By Joseph Picard: Subscribe to Joseph's RSS feed
July 2, 2010 4:54 PM EDT
Preston Alexander has lost his faith in the American political system.
The final blow fell this week, when the United States Senate left town for July 4 recess without passing an extension to unemployment insurance.
Because of that inaction, 1.2 million unemployed Americans stopped receiving monetary benefits on July 1. Preston Alexander was one of them.
"I'm shocked and disgusted with Washington," said Alexander, a 55-year-old resident of Fall River, Massachusetts. "If I were a Senator I'd never leave town without taking care of the people I supposedly represent. And on Independence Day, for heaven's sake! I blame Obama, too. He had the power to keep the legislators there until they passed an extension. But he did nothing."
On June 30, Senate Democrats failed to achieve a three/fifths majority in a motion to limit debate on the bill that would extend certain tax credits and unemployment insurance.
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Passage of the cloture bill would have meant that Republicans would not filibuster the vote on the bill itself, which also needs a three/fifths majority, or 60 votes, to pass.
The House has already passed its version of the extender bill. President Obama has promised to sign the extension if the Senate okays it. Obama has blamed the Republicans for blocking the vote.
The Republicans say they are for not increasing the national debt.
The death on June 28 of Senator Robert Byrd, DE-WV, has apparently left the Democrats one vote short. Two Republicans, Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both from Maine, voted with the Democrats, but Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska voted with the Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, said that, when the lawmakers return to work in the second week of July, there will probably be a replacement for Sen. Byrd and the majority party will have its 60 votes and pass the measure.
The political wrangling is cold comfort for Alexander.
"The politicians do not seem to understand how bad it is out here," he said.
Alexander was a software engineer employed by a financial trading house, until he was laid off in November of 2008.
"What I was doing was outsourced to India," he said.
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