Back last Spring it became increasingly apparent that one intention of the Republican-led obstruction of any and all measures designed to boost the economy and help working people was to thwart the recovery — and blame President Obama and Congressional Democrats.
Well, they’ve certainly thrown sand in the gears of any nascent recovery — one reason we’re still stuck with debilitating unemployment, a massive foreclosure debacle and a private sector that remains in a virtual hiring gridlock.
So, as we set out to our polling places to vote Nov. 2, it’s useful to recall just what’s been going on the past several months in particular, starting, of course, with the infamous obstruction of unemployment benefits last February by Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY). Those antics were repeated the following month by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), setting up another short-term emergency stop-gap measure that finally extended the unemployment programs through May.
That’s when the Senate Republican leadership joined the full-scale obstruction effort, putting the nation and the economy at a dangerous crossroads. Having successfully pressured a small number of House Democrats to join the effort to cut out core components of a job-creation and unemployment insurance extension measure, the Republicans set their sights on imposing sado-economic austerity.
In the process, they succeeded in stalling another unemployment extension — having already eliminated the federal COBRA health insurance subsidy and the extra $25 a week for the unemployed. This while preserving tax breaks for hedge fund managers and overseas investment schemes, as well as subsidies for their Big Oil buddies.
The result of that summer obstruction — a two-month battle just to pass another continuation of emergency unemployment benefits, something that, in the past, both parties had always done when unemployment was elevated — was a seven-week lapse in benefits for long-term unemployed workers. 2.5 million went without benefits during that lapse.
The economy suffered. Millions of working people, small businesses, unemployed workers and their families — all suffered. And the obstructionists laughed smugly amongst themselves, knowing that the continued economic hardship could be used for their own political gain.
Obstruct, delay, cut or defeat any attempts to improve the economic conditions of working families. That was — and is — their goal. For cynical political gain. As a result, they’ve torpedoed jobs, torpedoed the recovery for working people.
On my way to the polls, I’ll have one thing in mind: Damn the Torpedoers.
The devastating impact of Wall Street’s Great Recession was all too evident in the record surge in poverty reported recently by the Census Bureau for 2009.
The poverty rate increased from 13.2% to 14.3% between 2008 and 2009, representing an additional 3.7 million people living in poverty for a total of 43.6 million in poverty in 2009. The poverty rate for children was 20.7% in 2009, representing 15.5 million kids living in poverty. In 2009, over one-third (35.5%) of all people living in poverty were children.
The poverty rate for working-age people (18-64 years old) hit 12.9% in 2009, the highest rate in nearly 50 years.
The official poverty threshold is defined as an annual income of $21,954 for a family of four (that’s $422 per week), or $11,161 for an individual. But, as Gould reports, the poor are getting poorer.
While 14.3% of all Americans were living in poverty last year, a record 6.3% were in so-called deep poverty, earning less than half the official poverty threshold, or subsistence rate, according to the new data on poverty released last week by the Census Bureau.
This sizable share of the American population falling below half the poverty line is particularly notable given that even the official poverty threshold – an annual income of $21,954 for a family of four – is widely considered insufficient to pay for life’s most basic essentials like food and housing. To fall below half the poverty line, a family of four would have an annual income of less than about $11,000.
The U.S. Census Bureau announced yesterday that during 2009, 3.3 million people, including 1 million children, were kept out of poverty with income support provided through unemployment insurance (UI). (emphasis added)
In a related study, CBPP reports that a total of 6 million Americans were kept out of poverty by just seven of the provisions in the 2009 Recovery Act stimulus, including expanded unemployment insurance programs.
This analysis, which comes one day before the Census Bureau will release updated poverty figures (for 2008), examines seven of the recovery act’s provisions — two improvements in unemployment insurance, three tax credits for working families, an increase in food stamps, and a one-time payment for retirees, veterans, and people with disabilities — and finds that they alone are preventing more than 6 million Americans from falling below the poverty line and are reducing the severity of poverty for 33 million more. Those 6 million people include more than 2 million children and over 500,000 seniors.
Those numbers are conservative, says CBPP, and don’t include the impact of other Recovery Act programs such as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) emergency jobs programs, which employ 250,000 otherwise unemployed parents and youth. Those TANF programs are set to expire this week unless Congress acts to extend them.
