Buchanan on Bunning

The paeans for Bunning continue to roll in-- from Baron Hill, the WSJ, the WaPo, and here, Pat Buchanan at LewRockwell...

Buchanan goes into some of the deeply troubling budget numbers, but I'm going to focus on his description of the recent brouhaha.

Jim Bunning took the Senate floor for five straight days to object to Harry Reid's call for unanimous consent to waive through a $10 billion spending bill. First, the Kentucky senator demanded, show me how we're going to pay for it.

His own leadership abandoned Bunning. Susan Collins of Maine assured the Senate and country that Republicans did not back their colleague: "Senator Bunning's views do not represent a majority of the caucus. It's important that the American people understand that there is bipartisan support for extending these vital programs."

Vital programs? Had Bunning blocked rescue flights to Port au Prince or Santiago, or ammunition for the Marines in Marja? No. Bunning had held up for a couple of days a vote on a $10 billion bill to extend unemployment benefits, make payments to doctors under Medicare and extend satellite TV to rural America. Reportedly, some 2,000 Transportation Department workers were furloughed for a few days.

"If we cannot pay for a bill that all 100 senators support," Bunning said, "how can we tell the American people with a straight face that we will ever pay for anything?"

Good question....

He may have been booed all last week, but Jim Bunning pitched one of the best games of his career.