Republican senator blocks bill as health insurance lapses, furloughs come

On Capitol Hill, Senator Jim Bunning continued to block the Senate from taking up a spending bill that would extend unemployment and COBRA insurance benefits, pay for transportation programs, provide loans to small businesses, and extend Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors, which expired Monday. The Kentucky Republican's one-man filibuster is having sweeping ramifications. An estimated 400,000 people will be affected by the loss of unemployment benefits over the first weeks of March. It's also forced the Department of Transportation to furlough nearly 2,000 employees without pay on Monday and suspend dozens of transportation and highway safety projects across the country. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Senator Bunning's demands that the measure be paid for are baseless.

“It's interesting that the person that's caused all the trouble for the Republicans is out there lecturing the country on "pay-go," something he didn't vote for. He's lecturing the country on deficits. He wasn't too worried about that during the eight years of the Bush Administration when two wars were unpaid for, all these tax cuts to the tune of trillions of dollars.”

Bunning opposes the spending because it would add to the federal deficit. He wants the $10 billion bill to be paid for with stimulus funds.