Without the expanded state and federal unemployment insurance benefits, the number of Americans living in poverty in 2009 would have increased by 7 million — nearly twice the actual increase. And without other key provisions in the Recovery Act, that number would have been nearly 10 million. Yet, all of those programs are under assault, threatened by legislative expiration unless they are extended.
As the report from NELP concludes:
Given the important role of unemployment benefits in keeping working families out of poverty during the recession, it’s crucial that Congress keep the Recovery Act’s remaining measures in place. The current federal extensions are set to expire on November 30, 2010, ending income support for millions unless they are reauthorized. If we allow these programs to expire, millions will be subjected to preventable poverty—hardships that will have immediate and lasting impacts for families and children.
Yesterday’s bleak release, showing a rise in poverty over the course of the past year, is yet another piece of evidence pointing to the need for Congress to take action on expanded unemployment benefits as well as focused measures to create and grow jobs.
Congress has finally passed a bill to restore extended federal unemployment insurance to more than 2.7 million jobless workers, continue the program for millions more, and allow those unemployed for more than 26 weeks to file for the program through the end of November.
President Obama is scheduled to sign the unemployment extension later today.
The House passed the measure this afternoon, with the Senate having approved it last night by a vote of 59 to 39. Even after their two-month filibuster was finally overcome, Senate Republicans delayed a final vote for an additional 30 hours by refusing to give back any post-cloture time. The added delay caused another 60,000 long-term jobless workers to have their benefits cut off temporarily.
Now those benefits will begin to be paid out retroactive to June 1 when the Republican-led obstruction caused them to expire.
The victory on unemployment insurance comes just one day after President Obama signed a landmark Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which was passed by the Congress despite strenuous opposition from Wall Street’s lobbyists and conservative Republicans — the very folks whose disastrous policies caused the Great Recession and our debilitating high levels of unemployment.
The agonizing two-month struggle to pass an unemployment insurance extension exposed the Republicans as deficit frauds who want to block any measures to improve the economy and support a recovery. In their calculations, the more pain working families are in, the better the Republicans’ chances are politically.
That’s why renewed efforts are needed now to press the Congress to take up the critical measures that were put aside during the unemployment extension struggle. Congress needs to extend FMAP funds to help states pay for Medicaid and avoid mass layoffs; and it needs to provide critical state aid to help keep teachers in classrooms in the coming school year.
After an infuriating two-month struggle to overcome the obstruction of the Republican-led deficit frauds, the Senate finally voted 60 to 40 today to end the filibuster and allow a vote to restore the extended federal unemployment benefit programs through November.
Upon final passage, the measure will go back to the House, which is set to pass it Wednesday and send it to President Obama for his signature. Since Republicans first succeeded in blocking the jobless benefits extension prior to the Memorial Day weekend, the number of long-term unemployed workers who have had their benefits cut off has continued its inexorable rise.
The Senate’s newest (and youngest) member, Democrat Carte Goodwin of West Virginia, provided the 60th vote needed to end the Republican-led filibuster. Maine’s two Republican Senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, also voted to end the filibuster, as did every Democrat with the exception of Nebraska’s Ben Nelson.
The bill will allow states to pay the extended benefits to eligible jobless workers retroactive to when they expired on June 1. Those who had been receiving these benefits prior to that date will also be eligible to file for their next available Tier of benefits, and will be able to continue doing so if needed until the duration of benefits is exhausted. Those who had exhausted their regular 26-week state benefits from June 1 until now will be eligible to file for and receive the extended federal benefits available in their state.
The extension, however, does not create any additional Tiers of benefits beyond the existing EUC and EB programs for those who have already exhausted the up to 99 weeks of unemployment compensation.
And because this extension continues only through the end of November, it will not provide federal benefits to those who have or will become unemployed after June 1 of this year.
The bill is a stand-alone, six-month unemployment extension only. The number of other critically needed jobless aid, state aid and jobs provisions that were stripped from the original bill is staggering — evidence of the full-scale war being waged by the conservative minority to thwart any recovery that might benefit working people.
For example, the bill no longer contains the additional $25 per week that had been included previously in unemployment checks. The federal COBRA subsidy, which has helped millions of unemployed workers maintain affordable health insurance while they look for work, was also removed. An extension of additional FMAP funds to states to help support Medicaid programs, as well as funds for summer youth jobs and expanded infrastructure investments all were removed from the bill.
