Jim Bunning (R-KY) Blockade Leads To 21% Fee Cut For Doctors

I'm trying to understand all the hoo-ha about Bunning Blockade Leads To 21 Percent Fee Cut For Doctors "Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) is already infamous for blocking a temporary extension of unemployment and COBRA benefits for out of work Americans. But included in that package is legislation to prevent a mandatory pay cut for doctors--and by standing in it's way, he's triggered a 21 percent fee reduction to doctors seeing Medicare patients starting today."

And this video, Jim Bunning Offers Middle Finger to Reporter, is making the rounds.

But it's harder to find out what his issue is. As best as I can find, he wants the $10 billion bill paid for and not just add another $10 billion to the deficit. And given that the Senate just passed PAYGO rules, that makes some sense to me.

I did find this: ""Just a brief explanation of why we are where we're at with this extension bill, the brief extension of 30 days," said Bunning, who is not running for reelection and apparently not acting with the blessing of GOP leadership. "There was an agreement between the majority leader of the Finance Committee and the minority leader in the Finance Committee, Sens. Baucus and Grassley, on a three-month extension of these very same provisions. There were more provisions in the bill also. It cost a little more than the the $10 billion that is asked for because it was a three-month extension. Senator Reid pulled that bill from the floor of the U.S. Senate. He did it. The leader of the Democrats pulled that bill from the floor. I support extending unemployment benefits, COBRA benefits, flood insurance, highway bill fix, doc fix, small business loans, distant network television for satellite viewers. 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.""

And what seems to be happening is that this $10 billion is just a temporary measure and a permanent $100 billion fix is in the works. Reid is going to go straight for that and due to some procedural rules, Bunning can't block that bill. The procedural rules in the Senate are mystifying.