A Veteran Asked Republicans About the American Dream – The Response She Got Will Shock You
by Bob Cull
An unemployed veteran
was among those in a group delivering petitions to the office of Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) asking that Congress extend long term unemployment benefits last week. Wessita McKinley, speaking on behalf of the group said:
“I’ve
served my country, honorable discharge. I’ve done my time. I’ve done
everything right. College, school, no crime, no record. Pay my taxes.
Make sure my daughter went to school.”
“Did the American dream.
Got her in college,” she added. “And I’m sitting here struggling. I’m
now ready to take a street sweeper job if they would offer it to me. So
I’m asking you the million dollar question. What am I supposed to do
right now to keep a roof over my head, food in my stomach, clothes on my
back, car insurance paid?”
In
a show of great compassion on behalf of the Senator, Don Stewart his
spokesman told her that Majority Leader Harry Reid had rejected the
amendment that Republicans had proposed and then waited to long to bring
the bill to a vote. McKinley was not going to let him get away with it
and continued to complain to him of her problems.
“I can only tell you what we can do here in the Senate,” Stewart replied. “I have no control over your life.”
With
this kind of concern in the offices of one of the most powerful men in
Congress McKinley and the rest of the millions of Americans who are
suffering in the current economic climate have little to be optimistic
about. The amendments that Stewart refers to are amendments with no
connection to jobless benefits and were offered because they knew that
Reid and the Democrats would not accept them.
He
also told her an outright lie when he said that it was now "too late."
There is no reason that the Congress cannot pass the bill and make it
retroactively effective, no reason that is than the fact that the
Republicans do not want to make it effective from any date.
McConnell
has voted for measures such as this many times without demanding
offsets but now insists that the benefit be paid for with cuts elsewhere
if he is to support it, and not just any cuts, they have to be the cuts
that he proposes, not the ones proposed by the Democrats which would
have paid for the extension for a full year.
The only cuts that are acceptable to McConnell are those which will affect the ACA, Obamacare.
The
most egregious remark, however is "I have no control over your life."
This smacks of condescension, of saying "well, it's your fault that you
are in this position." These are people who are simply trying to keep
their heads above water in an economy that is not improving at a rate
nearly strong enough to generate the needed jobs.
Just
as important is the fact that by allowing the long-term unemployment
benefit to die over $1.5 billion dollars is being taken out of the
economy every month, money that these people need and that could be
helping to grow the economy and regain the jobs that have been lost.
McConnell
and his cronies can call themselves fiscally responsible all they want
but when they intentionally cause this much damage to the economy and
their constituents they are anything but responsible.
h/t: Politicususa
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