We must extend unemployment benefits, now. A key procedural vote on a politically charged proposal to extend long-term unemployment insurance affecting some 1.3 million Americans was postponed Monday due to the absence of 17 Senators. Their absence was due to travel delays due to the inclement weather across the country.?The vote was reset for 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Unemployment Insurance is the first partisan showdown in Congress for 2014.
Most experts are in agreement that the vote is too close to call. There is much riding on this vote for a myriad of reasons, and many Americans will definitely be on pins and needles. Extending these ?unemployment benefits is a top priority of the Obama administration. Income inequality has become one of the paramount issues in the president’s second term, so this is a major benchmark moment for him, and for the country.?President Barack Obama says:
Congress should act to extend emergency unemployment insurance for more than one million Americans who have lost this vital economic lifeline while looking for a job. Letting emergency unemployment insurance expire not only harms American families, but it is also a drag on the overall economy.
In the president’s weekly address,?he?urges both parties to pass the bipartisan three-month extension under consideration in the Senate so that we can once again focus on expanding opportunities for the middle class and creating jobs for all hardworking Americans. On cue, the Republicans are willing to move on the issue but like we have become accustomed with conditions. This is not how these types of matters have been addressed ever before, and once again denotes the hostage taking tactics that have manifested since the hostile take over of the GOP ?by the radical Tea Party, Christian Right, and the Ron and Rand Pauls of the world.
Democrats see themselves in a win-win position on the test vote. They could build momentum for the bill if Republicans back it. They get a political weapon if Republicans don’t.
Now, that we are embracing a New Year with ?a very intense mid-term election with many very important and stand alone issues to vent, you can bet your bottom dollar that the powers that be on both sides are weighing their every move and in this case vote. Firstly, this is a bi-partisan adopted bill.?Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, a cosponsor of the bill, is the only Republican publicly supporting it. However, that seems where the bi-partisanship starts and ends. From?CNN:
All 55 members of the Democratic caucus are expected to support the unemployment extension measure, but it was unclear if enough Republicans would join them to get the 60 votes required for the procedural motion to pass.
Secondly, this would not even be at issue if the ” do nothing” 2013 House and Senate had not let the benefits expire back in November. Congress made the decision not to extend the 2008 recession measure which extended the benefits providing for almost a year of tax payer footed benefits that kicked in after the state benefit ran out. All of this goes to the far-right minded labeling of people on long-term unemployment as lazy freeloaders who were doing nothing but sponging off the tax payers.
Democrats insist the program is critical to help Americans who are struggling and maintain the economic recovery.
President Obama says:
Republicans in Congress went home for the holidays and let that lifeline expire. And for many of their constituents who are unemployed through no fault of their own, that decision will leave them with no income at all.
The Republican push-back is that extending the benefits would be to costly and?is a disincentive to looking for work.?The U.S. unemployment rate stood at 7 percent in November, the most recent Labor Department statistics show. That means more than 10 million people were out of work, a third of them without a job for at least 27 weeks.(Source:?CNN)
In conclusion, just who are the Republicans serving here? Poll after poll strongly suggest that a huge polarity of the American people favor extending the benefits. It seems to this writer, just another example of the Republican party being under the thumb of the deep pocket Koch Brothers and other big money players who fund these far-right think tank groups to threaten politicians with reprisals if they don’t march to the drummers drum. It seems that Tea Party types like Cruz, Paul and ?others who rely on their gerrymander district safe-havens can just obstruct the common good and will of the majority for the common good of their special interest donors and hate government, hate America, isolationists following.
Senator Sherrod Brown ?and Thom Hartman[Thom Hartman Show] share an interesting conversion on this topic. Watch below:
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Edited/Published by: SB
