Legislation extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless faces a key test vote in the Senate, its momentum helped by about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of last year.
The measure also prevents doctors from absorbing a crippling cut in Medicare payments, extends health insurance subsidies for the unemployed and gives cash-starved states help with Medicaid, the federal-state program providing health care to the poor and disabled.
The unemployment insurance alone — to provide weekly unemployment checks averaging above $300 to people whose core 26-week benefit package has run out — will cost $66 billion through December. In some states people are eligible to receive benefits for up to 99 weeks.
The bill, and the test vote Tuesday, demonstrate the difficulty Democrats face as they focus on jobs. It doesn't include new ideas for boosting jobs, but instead reprises elements of last year's $862 billion economic stimulus bill, which is earning mixed reviews from voters. Simply extending those provisions has produced a far more expensive measure than a separate so-called jobs bill that Democrats hope to soon send to President Barack Obama. That measure would boost highway spending and give tax breaks to companies that hire the unemployed and could clear the Senate for Obama's desk this week.
At a gross cost of about $148 billion, Tuesday's measure illustrates the extraordinary cost of the unemployment safety net as the economy inches out of the recession. Democrats say the unemployment benefits inject demand into the economy and say renewing the tax cuts helps preserve existing jobs.
The measure closes $29 billion of tax loopholes to help defray its cost, including one enjoyed by paper companies that get a credit from burning "black liquor," a pulp-making byproduct, as if it were an alternative fuel.
All told, the measure would add $107 billion to the deficit over the coming decade. Democrats have labeled most of the bill an emergency measure, exempting it from stricter budget rules enacted just last month.
Democrats need to muster at least one Republican vote Tuesday to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to limit debate and guarantee an up-or-down vote. But Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, provided crucial help last week to keep the measure out of another procedural tangle, and Democrats sound confident they will prevail.
The bill includes about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of 2009. The bill would extend the tax breaks through 2010, at a cost of about $26 billion.
Congress routinely extends the tax breaks each year with large bipartisan majorities. Businesses and tax planners would prefer a more permanent solution, but lawmakers can't agree on how to pay for a longer extension.
The tax breaks include a property tax deduction for people who don't itemize, lucrative credits that help businesses finance research and development and a sales tax deduction that mainly helps people in the nine states without income taxes: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and Wyoming.
There is a deduction for college tuition for couples making less than $160,000 a year, and one for teachers who use their own money to buy school supplies. There is a tax credit for community development agencies that invest in low-income neighborhoods, as well as a tax break for restaurant owners and retailers who remodel their stores.
#healthcare, health care reform, #hcr, #m9, #p2
Source
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Sunday, March 07, 2010
Contact Your Representative
NELP and other organizations are useful allies to the unemployed. They often provide links to quickly contact your Congressperson. In email correspondence, they generally provide a very well scripted automated message to your representatives in Washington. This is a great service they provide and US Unemployed Blogsite strongly encourages each and every individual to use these resources.
However, we also realize how important it is that members of Congress hear exactly what we have to say. It is important to continuously remind them and their staff that the unemployed and those who advocate for them seek their attention. Partisan bickering in Washington between multi millionaires at the expense of the unemployed worker in Ohio who can barely meet his mortgage and provide food for his family must stop.
This is not a Republican or Democrat issue. This is an issue of morals and decency to show compassion to those hit hardest in this recession and provide as they seek work each and every day.
This is the section in the Constitution which states
On the eve before Congress reconvenes and has their Tuesday session. Please take a moment to write your representative(s). Let him or her know how important this extension is to you. Ask them to set aside political titles and think about the millions of Americans who have became unemployed due to no fault of their own.
Please share this post. Please contact your representative. Now included on this blog is a widget that will locate the contact information for your United States Senators and allow you to send them an email with your personal story.
However, we also realize how important it is that members of Congress hear exactly what we have to say. It is important to continuously remind them and their staff that the unemployed and those who advocate for them seek their attention. Partisan bickering in Washington between multi millionaires at the expense of the unemployed worker in Ohio who can barely meet his mortgage and provide food for his family must stop.
This is not a Republican or Democrat issue. This is an issue of morals and decency to show compassion to those hit hardest in this recession and provide as they seek work each and every day.
This is the section in the Constitution which states
"...We shall promote the general welfare."
On the eve before Congress reconvenes and has their Tuesday session. Please take a moment to write your representative(s). Let him or her know how important this extension is to you. Ask them to set aside political titles and think about the millions of Americans who have became unemployed due to no fault of their own.
