Fax To Senator Richard Lugar and Representative Baron Hill

Subj: Republicans Love Their Bankers and Bombs, but Hate Unemployed American Workers. Sadly, Baron Hill, D IN-09, Marches to the Same Mistaken Drum

One has to wonder about what legacy Richard Lugar thinks he is going to leave for all his years of service in the Senate.

Given his continued unswerving allegiance to the corrupt marketers of hedge funds and derivatives, Wall Street firms, and the mega-banks, and his consistent votes to prevent any return to rational regulation of a financial industry that is corrupt to the core, and drinking their monster bonuses from the dollars of the American taxpayers who bailed them out of the mess they had created, it should come as no surprise that Sen. Lugar now chooses to spit on the downtrodden and suffering unemployed, who find themselves abandoned in the middle of the George Bush / Republican Recession that, according to Paul Krugman, now threatens to spiral downward into a Third Great Depression.

Sen. Lugar must really care about his wealthy and powerful corporate and banker friends.

He certainly does not give a d*mn about the American worker.

How does the Senator look himself in the mirror every morning without blushing in shame at the damage done to this nation done by his Republican party? Damage they seem intent on increasing with every passing act of obstruction and monstrous lies that deny the reality of the mess this nation is in?

They had no hesitation in running up the biggest debt and deficit in the history of the nation for their fat-cat financial, corporate, and military-industrial complex friends to get us into unending wars that provided billions in contracts to privateers and war profiteers, while only succeeding in increasing the hatred for America in the Middle East.

But help Americans who are out of work? Insure social security at age 66? Insure Medicare for the elderly? Oh, clearly the only way to fix the mess they have created is to continue their master plan to destroy the middle class, increase the percentage of Americans living at or below poverty wages, and continue the transfer of wealth to the top 5% of Americans that has accelerated over the past 20 years, the greatest concentration of the nation’s wealth in the hands of the smallest number of people in the history of the nation.

Senator Lugar should be ashamed of himself. I can assure him that we are.

We note that Baron Hill also voted against extended unemployment relief. In this case, the same criticisms apply to Rep. Hill. Although we have donated to and voted for Hill in the past, this year we will just not vote. And Hill is going to suffer what Democrats who have failed their constituency nationwide are going to suffer: Democrats, discouraged by the failure of those they elected to live up to their promises and the principles of the party, will simply stay at home. And you know what that means? Energized Republicans will show up and vote.

Following commentary source: 17 senators from states with double-digit jobless rates repeatedly vote to filibuster unemployment benefits.

1.3 million people have lost their benefits this month alone, and this is actually an historic step on the part of the Senate, as “never before has Congress cut off benefits when unemployment was so high.” But perhaps Republicans in the Senate agree with Sharron Angle that unemployed people are simply “spoiled” and “afraid to get a job”?
17 senators from states with double-digit jobless rates repeatedly vote to filibuster unemployment benefits.
Since the beginning of the Great Recession, 15 million Americans have lost their jobs. Almost half of them have been out of work for six months or more, and there are currently nearly five workers actively seeking work for every available job. However, the Senate has been unable to extend job benefits because of a Republican filibuster, which has been joined by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE). On three separate occasions, Democrats tried to break the filibuster but were unsuccessful. And while no senator voting to continue the filibuster should be allowed to escape responsibility, many voting to sustain it are from states that have been hit particularly hard by the unemployment crisis. Here are the 17 senators from states with double-digit unemployment who are willing to leave their constituents without a safety net:

Senator(s) State Unemployment Rate Votes Against Cloture (Out Of Three)

Sen. Richard Lugar (R) Indiana 10.0% Three