Unemployment group wants Bunning ousted from Baseball Hall of Fame

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) should be ousted from the Baseball Hall of Fame because of his block on extending unemployment benefits, according to a group that advocates for the unemployed.
 
The benefits expire Sunday.
 
{mosads}“The most obscene thing he can do is prevent jobless Americans from getting their $350 a week unemployment check,” Rick Sloan, acting executive director of Ur Union of Unemployed, a grass roots organization for unemployed Americans, told The Hill.
 
Sloan’s group is creating an online petition to remove Bunning from Baseball’s Hall of Fame.  The list is expected to be operational by the weekend.
 
“His legacy as a great ball player is about to be surpassed by his reputation as an obstinate and uncaring ideologue,” Sloan said in a statement.
 
Efforts to reach Bunning’s office were unsuccessful.
 
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has tried for three days to extend the expiring employment provisions, only to be rebuffed by Bunning who demands the bill’s $10 billion cost be offset. Reid has argued the legislation is for emergency reasons and therefore offsets are not required.
 
More than 1 million people will lose unemployment benefits in March if Congress does not approve legislation to extend the payments, according to an estimate from the National Employment Law Project.
 
“His heartless actions mean millions will not receive their unemployment checks. For his stance, he should be ejected from the Hall of Fame and installed in the Hall of Shame,” Sloan said.
 
To overcome Bunning’s roadblock, Reid could add a list of expiring tax breaks to the measure in hopes he will curry favor from the Kentucky lawmaker. It is unclear if this strategy will work.
 
Lobbying sources say legislation extending tax and unemployment benefits could be debated Monday.