Please share this post. Please contact your representative. Now included on this blog is a widget that will locate the contact information for your United States Senators and allow you to send them an email with your personal story.
Friday, March 05, 2010
McConnell: Unemployment Benefits Extension Likely To Pass
Source
Kentucky's senior Senator said another extension of unemployment insurance benefits will likely be passed by the U.S. Congress next week.
WLKY's Andy Alcock had a chance to ask Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell some questions.
McConnell is in Louisville this weekend. The University of Louisville alumnus will be at the Cardinals' final Freedom Hall basketball game Saturday.
For several days, Kentucky's junior Senator, Jim Bunning, one of McConnell's fellow Republicans, kept a measure extending unemployment insurance benefits for March for hundreds of thousands of Americans from coming to the floor for a vote. He expressed concerns about the federal deficit. The move drew national attention.
The move drew national attention.
"I'm embarrassed that a senator from Kentucky has put us as a government in that position," Kentucky Rep. John Yarmuth, a Democrat, said on Monday.
"That's behind us and we're looking forward," McConnell said.
Tuesday, Bunning stopped his blockade of the unemployment extension.
When the measure came to a vote on the Senate floor, he voted no. McConnell also voted no.
"Well, I thought he had a point. We ought to pay for it," McConnell said.
"We know we face longterm deficit situations, but we also know that there's a balance to be struck. When you have people hurting, someone's going to have to help feed their families," Yarmuth said.
The Senate is working on another, longer extension of unemployment insurance benefits.
"We're dealing with a bill now, a much larger bill, that I hope will also ultimately be paid for," McConnell said.
Last week, McConnell also took part in a health care summit with President Barack Obama.
As part of the summit, the president promised to include some Republican ideas in the bill being considered in the House.
"That isn't going to get our members on board. We think this bill needs to be put on the shelf and we need to start over and go step by step to work on the cost issue," McConnell said.
McConnell also accused the Democrats of arrogance for trying to push through a bill he said the American people don't want.
"The only history that will be made if they vote for it is their own history, they'll be history," McConnell said.
Yarmuth said on Monday he expects House Democrats will approve the health care bill with a rarely used tactic called reconciliation.
McConnell pointed out Democrats used that same tactic in 1993 and lost control of the Congress in 1994. He noted Republicans did it in 2005 and also lost control of Congress in the next year's election.
Kentucky's senior Senator said another extension of unemployment insurance benefits will likely be passed by the U.S. Congress next week.
WLKY's Andy Alcock had a chance to ask Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell some questions.
McConnell is in Louisville this weekend. The University of Louisville alumnus will be at the Cardinals' final Freedom Hall basketball game Saturday.
For several days, Kentucky's junior Senator, Jim Bunning, one of McConnell's fellow Republicans, kept a measure extending unemployment insurance benefits for March for hundreds of thousands of Americans from coming to the floor for a vote. He expressed concerns about the federal deficit. The move drew national attention.
The move drew national attention.
"I'm embarrassed that a senator from Kentucky has put us as a government in that position," Kentucky Rep. John Yarmuth, a Democrat, said on Monday.
"That's behind us and we're looking forward," McConnell said.
Tuesday, Bunning stopped his blockade of the unemployment extension.
When the measure came to a vote on the Senate floor, he voted no. McConnell also voted no.
"Well, I thought he had a point. We ought to pay for it," McConnell said.
"We know we face longterm deficit situations, but we also know that there's a balance to be struck. When you have people hurting, someone's going to have to help feed their families," Yarmuth said.
The Senate is working on another, longer extension of unemployment insurance benefits.
"We're dealing with a bill now, a much larger bill, that I hope will also ultimately be paid for," McConnell said.
Last week, McConnell also took part in a health care summit with President Barack Obama.
As part of the summit, the president promised to include some Republican ideas in the bill being considered in the House.
"That isn't going to get our members on board. We think this bill needs to be put on the shelf and we need to start over and go step by step to work on the cost issue," McConnell said.
McConnell also accused the Democrats of arrogance for trying to push through a bill he said the American people don't want.
"The only history that will be made if they vote for it is their own history, they'll be history," McConnell said.
Yarmuth said on Monday he expects House Democrats will approve the health care bill with a rarely used tactic called reconciliation.
McConnell pointed out Democrats used that same tactic in 1993 and lost control of the Congress in 1994. He noted Republicans did it in 2005 and also lost control of Congress in the next year's election.
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
19 Republicans To Unemployed - "Drop Dead"
EUC = Emergency Unemployment Compensation
We begin this story speaking about the 19 Republicans in the Senate who oppose assistance to the jobless. These Senators knowingly and willfully participated in delay tactics, obstruction, and denying assistance to the unemployed in a nation with a battered economy with millions of Americans desperate for assistance.
