Republican Senators Fall Short in Noble Quest to Keep American Children Hungry

It was a valiant effort on Senate Republicans' account, but their mission to keep unemployed Americans from being able to put food on their families was dashed this afternoon against the jagged rocks of the unusually non-feckless Democratic majority…

The Senate approved a bill extending unemployment benefits averaging $309 a week for millions of people stuck on jobless rolls.

The 60-40 vote came moments after Carte Goodwin, a successor to West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd, was sworn in. Goodwin was the crucial 60th senator to defeat a Republican filibuster that has led to a lapse in benefits for 2.5 million people…

About 2.5 million people will receive jobless benefits retroactively. Instead of being dropped from a federal program that extends benefits for those whose six months of state-paid benefits have run out, millions of others will continue to receive payments.

I hope the Republican senators don't get too down on themselves. I'm sure that the several weeks their filibuster kept millions of citizens from receiving benefits caused an unimaginable amount of misery. And that's what really counts in the end, isn't it?

Tags: Money, Republicans, Robert Byrd, Senate, Unemployment, West Virginia