SENATOR TOM COBURN, MD
Sen. Tom Coburn (R KY) sponsored a bill that would make millionaires ineligible to collect unemployment compensation. The provision was estimated to save the government 100 million dollars over a 5 year period; not much money but still worth doing. It would buy lunch.
All 42 Republican senators voted in favor of it. A total of 50 Democrats and two Independents* voted against it. That defeated the bill. A few hundred out-of-work millionaires heaved a sigh of relief and gave thanks for Democrats.
The Daily Caller reports on the story under the headline Senate Democrats reject elimination of unemployment benefits for millionaires. The New York Times bills the story simply as Coburn Takes Aim at the Idled Rich. Bias is more often hidden in what is not said than found in what is said.
Let’s be fair. We doubt Democrats killed the bill out of concern for hard-working millionaires temporarily out of work just trying to make ends meet without having to liquidate any of their bond holdings. The bill sponsored by the Republican senator also called for a 15% reduction in Pentagon Procurements. We don’t think it was that either. Yet another cost saving measure in the bill was a 3 year pay freeze for members of the Senate and the House. Now that could be the reason.
* There really are no Independents. Sanders is a Socialist and Lieberman is a Democrat despite his excommunication by the Party.
RANDOM THOTS 