So, while the victory on unemployment benefits will restore urgently needed aid for millions of America’s record number of long-term jobless workers, it is also a testament to the persistence and fortitude of those families and individuals, and all the groups and organizations who have fought so hard, and mobilized petitions, emails, phone calls and letters to finally get this done.
More than that — it also has served to educate us as to the real objectives of our opponents, and the nature of the crucial policy and political challenges ahead.
The Senate is expected to vote Tuesday to extend federal unemployment insurance programs, finally overcoming a two-month Republican-led filibuster that has caused jobless benefits to be cut off to more than 2.6 million long-term unemployed workers.
The vote on the six-month unemployment extension is scheduled to occur shortly after the swearing in of West Virginia Democrat Carte Goodwin as the Senator named to temporarily replace Robert Byrd, who passed away last month. West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III announced his choice of Goodwin last Friday. When Goodwin is sworn in as the newest Senator, Democrats expect to finally have the 60th vote they have needed to break the Republican filibuster.
The extension of the federal jobless benefits for those unemployed six months or more has been blocked three times by Republicans in the Senate. Earlier versions of the bill were continuously pared down in an attempt to attract the 60 votes needed. Despite a clear majority of Senators favoring the bills, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska joined all but two Republicans in keeping the bills from being considered for floor votes.
Meanwhile the number of long-term unemployed cut off from receiving benefits has continued to soar.
As we reported two weeks ago, never before have extended benefits been cut off or allowed to expire when unemployment was so high. Never before has a Senate minority effectively cut those benefits off. And never before have they done so arguing that those benefits don’t qualify as emergency spending, and should not be passed if they add to the deficit.
The Republicans have been shown to be deficit frauds, of course, at the same time insisting that the Bush-era tax cuts to benefit the wealthiest Americans should be extended regardless of those tax cuts adding more than $600 billion to the deficit — more than 20 times as much as the cost of the unemployment benefits.
But right now, these benefits – benefits that are often a person’s sole source of income while they’re out of work – are in jeopardy. After years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit, the same people who didn’t have any problem spending hundreds of billions of dollars on tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are now saying we shouldn’t offer relief to middle class Americans like Jim, or Leslie, or Denise, who really do need help.
Over the past few weeks, a majority of Senators have tried – not once, not twice, but three times – to extend emergency relief on a temporary basis. And each time, a partisan minority in the Senate has used parliamentary maneuvers to block a vote, denying millions of people who are out of work much-needed relief. Republican leaders in the Senate are advancing a misguided notion that emergency relief somehow discourages people from looking for a job.
Well, I think that reflects a lack of faith in the American people.
The bill being considered extends eligibility for the existing federal unemployment programs only through November of this year, and does not include any new Tier for those who have exhausted up to 99 weeks of benefits.
More than 2 million long-term jobless workers have had their unemployment benefits cut off since the beginning of June, when Congress failed to pass an extension of the federal programs. Prior to the July 4th weekend, an extension of those unemployment insurance programs passed the House, but came up one vote short in the Senate.
Maine’s two Republican Senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, broke with the Republican filibuster and voted to allow the bill to come up for a simple majority floor vote. But Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson has been the lone Democrat to stubbornly back the Republican filibuster. And every other Republican Senator has continued to help block the unemployment extension.
With the passing of West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd, Senate Democrats and millions of Americans have been waiting for a temporary replacement to be named to take Senator Byrd’s seat. That person would be expected to provide the crucial 60th vote to overcome the filibuster.
Well, the wait for that one-more-vote will, reportedly, soon be over.
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) is now expected to name a replacement for late Sen. Robert Byrd (D) by 5 p.m. Friday.
NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell reports:
Aides say Manchin will call the Legislature into special session to consider the legislation starting noon Thursday, July 15. The governor is expected to make an appointment, to fill the senate seat temporarily, by 5 p.m. this Friday.
An aide to the governor says, “This bill would merely clarify the state code so that there is no question that we could have a special primary and special general election.”
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin will announce an interim replacement for the late Sen. Robert Byrd on Friday and will call the Legislature into a special session to clarify the state’s election law, his office announced today.
Manchin, a Democrat, did not say who he would name to replace Byrd, who died June 28. The timing of the appointment may be less critical for Senate Democrats, who are now prepared to move forward on a sweeping Wall Street regulation bill before Byrd’s seat is filled.
