To the Editor:

For too long Republicans have been playing political games in Congress without regard to the real needs of our working families. It is time for it to stop!

This month 1.2 million people will lose unemployment benefits. In June, 5 million more people will be without unemployment benefits. Thousands of families will no longer have health care coverage.

All because a Republican senator from Kentucky, Jim Bunning, is blocking an extension of these benefits.

It is an outrage and an embarrassment to have a senator from our state torpedo unemployment benefits for people who are struggling to survive. To add insult to injury, Bunning responded to appeals to stop blocking the benefits with a vulgarity.

On Friday I called upon Republican officials in this state to convince Jim Bunning to join the 99 other senators and support this extension. In response, Republican candidates for the senate, Trey Grayson and Rand Paul, said they SUPPORT Bunning’s effort to block these benefits. That is a disgrace!

Two weeks earlier, the other Kentucky senator, Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, objected to a one-week extension to give senators time to draft a longer-term package.

These are continuing examples of negative politics from the ‘Party of NO’ that we have seen far too much.

People are hurting and Republicans are dangerously out of touch. Are Republicans not aware that 10.7 percent of Kentuckians are out of work or 119,230 Kentuckians currently depend on these extended benefits to feed their families?

Last year, Governor Beshear went the extra mile to make sure these citizens were eligible for extended benefits. Now, a Republican senator, in whom Kentucky voters put their trust, has brought to a halt actions to provide unemployment insurance and access to health care coverage through Cobra. The Cobra program allows people who lose their health benefits to continue getting coverage.

Here is what this Republican obstruction means: Without a further extension, 14,206 Kentucky claimants will exhaust all extension benefits within two weeks. By the end of March, a total of 22,797 unemployed Kentuckians will exhaust their benefits; by mid-April, 31,521 more people in our state will exhaust their benefits; and, by July 31, the remainder of those receiving extension benefits will exhaust them. Beyond the number of those receiving extension benefits, another 90,000 Kentuckians currently on unemployment insurance will not be eligible for the federal extension program at all.

These are not just numbers, these are your neighbors, your friends, and maybe even you.

Bunning’s action went beyond blocking unemployment and health insurance benefits with his “hold’ on these funding measures last week. He also stopped an extension of the Highway Trust Fund for 30 days. As a result 2,000 federal employees working on transportation projects will be furloughed this morning, which will halt 41 critical construction projects from Alaska to the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The mischief Bunning has caused does not end there. Other provisions of the bill now stopped would have spared doctors from a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments,extended a small business loan program, the National Flood Insurance Program and the copyright license used by satellite television providers.

Without an extension more than a million rural television viewers will not be able to watch local stations on their satellite systems.

Republican disdain for the people has reached an intolerable level. It must end.

We urge you to call Trey Grayson at (859) 757-4349 and Rand Paul at 1-866-232-9747 and ask them to persuade Sen. Bunning to reverse his position and help our fellow Kentuckians who are in desperate need of continued unemployment benefits. If they will not or cannot get Sen. Bunning to change his position they will demonstrate that they are not worthy of representing Kentucky in the United States Senate. After all, he is their mentor.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Moore

Chairman, Kentucky Democratic Party