There is a reason the funds are called "Emergency Unemployment Compensation".
Would these same Senators deny funding if the country were under attack by terrorist(s)? Would they deny funding if an area was declared a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005? In their defense, they claim that this legislation is not covered under PAYGO.
This is where the hypocrisy begins. None of these Senators voted in favor of PAYGO. None of them. Why are they so persistent in a time of economic emergency to enforce PAYGO if they did not vote for that Senate rule?
Simple, partisan politics. They want the advantage in coming elections to tell the people they opposed government spending. However, their timing on their opposition is calculated and is conflicting.
Persons who receive unemployment compensation under any circumstance receive that assistance because they were laid off from their job due to no fault of their own. The funds they receive are taxable. Even the unemployed pay taxes if they are receiving this lifeline.
The irony - nearly all of the states which these Senators represent have double-digit unemployment numbers. If the unemployed in their states do not need these emergency funds - perhaps these Senators should tell the people why Wall Street and large banks needed a bailout.
These Senators will claim our deficit is too high yet they handed the current Administration an $11 Trillion debt. They will claim that unemployment funds are low and the states are cash-strapped and this is true. However, states were cash strapped all throughout the Great Recession. They will claim that small business cannot sustain the tax burdens; however, look at the business in their states.
Over 95% of the business which provided employment to their states are large-scale, multi-billion dollar industries which are more than capable of paying $100 per employee per year.
The bottom line is their objections are contradictory on all counts. Even if their objections are sincere - why do this to the unemployed? Of all of the legislation in Congress they want to delay or deny - objecting to emergency funds for the people who need the money the most is not only inexcusable but it is morally wrong. These Senators are penalizing the victims in this recession rather than the culprits. That fact should not rest well with the average American.
Each day, these Senators prove to be more in the interest of big money corporations and less and less in the interests of the people. These Senators represent the states with the highest levels of poverty, lowest levels of education, and highest levels of unemployment. This is something for their constituents to think about when they are up for re-election. These senators are not acting in the interests of their state(s) nor the country.
Here are the Senators who voted "Nay". They would be ashamed of themselves if they did not have to admit they were trying to get short-term political gain at the expense of Americans hit hardest by this recession.
Here are the names of those who essentially told the unemployed to drop dead.
Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Coburn (R-OK)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Johanns (R-NE)
McConnell (R-KY)
Risch (R-ID)
Sessions (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Voting NO on each and every issue is not leadership. These senators were elected by their constituents to lead. Americans need to memorize these names. These senators all proved on Tuesday they would prefer to side with big business.
Actions do speak louder than words. Their actions yell (in Mr. Bunning's words), "TOUGH SH__" to the unemployed.
We begin this story speaking about the 19 Republicans in the Senate who oppose assistance to the jobless. These Senators knowingly and willfully participated in delay tactics, obstruction, and denying assistance to the unemployed in a nation with a battered economy with millions of Americans desperate for assistance.
There is a reason the funds are called "Emergency Unemployment Compensation".
Would these same Senators deny funding if the country were under attack by terrorist(s)? Would they deny funding if an area was declared a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005? In their defense, they claim that this legislation is not covered under PAYGO.
This is where the hypocrisy begins. None of these Senators voted in favor of PAYGO. None of them. Why are they so persistent in a time of economic emergency to enforce PAYGO if they did not vote for that Senate rule?
Simple, partisan politics. They want the advantage in coming elections to tell the people they opposed government spending. However, their timing on their opposition is calculated and is conflicting.
Persons who receive unemployment compensation under any circumstance receive that assistance because they were laid off from their job due to no fault of their own. The funds they receive are taxable. Even the unemployed pay taxes if they are receiving this lifeline.
The irony - nearly all of the states which these Senators represent have double-digit unemployment numbers. If the unemployed in their states do not need these emergency funds - perhaps these Senators should tell the people why Wall Street and large banks needed a bailout.
These Senators will claim our deficit is too high yet they handed the current Administration an $11 Trillion debt. They will claim that unemployment funds are low and the states are cash-strapped and this is true. However, states were cash strapped all throughout the Great Recession. They will claim that small business cannot sustain the tax burdens; however, look at the business in their states.
Over 95% of the business which provided employment to their states are large-scale, multi-billion dollar industries which are more than capable of paying $100 per employee per year.