So, the Senate will likely take up the Wall Street reform bill this week, and wait for Byrd’s replacement before bringing the unemployment extension back to the floor next week. By then, thanks to the Republican-led filibuster, an estimated 2.5 million long-term jobless workers will have had their benefits cut off — while waiting for that one-more-vote.
That’s the subject line of the email I just opened that links to this new video with the voices of American working people and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska is the lone Senate Democrat who has voted with Republicans to block unemployment benefit extensions. You can reach Sen. Nelson’s Omaha office at 402-391-3411. And for a list of Republican Senators to contact, see our post from yesterday: Who You Gonna Call?
It has been 36 days since an obstructionist minority in Congress allowed federal unemployment benefit programs to expire.
During that time, an estimated 1.72 million long-term jobless workers have already had their unemployment benefits cut off, a number expected to exceed 2 million by the end of this week. Also during that time, Congress has taken two 10-day recesses and several long weekends off.
Prior to the current July 4th recess, the House passed a stand-alone unemployment extension, but the Senate came up one vote short of the 60 votes needed to overcome the minority’s obstruction.
In that last vote, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska was the only Democrat to join the 36 Republicans who voted “No”, thereby blocking a straight up-or-down majority vote on the bill. Maine’s two Republican Senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, voted “Yes” after the stand-alone unemployment extension was substituted for the original, larger bill. Still, the bill needed one more vote to achieve the 60 vote threshold.
Where is that one vote going to come from when the Senate reconvenes next week? And who are you going to call to help make that happen? We’ll offer some suggestions and local contact information. But first, let’s put the unemployment benefit extension in some historical perspective.
Never before has Congress cut off benefits when unemployment was so high. Since the 1950s, federal unemployment insurance extensions remained in place during recessionary periods until unemployment dropped to as low as 5.0 percent. The highest unemployment rate at which these extensions were allowed to expire was 7.2 percent, following the 1983 recession -
Not only were unemployment insurance extensions continued at much lower overall unemployment rates during these previous recessions, but they were maintained when long-term unemployment was far less severe than it is now. The number of unemployed workers who have been jobless for six months or more is at a record 6.8 million Americans, and the average length of unemployment in June set a new record at 35.2 weeks. It is the unemployment benefits for these long-term jobless workers that are being cut off now by the failure to extend these programs. An estimated 350,000 long-term unemployed workers are losing their benefits each week that the programs are not restored. This is devastating families and hurting businesses in local communities where beneficiaries would be spending these unemployment insurance payments.
The expiration of the federal programs has cut off benefits nationwide to those eligible for Tiers I through IV of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program. It has also cut off federally-funded Extended Benefits (EB) in 23 states that would otherwise have these extra 13 or 20 weeks of unemployment insurance available for long-term jobless workers. Only 11 states maintain permanent EB programs that do not depend on federal funding.
What’s worse is that the extended benefits program, although permanently in place in all states, will not continue to provide extensions for most recipients relying on unemployment insurance extensions to feed themselves and their families, and keep their homes. Most states were able to distribute extended benefits through the optional trigger they took up (based on their unemployment rates) following the availability of federal funding through the Recovery Act. All 27 states that took up the optional trigger for extended benefits made the trigger dependent on full federal funding. In other words, when federal funding ended, so did the extended benefits program in most states.
In fact, only 11 states will remain on the extended benefits program now that federal funding has not yet been renewed. These 11 states boast permanent unemployment rate triggers that are not dependent upon federal funding to go into effect, and thus will continue to provide between 13 weeks and 20 weeks of additional unemployment benefits (see map).
The lapse in congressional reauthorization forces 23 states and the District of Columbia to stop distributing extended benefits at a time when additional unemployment insurance benefits are needed most.
Is it possible that a United States Senator cannot understand what this means for those working Americans who were unfortunate enough to have had their jobs taken from them by this monster recession?
Perhaps this will help describe it:
Imagine, Senators, that your weekly pay of $3,346.15 were reduced by, say, $3,000 and you and your family were left to try to get by on $346.15 a week — which is, by the way, slightly more than the average weekly unemployment check.
Now imagine that, suddenly, even that meager $346.15 a week disappeared as well.
