03/11/10 - Aberdeen News: State deserves better, by Niel Ritchie
Published in Aberdeen News 03/11/2010
State deserves better
By Niel Ritchie
With South Dakota's unemployment rate ticking upward, now is not the time to pull the rug out from hard-hit families. But that's exactly what Sen. John Thune did last Tuesday.
Joining with 18 of his Republican colleagues, Thune voted against extending emergency unemployment and health-care assistance to Americans who have lost their jobs. Perhaps it was an easy vote for someone who's guaranteed a job to the end of the year with taxpayer-sponsored health care - but the federal dollars he voted against put food on the table and keep a roof overhead of workers not so blessed.
And it's not as if South Dakotans were on Easy Street to begin with.
Income in the state is about $10,000 less than the national median wage, the poverty rate ranks among the top 25 of all states and the ag sector is reeling. According to the USDA, net farm income dropped 20 percent from 2008 to 2009 - a particularly tough reality here in Brown County, home to the second-largest number of farms in the state.
Added to that is an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent, meaning that more than 21,000 South Dakotans are without work. And that number doubles when marginal workers and those who have given up searching are added in.
Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning relented in allowing a vote to extend benefits in large part because of pressure from his own party. Among that small minority who stood with him nonetheless was Sen. John Thune, who has a history of putting conservative ideology above South Dakota workers and their families.
His record is clear:
In 2005, he voted against repealing tax subsidies for companies that move U.S. jobs offshore.
That same year, he fought against raising the minimum wage to $7.25.
Three years later, he voted against increasing the tax rate for people earning more than $1 million.
South Dakotans deserve better than that from John Thune.
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