More Help For Unemployed?

With the national unemployment rate now at 9.8 percent, the Obama administration is considering the extension of benefits for laid-off workers, but it probably can’t count on any GOP support.

The GOP, which has launched a massive disinformation campaign against health care reform, will most likely oppose any new Obama administration initiative no matter how it might affect the country. The bottom line is the GOP continues to demonize President Barack Obama, using fear tactics and outright lies.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman calls it “spite.” In a Monday column, Krugman writes:

. . . at this point, the guiding principle of one of our nation’s two great political parties is spite pure and simple. If Republicans think something might be good for the president, they’re against it — whether or not it’s good for America.

The Obama administration may push for extending new unemployment benefits past a Dec. 31 deadline, according to the Associated Press, which also reported the White House might push for extending the COBRA health program and a tax credit program for first-time home buyers as well. The extensions are sensible and prudent, but the GOP has already come out against them.

It’s remarkable that as GOP leaders criticize Obama they never mention former President George Bush. The economy and banking system had already tanked under Bush, who also got the country bogged down in two long and expensive military occupations. The Obama team has done a good job of preventing a complete economic disaster and cleaning up the messes left by the Bush administration in its first nine months. This is the reality despite the GOP anti-Obama rhetoric