Let 'em eat cake

From a Leonard Cohen song: "Looking through the paper just makes you cry. Nobody cares if the people live or die." That seems to be true of many Republicans in Congress who have voted down--TWICE--extension of unemployment benefits for those unable to find jobs in this terrible economy.

PUNISHING THE JOBLESS
By Paul Krugman
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/05/opinion/05krugman.html?_r=1

EXCERPT: We’re facing a coalition of the heartless, the clueless and the confused. Nothing can be done about the first group, and probably not much about the second. But maybe it’s possible to clear up some of the confusion.

By the heartless, I mean Republicans who have made the cynical calculation that blocking anything President Obama tries to do — including, or perhaps especially, anything that might alleviate the nation’s economic pain — improves their chances in the midterm elections. Don’t pretend to be shocked: you know they’re out there, and make up a large share of the G.O.P. caucus.

By the clueless I mean people like Sharron Angle, the Republican candidate for senator from Nevada, who has repeatedly insisted that the unemployed are deliberately choosing to stay jobless, so that they can keep collecting benefits.