Jim Hightower

Republican congress critters have once again stomped on the fingers of out-of-work Americans who're clinging to unemployment aid to keep from tumbling into the depths of poverty.

Every single Republican senator recently locked arms to block consideration of a $33 billion bill to extend unemployment benefits to those who've been without work for more than six months, at which point their jobless payments expire. Longterm joblessness is now at the highest rate since the Great Depression, and the Republicans' cold recalcitrance means more than a million Americans will now loose even the meager weekly payments that've kept them hanging on in today's jobless economy – and another 200,000 workers will join them every week.

"Too costly," grumped the GOP senators. They've suddenly turned into budget skinflints, after approving trillions of dollars to bail out Wall Street fat cats who caused today's economic mess, and while continuing to shell out $12 billion a month for nation-building in Afghanistan.

Adding insult to economic injury, the Repubs have taken to dissing out-of-work Americans as unworthy of a helping hand. "We should not be giving cash to people who basically are just going to blow it on drugs," sniffed Sen. Orrin Hatch. Sen. Jon Kyl complained that $300-a-week jobless payments are a "disincentive for them to seek new work." Rep. Dean Heller worries that the payments are "creating hobos." And Sharron Angle, a GOP teabag candidate for senate, declares that unemployment benefits "really have spoiled our citizenry."

What a disgrace! It's these privileged lawmakers who're spoiled – spoiled so rotten they can't even smell the hypocrisy of showering tax dollars on the moneyed elites, then piously turning their backs on America's grassroots folks in a time of real need.