The bottom line is their objections are contradictory on all counts. Even if their objections are sincere - why do this to the unemployed? Of all of the legislation in Congress they want to delay or deny - objecting to emergency funds for the people who need the money the most is not only inexcusable but it is morally wrong. These Senators are penalizing the victims in this recession rather than the culprits. That fact should not rest well with the average American.
Each day, these Senators prove to be more in the interest of big money corporations and less and less in the interests of the people. These Senators represent the states with the highest levels of poverty, lowest levels of education, and highest levels of unemployment. This is something for their constituents to think about when they are up for re-election. These senators are not acting in the interests of their state(s) nor the country.
Here are the Senators who voted "Nay". They would be ashamed of themselves if they did not have to admit they were trying to get short-term political gain at the expense of Americans hit hardest by this recession.
Here are the names of those who essentially told the unemployed to drop dead.
Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Coburn (R-OK)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Johanns (R-NE)
McConnell (R-KY)
Risch (R-ID)
Sessions (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Voting NO on each and every issue is not leadership. These senators were elected by their constituents to lead. Americans need to memorize these names. These senators all proved on Tuesday they would prefer to side with big business.
Actions do speak louder than words. Their actions yell (in Mr. Bunning's words), "TOUGH SH__" to the unemployed.
Congress Passes Legislation To Assist Jobless, Despite Some Republican Opposition
The U.S. Senate passed and sent to President Barack Obama a bill to reinstate unemployment benefits for thousands after Republican Senator Jim Bunning ended his effort to block the measure because it added to the deficit.
The chamber voted 78 to 19 last night to approve the bill, which the House passed last week. All 19 Senate votes against the measure were cast by Republicans.
The bill will become law with Obama’s signature.
It would extend benefits for the jobless one month, including subsidies to help the unemployed buy health insurance, as well as postpone cuts in Medicare reimbursements in doctors. It would also release highway money, the delay of which forced the Transportation Department to furlough 2,000 employees.
The bill is designed to buy lawmakers time while they debate longer-term extensions of the programs.
Bunning relented in blocking the measure after coming under a drumbeat of criticism from Democrats as well as some Republicans who believed his efforts had become a political liability for their party.
Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said yesterday extension of the jobless benefits was “so important to senators on both sides of the aisle,” and that “numerous members of the Republican caucus” opposed Bunning’s stalling tactics.
“Today we have a clear-cut example to show the American people just what’s wrong with Washington, D.C.,” Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, said yesterday in pressing her party’s case against Bunning’s actions.
Obama ‘Grateful’
Obama, in a statement after last night’s vote, said he was “grateful to the members of the Senate on both sides of the aisle who worked to end this roadblock to relief for America’s working families.”
Bunning, who decided against seeking re-election this year, had been holding up a vote since Feb. 25 because the bill’s $10 billion cost would be added to the government’s $1.6 trillion deficit. Unemployment benefits for many expired Feb. 28 and the Labor Department said 400,000 could see aid cut within two weeks if Congress didn’t act. Bunning accused Democrats of ignoring their recently enacted anti-deficit budget rules known as pay-go.
“We must get our debt problem under control and there is no better time than now,” Bunning said on the Senate floor before last night’s vote. “That is why I have been down here demanding that this bill be paid for.”
Bunning agreed to allow the vote so long as he was promised separate consideration of his amendment to offset the cost of the legislation by closing a tax break for paper companies. His amendment was defeated on a procedural vote amid complaints by Democrats that its passage would force the House to again approve the legislation, which would further delay the extension of unemployment benefits and the other provisions.
Source
The chamber voted 78 to 19 last night to approve the bill, which the House passed last week. All 19 Senate votes against the measure were cast by Republicans.
The bill will become law with Obama’s signature.
It would extend benefits for the jobless one month, including subsidies to help the unemployed buy health insurance, as well as postpone cuts in Medicare reimbursements in doctors. It would also release highway money, the delay of which forced the Transportation Department to furlough 2,000 employees.
The bill is designed to buy lawmakers time while they debate longer-term extensions of the programs.
Bunning relented in blocking the measure after coming under a drumbeat of criticism from Democrats as well as some Republicans who believed his efforts had become a political liability for their party.
Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said yesterday extension of the jobless benefits was “so important to senators on both sides of the aisle,” and that “numerous members of the Republican caucus” opposed Bunning’s stalling tactics.
“Today we have a clear-cut example to show the American people just what’s wrong with Washington, D.C.,” Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, said yesterday in pressing her party’s case against Bunning’s actions.
Obama ‘Grateful’
Obama, in a statement after last night’s vote, said he was “grateful to the members of the Senate on both sides of the aisle who worked to end this roadblock to relief for America’s working families.”
