Voters Support Unemployment Extension Nationwide

Republicans Beware: Voters Support Unemployment Extension Nation-Wide

November 16, 2010

All247News - The unemployment benefits that some 10% of American families are depending on are set to expire on November 28th unless Congress passes an unemployment extension before then. While there have been lapses in the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) before — most famously in July, when a Republican filibuster delayed the extension across one of the Senate’s many breaks — this one is more threatening than any before. Wintertime looms, and so does the beginning of the 112th Congress, featuring a GOP-controlled House and a firmly-split Senate — which, given the Elephants’ attitude of late, may spell doom for any unemployment extension bills at all.

The justification is something we’ve all heard — the GOP doesn’t want an unemployment extension to go ‘unfunded’ (i.e. to be paid for by increasing the national debt rather than cutting spending elsewhere, or raising taxes). Of course, they also don’t want it to be funded by raising taxes, because Obama will oppose any tax hikes on anyone except the rich — and we all know how much the Republicans love taxing the rich.

If the Senate and House don’t get their act together and extend the unemployment benefits before the end of the week, people’s benefits will lapse and a mess of expensive paperwork will surround their resumption of benefits if it is passed. That’s because Congress is taking another vacation at the end of the week, and they don’t get back until the 29th of November.

According to Michael Tanner, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, Congress may have little will to tackle the issue.

“There may also be a certain amount of unemployment benefit fatigue — that we have had this debate for so long, we have had extensions of the benefits before — and I think there becomes some point at which lawmakers begin to say ‘when is enough enough?’,” Tanner says.

Politicians would do well to be sensitive to the People on this issue, however. According to a major, country-wide poll performed by Hart Research Associates, the American People — even those who typically vote Republican — aren’t interested in the GOP’s games anymore. From the poll summary (emphasis mine):

Voters reject the idea that it is time to cut back support for the unemployed due to the country’s deficit problems. Seventy-three percent (73%) of voters say that with the unemployment rate at 9.6% and millions still out of work, it is too early to cut back benefits to those who have lost their job. Only 24% believe that a trillion-dollar deficit is a reason to start cutting back unemployment
benefits. In addition, by more than four to one, those who feel strongly that it is too early to cut back (47%) outnumber those who feel strongly that we do need to start cutting back (11%).

Democrats and Independents overwhelmingly support the idea that it is too early to cut benefits (83% and 80%, respectively), while a majority of Republicans agree (55%). In addition, 57% of Republican voters in the 2010 midterm elections reject the idea it is time to cut benefits.

…Voters not only believe that it is too early to cut benefits, but they have a specific idea of how long the benefits should go on: until the unemployment rate improves significantly. Two-thirds (67%) of voters say they want the government to provide benefits until the unemployment rate comes down substantially, while only 27% say we should not continue to provide benefits.

An overwhelming proportion of Democrats (82%) and Independents (70%), and a plurality of Republicans (49%) want to see a decline in the unemployment rate before changing benefits. A majority (54%) of midterm Republican voters agree.

Experts across the board also agree that the Republican legislators’ demands for a paid-up unemployment extension are sending a mixed message to the country.

“An offset is either a tax increase or a spending cut somewhere else in the budget that takes purchasing power out of the economy at the same time that the unemployment insurance benefits are putting purchasing power into the economy,” says Chad Stone of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “And so you’re on the one hand stepping on the accelerator to try to get the economy moving and on the other hand you’re stepping on the brake to try and stop it.”

It’s hard to believe that the Republicans in office would fail to get such a clear message from their constituents. When more than half of the conservative voter base wants the unemployment extension to be passed without any games or conditions, it’s time to end this detrimental ‘audacity of nope’ and do what everyone except the Republican leadership can plainly see is right.

Jobless Benefits Extension Fails in House

November 19, 2010

Reuters - Millions of jobless Americans could see unemployment benefits run out in coming weeks after an effort to extend them failed in the House of Representatives on Thursday.

House Democratic leaders said they would take up the measure again but Congress has little time before the benefits expire on November 30. Lawmakers are expected to leave Washington next week for the Thanksgiving holiday and the Senate has not scheduled a vote.

The jobless rate has been stuck around 9.6 percent as the United States struggles to emerge from the financial crisis and its worst recession since the 1930s. Economists expect unemployment to remain high for years to come.

Congress has let jobless benefits lapse twice already this year as Republicans insist the cost -- $160 billion in the last fiscal year -- be offset by cuts elsewhere to prevent the nation's $14 trillion debt from growing further.

"We all want to help those in need. But the American people know that someone has to pay when the government spends money and it shouldn't be our children and grandchildren," said Republican Representative Charles Boustany.

But Democrats say Republicans showed no similar concerns when approving spending for two wars and when pushing to extend tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, which would add an estimated $700 billion to the deficit over 10 years.

If the measure is not renewed, some 2 million people by the end of the year will stop getting weekly checks they receive as they look for work, says the National Employment Law Project, which advocates for workers' rights.

ANOTHER VOTE IN LATE NOVEMBER?

By a vote of 258 to 154, the proposal to extend benefits through February fell short of the two-thirds margin needed to pass the House under special rules allowing an expedited vote.

Some 21 Republicans joined 237 Democrats to vote for the measure, while 11 Democrats and 143 Republicans voted against.

Under normal rules, the measure needs only a simple majority to pass. Democratic leaders in the House said they would schedule another vote for the week of November 29.

Jobless benefits usually expire after six months but, since the recession took hold in 2007, Congress has voted to extend them for up to 99 weeks.

Nearly half of the 15 million unemployed people in the United States have been out of work for more than six months, the highest level of long-term unemployment since the government began keeping track in the 1940s.

A report in April by the San Francisco Federal Reserve concluded that the long-term benefits boosted the unemployment rate by 0.4 percentage points as some of the jobless were less likely to look for work.

But economists generally think unemployment benefits get a good bang for the buck because people who are out of work and struggling are likely to spend the money quickly, putting it into the economy and stimulating growth.