One Senator is Blocking a Bill to Support Peace Efforts in Northern Uganda

[babylonsister]

One Senator is Blocking a Bill to Support Peace Efforts in Northern Uganda

Mark Leon Goldberg - March 3, 2010 - 11:02 am


Courtesy of Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, millions of Americans have seen how a single United States senator can use procedural chicanery to prevent important legislation from moving forward. By withholding his "consent" from a resolution extending unemployment benefits to out of work Americans last week, Bunning prevented social security checks from reaching many thousands of people in need.

That fracas seems to have thankfully ended, but it does help shed light on another pitched battle between one senator and 99 others that is receiving considerably less attention.

The senator in question is Dr. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma who has placed a similar hold on the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act which authorizes $40 million to post-conflict recovery efforts in Northern Uganda and directs President Obama to come up with a peace and recovery plan for war-ravaged Northern Uganda. Though the bill does not actually appropriate any money (that can only happen through the budget process) Coburn objects, in principle, to new funding unless it is offset elsewhere in the budget. Coburn, therefore, has placed a hold on the bill.

When Bunning used a similar method to block unemployment benefits from reaching thousands of workers on furlough, there was a huge outcry from Republicans, Democrats, and the public at large. Americans could easily identify with people in a tight financial spot that Bunning threatened to squeeze even further. They are our friends and neighbors who, through no fault of their own, are out of work and need a small amount of government support to get by. We can relate, in other words, to the victims of Bunning's actions.

You don't see the same public outcry about Coburn's actions. Why? I fear because it's much harder for us to identify with the victims of the brutal Lord's Resistance Army's 20 year campaign in Northern Uganda. It's easier to ignore people like this:



And this:



And this:



more...

http://www.undispatch.com/node/9632

[IcyPeas]

1. No money to be made with Peace..... War is so much more profitable.