Main Street

Give them a mile and they’ll take 10 miles

On the one hand, it’s mind-boggling that anyone would seriously propose this with unemployment levels like we have in this country:

A bill voted out of the House Ways and Means Committee today would allow states to transfer federal UI funds away from helping the long-term jobless and use them instead for other purposes, including tax breaks for corporations. The bill, ironically dubbed the JOBS Act by its sponsors, Representative Dave Camp of Michigan and Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, is the worst of all worlds: It would cause job loss; sets the stage to strip away insurance benefits that the long-term unemployed need, earned, and are counting on; rewards states for their failure to adopt responsible UI financing policies; and gives companies yet another tax break at the expense of workers.

On the other hand, as NELP points out, this is being proposed “less than five months after federal unemployment insurance (UI) for the long-term jobless was renewed through the end of 2011 as part of a deal to extend tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans for two years.” When you put it in that context, it almost shouldn’t be surprising that the people who extract tens of billions of dollars in tax cuts for millionaires in exchange for a pittance to jobless workers would turn around and start trying to transfer unemployment insurance from the people who need it to corporations.

But it certainly puts in perspective why compromises like that initial UI extension for tax breaks to the wealth one are dangerous—because, at least in today’s political climate, many anti-worker politicians are just going to keep going. We’re way past the “give them an inch and they’ll take a mile” scenario. They’ve taken a mile, maybe two. And in many cases, Democratic politicians have gone along with it, whether through agreement, lack of willpower, or just plain not seeing an alternative in the face of a nihilist, extremist Republican party. And every time Republicans get their mile or two, they come back asking for twice that. No, not asking. Demanding.

So how does this new bill work, and what’s the justification?

More than four million workers currently receive federal unemployment benefits through either the Emergency Unemployment Compensation or Extended Benefits programs, which Congress earlier renewed through 2011. The NO JOBS Act would allow states to take the $31 billion allocated for these programs and spend those dollars on reducing federal and state unemployment taxes for businesses. It also would allow states to reduce the number of weeks of federally funded benefits, reduce the amounts paid, or eliminate them entirely. One provision would allow a state to take the federal benefit funds and use them to finance its depleted unemployment trust fund rather than collect employer taxes, or use them to pay regular state benefits instead.

State UI trust funds face undeniable challenges, but in large measure, they are insolvent because state legislatures have given in to business pressure to cut unemployment insurance taxes even during periods of economic boom, rather than making sure their trust funds were ready for the inevitable rainy days.

Exactly. It takes the earlier destruction wrought by anti-worker policies and turns it into an excuse to hurt working people still further.

Tags: unemployment