernie Sanders remind voters of this immoral act of Republican treachery.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association