Bunning, who decided against seeking re-election this year, had been holding up a vote since Feb. 25 because the bill’s $10 billion cost would be added to the government’s $1.6 trillion deficit. Unemployment benefits for many expired Feb. 28 and the Labor Department said 400,000 could see aid cut within two weeks if Congress didn’t act. Bunning accused Democrats of ignoring their recently enacted anti-deficit budget rules known as pay-go.
“We must get our debt problem under control and there is no better time than now,” Bunning said on the Senate floor before last night’s vote. “That is why I have been down here demanding that this bill be paid for.”
Bunning agreed to allow the vote so long as he was promised separate consideration of his amendment to offset the cost of the legislation by closing a tax break for paper companies. His amendment was defeated on a procedural vote amid complaints by Democrats that its passage would force the House to again approve the legislation, which would further delay the extension of unemployment benefits and the other provisions.
Source
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Bunning Tries To Explain Why He Chooses Unemployment Extensions To Hold Up And Then Rants On How He Now Supports PAYGO?
Official C-Span Video, Republican Sen Jim Bunning, Kentucky, on the Senate floor with a sudden flip-flop support of PAYGO and choosing the unemployed as his divine opportunity to protest government spending.
Do not watch this video unless you can stomach the hypocrisy of this Senator whose actions are holding up extensions. He speaks of a "revolution" in this video. Apparently there is a "revolution" under-way to deny assistance to the jobless.
Mr. Bunning, retire now.
Harry Reid sets the record straight toward the end of the video and tries again to muster unanimous consent to move forward. Sen Reid also lays out his plan to get this assistance to the jobless as soon as possible. The procedure of cloture, once again, will be necessary to move forward.
Do not watch this video unless you can stomach the hypocrisy of this Senator whose actions are holding up extensions. He speaks of a "revolution" in this video. Apparently there is a "revolution" under-way to deny assistance to the jobless.
Mr. Bunning, retire now.
Harry Reid sets the record straight toward the end of the video and tries again to muster unanimous consent to move forward. Sen Reid also lays out his plan to get this assistance to the jobless as soon as possible. The procedure of cloture, once again, will be necessary to move forward.
Monday, March 01, 2010
Sen. Jon Kyl Says Congress Will Pass Extended Jobless Benefits
Congress will pass legislation aimed at keeping certain jobless benefits, highway and transit money and other government programs funded, Sen. Jon Kyl, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, said Sunday.
But the approval was highly unlikely to come before this morning. Several programs were to expire at midnight Sunday, and Congress has failed to extend them because of an objection by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky. Bunning wants the $10 billion price offset by budget reductions.
The Senate is not expected to act until Tuesday at the earliest, which means as of this morning, certain extended jobless benefits will not be available. Neither will some highway or transit funds, small-business loans or help for newly laid-off workers for their insurance premiums.
Kyl, though, told Fox News Sunday flatly, "It will pass."
The Arizona senator also sympathized with Bunning. Recently, Congress adopted "pay as you go" rules requiring that, in many cases, new programs must be paid for. So why, Bunning asked, if these extensions are so popular, can't Congress find the money to fund them?
Democrats continued to express anger.
"Because of one senator's irresponsible actions, over 61,000 Michigan workers will begin losing their unemployment benefits on Monday," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
Most people already getting extra jobless benefits are unlikely to be affected. Those who will feel the impact could include people who have exhausted their 26 weeks of state benefits and qualify for more aid under federal guidelines.
Source Story
But the approval was highly unlikely to come before this morning. Several programs were to expire at midnight Sunday, and Congress has failed to extend them because of an objection by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky. Bunning wants the $10 billion price offset by budget reductions.
The Senate is not expected to act until Tuesday at the earliest, which means as of this morning, certain extended jobless benefits will not be available. Neither will some highway or transit funds, small-business loans or help for newly laid-off workers for their insurance premiums.
Kyl, though, told Fox News Sunday flatly, "It will pass."
The Arizona senator also sympathized with Bunning. Recently, Congress adopted "pay as you go" rules requiring that, in many cases, new programs must be paid for. So why, Bunning asked, if these extensions are so popular, can't Congress find the money to fund them?
Democrats continued to express anger.
"Because of one senator's irresponsible actions, over 61,000 Michigan workers will begin losing their unemployment benefits on Monday," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
Most people already getting extra jobless benefits are unlikely to be affected. Those who will feel the impact could include people who have exhausted their 26 weeks of state benefits and qualify for more aid under federal guidelines.
Source Story
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