The Republican party must be addicted to bad publicity. After starting two unnecessary wars and creating the financial regulatory environment that has bankrupted the nation, the GOP has now done one of the most evil, stupid things in American history by killing H.R. 4213, the jobs and unemployment extension bill.

Somewhere between 400,000 and 900,000 people will now exhaust their benefits every month for the rest of this year. Millions will lack the means to pay their bills. Millions will be thrown into desperation.

But it gets worse -- the unemployment extension was only one part of the bill. Job retention through state aid was a big part of it. Many states, including New York, were counting on the money. In New York alone, thousands of good state jobs are now at risk. Across the country, tens of thousands will become unemployed.

So why did the Republicans do something so heartless and dumb? Apparently they are trying to brand themselves as deficit hawks, even though the balanced budget Clinton handed Bush and his Republican congress turned into five trillion dollars of deficit spending. To put that in perspective, this bill would have added roughly $30 billion -- two weeks of defense spending -- to the deficit. This cost of this bill is less than one percent of the cost of the Bush deficits.

Here is another consideration: What is the cost of not passing this bill? What is the social cost of millions of totally desperate people? How much crime will this cause? How much tourism will be lost from foreigners who will be afraid to visit? The cost of not passing this bill will far exceed the $30 billion cost of the bill. Mark my words and watch as the social situation devolves into something very scary over the next several months.

May voters remember this in November and for many Novembers to come. The GOP deserves to be tossed in the trash once and for all.

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