"Hobo" is not a new term. It has not been used recently, however, until it was applied by a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives to America's unemployed workers.

Senator Bunning's solitary filibuster, the one that delayed unemployment benefits to all those "hobos" and their impoverished families, obscured a more important drama a few days before. A few Republicans, just enough to overcome another tiring filibuster, voted for a jobs bill.

Economists are warning that the danger of another downturn is not a thing of the past. This one could hurt. Here's why: The federal government shot billions of dollars into the economy to get folks working again. But at the same time, state government cut their spending way back. So the combined stimulus to the economy was zero.

Yup. Zero.

Here's the way a stimulus works. Recessions happen for number of reasons, the biggest of which is that money gets sucked out of circulation. The money doesn't just disappear. People and institutions hoard it.

This happens every once in a while in markets. Toilet paper shortages provoke a few laughs, but the principle is the same. Folks stock up because everyone else is stocking up and nobody wants to get caught on the tail end, so to speak. The Hunt brothers, fabulously wealthy, got even richer by manipulating the silver market a few decades back. They bought up a lot of silver without telling anyone, which started a run on the market. Then they quickly sold what they had. They made a huge profit before they caused the market to collapse.

The problem with the money shortage is that it is not just speculators who get hurt. During the Great Depression folks who had been working hard all their lives up until then were selling apples on street corners to get by. It could still happen again. Government has to step in. Putting cash into the market can, if done massively enough, pretty much end the run on money.

So Democrats put together a Republican bill. Tax cuts for the wealthy, incentives for mega-corporations, that sort of thing. Trickle down. It's not as effective as the measures Democrats wanted to take. But it was the only way to get Republican support. Most Republicans tried to keep it from coming to a vote anyway. But a handful defected, and that was enough.

A lobbyist who met with Republicans explained why they voted no to their own type of measures, voting against the country. "They are not opposed to the bill, they just believe their rights as the minority have been abridged."

Republican officials opposed boosting the economy and putting people to work because ... well ... their feelings were hurt.