The National Flood Insurance Program expired at midnight Sunday after Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky blocked the bill that would have temporarily extended some government programs – including the insurance coverage.

Bunning balked when Democratic senators asked for unanimous consent for a vote on a monthlong extension six times last week and at least twice Monday. Bunning, who is not seeking re-election, said Friday that he supported the temporary extensions, “but if we can’t find $10 billion to pay for something that we all support, we will never pay for anything on the floor of this U.S. Senate.”

Senate Democrats can continue to ask for unanimous extension of these benefits, or pursue a larger $145 billion bill that would extend most of the programs until the end of the year. This, however, opens the door for amendments, and passing the legislation would take longer, officials said.

Eventual reauthorization of the flood insurance program will most likely be granted retroactively, and insurers can issue policies effective as of the date they received payments, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which manages the program, said in a bulletin this weekend.

FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program is the only place Americans can buy flood insurance. Wonder why that is?

Anyway… hope there’s no flooding while the big boys are fighting out the particulars in D.C.

Bunning’s been busy… and his office is receiving bomb threats.

Sometimes it has to be explained to me…

On February 13th in his Weekly Address Barack Obama congratulated Congress for restoring a requirement that the federal government spend only what it can afford by passing the Pay-Go legislation. Obama also lectured America on politicians who “talk the talk but won’t walk the walk” on fiscal responsibility.

This was the day after Obama and democrats authorized $1.9 trillion more federal debt.

Now, two weeks later the Democratic Congress wants to extend unemployment benefits and has no way to pay for it. Because of this, Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) is blocking the legislation. Senator Bunning’s mistake is that he believed the president and democrats when they signed the Pay-Go legislation two weeks ago. Yesterday, he told the senate, “If we can’t find $10 billion to pay for something that we all support, we will never pay for anything on the floor of the U.S. Senate.”

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