Tom Delay, former Republican House Majority Leader received the name, “the Hammer” for the many unpopular stands he took while in the House. In 2005, Tom Delay was forced out of his leadership in the House because of a criminal indictment to violate election laws.
Tom Delay is now a consultant in Texas and in an interview with Candy Crowley of CNN’s State Of The Union, Tom showed his ideology on the Unemployed, and quite frankly, the ideology of the Republican party.
When asked by Candy Crowley whether the Bunning situation helped the Republican cause, Mr. Delay replied:
No, I think he rallied people around him to be honest with you. It didn’t help the republican cause, because the republicans didn’t rally around him – the elected republicans.
When asked if the problem was not what Mr Bunning did, but that the Republicans didn’t stand with him, Tom replied
The rage against republicans out there is they wanna see republicans stand on principles and fight for those principles.
Mrs. Crowley asked if it’s not a mistake to fight for those principles at the “detriment of the people who are most vulnerable in our society right now?”
Tom Delay replied;
Nothing would have happened if the democrats would have just paid for it (he laughs then continue). People would have gotten their unemployment compensation. I think Bunning was brave in standing up there and taking it on by himself.
Candy Crowley pointed out that taking the Bunning stand at “this particular time, to halt people’s jobs that were working on public infrastructure, to put in jeopardy people’s unemployment benefits and their health care was not exactly the right vehicle to make that stand. You don’t think that’s a PR problem at the very least?”
Mr. Delay replied,
I really don’t. If it’s communicated properly. There’s an argument to be made that these extensions of these unemployment benefits keeps people from going and finding jobs. In fact, there’s a study that had been done that shows that people stay on unemployment compensation and they don’t look for job untill two or three weeks before they know the benefits are gonna run out.
When Mrs Crowley pointed out how heartless that sounds, that “people are unemployed because they wanna be.”
Tom Delay replied;
It’s the truth, and people in the real world know it.
Mr Delay then goes on to say that we should be helping those that are unemployed find a job. He then immediately say, “but, we also have budget considerations that are incredibly important…”
Like Jim Bunning and the rest of the Republicans in congress, Tom Delay thinks the unemployed choose to be unemployed. And if given a chance to find work, they’ll prefer to stay unemployed and collect the temporary benefits they’re getting.
It’s amazing to believe that they represent the very unemployed they’re working so hard against.
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