That’s what it’s like already for nearly two million long-term jobless workers. Except they did not have the benefit of previously having a $174,000-a-year job — one where they worked an average of less than 4 days a week.
There’s no way to know when a replacement for the departed Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia will be seated. And Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson appears to be determined to be the Democrat who’s going to out-Lieberman Lieberman.
So it falls to us to try to persuade at least one more Republican to allow a simple vote by a clear Senate majority to decide the fate of the federal unemployment extension, and that of millions of Americans.
I’d suggest calling these Senators’ home-state offices this week while they’re on recess, and telling them to end the obstruction of unemployment benefits that are desperately needed in their own states:
Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA)
Boston: 617-565-3170
Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH)
Cleveland: 216-522-7095
Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO)
Jefferson City: 573-634-2488
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Atlanta: 770-661-0999
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Anchorage: 907-271-3735
Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL)
Orlando: 407-254-2573
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Columbia: 803-933-0112
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)
Las Vegas: 702-388-6605
I’m starting with Scott Brown…. Who you gonna call?
The House of Representatives has passed a stand-alone bill to restore extended federal unemployment insurance benefits eligibility through the end of November. The vote was 270 to 153, a 117-vote margin in favor of the bill that would apply emergency spending provisions to fund the extended programs, and make their restoration retroactive to June 2nd. 241 Democrats were joined by 29 Republican House members voting in favor of the measure.
The victory in the House was a testament to the mounting public outrage over the failure of Congress to extend the federal unemployment programs. Since they were allowed to expire Memorial Day weekend, more than 1.2 million long-term unemployed workers have already stopped receiving any jobless benefits, with approximately 40,000 more added to those ranks every day.
The House victory, however, comes after the Senate again failed to move similar legislation to a vote last night. With 59 votes in favor of a cloture motion, the Senate’s unemployment extension measure was again blocked from getting a straight up-or-down majority vote. The final vote shows as 58 to 38, but that was after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) switched his vote to “No” — a procedural move to keep the bill alive and allow it to be reconsidered.
But that won’t happen until the Senate returns on July 12th from a Fourth of July week-long recess. If this feels eerily similar to what happened just before Memorial Day weekend, well that’s because it is.
Just last week, in their effort to impose sado-economic austerity on the U.S., all Senate Republicans, joined by Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, succeeded in blocking a larger jobs bill that included the unemployment extension.
This time, with a virtually stand-alone unemployment bill, Democrats were joined by Maine’s two Republican Senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, who seem to have finally gotten the message.
Sen. Ben Nelson again voted “No”, as did Republicans Scott Brown (MA), George Voinovich (OH) and Lisa Murkowski (AK), all of whom were receiving heavy constituent calls to support the bill, according to Senate sources. Also under pressure from constituents was retiring Missouri Republican Kit Bond, who did not vote.
With the passing of Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) this week, Democrats may have to wait for his replacement to be seated, unless they can garner one more vote to get to 60.
Pat Garofalo on the Wonk Room at Think Progress has an excellent piece on the 17 Senators from states with double-digit unemployment rates that repeatedly have supported the Republican-led filibuster of unemployment benefits.
Annie Lowrey at the Washington Independent has a lengthy rundown on all the recent rounds in this now-epic legislative battle.
In the umpteenth iteration of a jobless aid extension bill, one in which Democrats agreed to cut out more than $20 billion, an attempt to overcome the Republican-led filibuster failed last night on a vote of 56 to 40, four short of the required 60 votes.
As we reported yesterday in ‘Pseudo-economics Becomes Sado-economics’, the latest version of the bill (H.R. 4213) removed the program that provides an extra $25 per week to those receiving unemployment compensation.
Apparently taking $100 a month from jobless workers wasn’t enough to satisfy Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) who joined every voting Republican to continue to block the measure.
When the Senate passed a short-term, two-month extension of the federal unemployment benefit programs in April, Republican Senators George Voinovich (OH), Susan Collins (ME) and Olympia Snowe (ME) voted to pass that bill. Thus far, they have continued to vote “No” on the current measure that would extend eligibility through November.
I have been on the phone with Senate offices all morning, specifically with the offices of Lieberman, Nelson, Voinovich, Collins and Snowe. My message for them has been simple: Drop your support of this sadistic filibuster. And then I add a rather rhetorical question: If taking $25 a week away from jobless workers like myself wasn’t enough to get your vote, how much more pain do you want to inflict?
