Randi Rhodes Show - March 01 2010

Monday, March 1, 2010 It’s a brand new week. Life goes on, even without curling matches on TV. What are the curlers going to do with their spare time? My guess—clean the house. They sure as hell know how to wield a broom. In any case, the curlers’ 15 minutes of fame is over. To be honest, it felt like a lot longer than 15 minutes. Heck, it took them a good half-hour to set up every shot. Without curling, if you want to watch inexplicable and arcane competition, you’ll just have to pay attention to the healthcare debate. Yesterday the White House called for “simple up or down vote” on healthcare—a nice thought, if anything were simple in Washington with the Republicans around. The two sides are preparing their weapons—the healthcare supporters have a routine parliamentary maneuver, and the Republicans have a bunch of lies about a routine parliamentary maneuver. On ABC’s This Week, Lamar Alexander went off on a lying spree about the use of reconciliation. Alexander called reconciliation a “little-used legislative procedure” used “for the purpose of taxing, spending, and reducing deficits.” Taxing and reducing deficits? The Republicans used reconciliation to slash taxes on the rich and massively increase deficits. Under Republicans, reconciliation isn’t “little used,” it’s “misused.” Meanwhile today Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning is single-handedly blocking an extension of unemployment benefits. Benefits for 400,000 Americans expired today. Yeesh. With so many people out of work, why in the name of God does Jim Bunning have a job? Bunning supposedly is concerned about how the unemployment extension is going to be paid for. Jim, there are a lot of people out there wondering the same thing about their utility bills. Bunning’s obstruction also caused two thousand federal transportation workers to be furloughed without pay today. Most causes of unemployment are pretty complicated, but at least one is painfully simple—Jim Bunning. Jim, you’re supposed to be attacking unemployment, not attacking the unemployed! Ironically, another part of the package that Bunning is blocking allows 1.5 million people in rural areas to get local stations on their TV. Maybe he’s hoping his constituents won’t find out what he’s done. Just thank God this TV blackout didn’t happen until the curling was over.

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