Obama: The GOP lacks faith in the American people

Strong words from the leader of the Nanny State party, whose own wife has chosen to use her platform as FLOTUS to lecture Americans on what they should feed their kids. He’s being cute, as always, in characterizing the GOP position on unemployment funding: Just yesterday McConnell reiterated that the caucus is indeed willing to extend benefits, but if and only if Congress figures out a way to pay for them first. That’s the same position Jim Bunning had when he made his stand against extending unemployment funds a few months back, and while it seems like a bold show of budgetary discipline for a party that’s no stranger to deficit spending, realistically it’s the only move the GOP can make. They’re not going to turn off the funding tap when unemployment’s still in the ballpark of 10 percent; too many voters are at too great a risk of grinding hardship if they pulled the plug. The best they can do is make the Democrats sacrifice spending elsewhere in order to free up funds for benefits extensions. Like WaPo said back in March, the hard, cold fact of life is that unemployment benefits are no longer temporary. And they won’t be temporary again for a long, long, long time.