Headline Of The Week -- Afflicting The Afflicted Edition

In today's Washington Post:

The Trump administration, top Republicans and powerful corporate lobbyists mounted fresh opposition Thursday to extending enhanced unemployment benefits to the growing number of Americans who are out of work, raising the prospect of significant cuts to their weekly checks unless lawmakers act by the end of July. [snip]

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blasted the expanded benefits as a “crazy policy” in a private meeting with lawmakers Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the remarks who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal details of the meeting. The party’s position is backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which on Thursday joined Republicans in arguing that the extra payments might deter people from returning to work. [snip]

Democrats argue along with a stable of economists that the expanded jobless benefits are critical at a time when Americans have lost their jobs through no fault of their own — and desperately need the money to pay their bills and protect their homes.

“The worst thing Republicans can do to the economy and American families is to allow supercharged unemployment benefits to expire,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). (our emphasis)

(Spoiler alert:  if it's "the worst thing Republicans can do to the economy and American families," goddamn right they'll do it!)

BONUS:  On the other hand, here are the people Republicans want to protect.

Today's Cartoons and Read - The Republican Poverty and Deprivation Agenda

(click to enlarge)

(Dan Wasserman, Boston Globe)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

We know Republicans are engaged in a (futile) effort to send the message "We care!" about the jobless and the poor, while "deep-six-ing" programs that would alleviate their misery.  Meanwhile, Ezra Klein says "Follow the money" if you want to gauge the seriousness of Republican concern:

Follow the trail in the party’s recent budgets and what you find, hidden between appendix tables, are deep cuts to programs for the poor. That’s the inevitable consequence of Republican commitments to favored constituencies. The party promised its anti-tax wing no tax increases and lower tax rates. It promised older voters that Medicare and Social Security would not change for those over age 55. It promised defense hawks that sequestration cuts to military spending would be reversed. And it promised its tea party allies that it would cut trillions from government spending and balance the federal budget. 

The only way to square all those promises is through draconian cuts to programs for the poor. The liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that programs for lower-income Americans would account for two-thirds of proposed Republican budget savings. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that as many as 37 million Americans would lose access to Medicaid, which was targeted for hundreds of billions in cuts. 

That’s an agenda that would result in more poverty and deprivation, not less. Yet all the Republicans now talking about poverty -- Sens. Marco Rubio, Mike Lee and Rand Paul and Rep. Paul Ryan -- either voted for or, in Ryan’s case, authored these cuts.

The rest of Klein's post is worth the read.

Though none of the above comes as a shock to anyone who's followed politics in the last 40 years, it's always worth highlighting the fact that the overriding concern of the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party is, and for over a century has been, the welfare of the job creators  makers  wealthy 1 percent, a fact that eludes many of the knuckledraggers who vote their fears and prejudices rather than their economic interests.

The Right Wing and Its "Entitlement Nation"

Jon Stewart exposes the soulless "entitlement" hypocrisy of right-wingers, and especially the despicable d-bags at Fox "News:"

The Daily Show
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The Daily Show
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Long-Term Cartoon of the Day

(click to enlarge)

Appropriately, that could also be the Rethuglican's alternative health care "answer."

One can only hope that at some point in their miserable, selfish lives, they experience not only the loss of income, but the loss of self-esteem that comes with losing a job, and perhaps a home and family.   F*ck 'em.

BONUS:  Read Eugene Robinson's op/ed for more.

(cartoon:  Tom Toles, via Gocomics.com)