Late yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed for cloture on the long-delayed bill that includes an extension of existing federal unemployment benefits programs through the end of November. That means that 60 votes will be needed just to bring the bill up for a vote after the requisite 30-hour ‘cloture clock’ expires. That cloture vote could come as early as tomorrow. But it may come later, as Senate Democrats appear to still be seeking the votes to get to 60.
This afternoon, meanwhile, votes are expected on amendments to the bill, perhaps including Senator Bob Casey’s (D-PA) to restore the COBRA subsidy provision for newly unemployed workers.
This morning’s New York Times editorial is titled ‘The Unemployed Held Hostage’:
Since June 1, when federal unemployment benefits began to expire, an estimated 325,000 jobless workers have been cut off. That number will swell to 1.25 million by the end of the month unless Congress extends the benefits. The Senate, so far, has failed to act.
Some senators, including Democrats, have balked at an unrelated provision that would begin to close a tax loophole enjoyed by some of the richest Americans. You heard right. Desperately needed unemployment benefits have been held hostage to a tax break for the rich, and the Senate’s Democratic leadership has had to delay and finagle to get its own caucus in line.
State-provided unemployment benefits generally last for 26 weeks, and the federal government picks up the tab after that, provided Congress approves the extensions. There is no disagreement over the need: 46 percent of the nation’s 15 million jobless workers have been unemployed for more than six months — a higher level than at any time since the government began keeping track in 1948.
The Times goes on to correctly state that the unemployment and other safety net provisions are rightly considered emergency spending, but that other provisions such as extensions of business tax credits should be paid for. And that’s why the bill includes closing or reducing the tax loopholes for wealthy hedge fund and other investment managers.
Closing the loophole would raise an estimated $25 billion over 10 years. Many private equity mavens, venture capitalists and other partnerships have lobbied to keep as much of the loophole as they can. Most Republicans and some Democratic senators — including John Kerry of Massachusetts, Mark Warner of Virginia and Maria Cantwell of Washington — are doing their bidding.
In its version of the bill, the House closed part of the loophole: fund managers would retain the special low rate on 25 percent of their privileged earnings. The loophole measure was watered down even more in the Senate. And investment partnerships are still lobbying.
Senators aren’t likely to vote on the bill until the end of this week. Then it would need to be reconciled with the House-passed version. In the meantime, hundreds of thousands more jobless Americans will lose benefits.
The right thing to do is obvious. The House and Senate should immediately extend unemployment benefits and aid to states and close the fund-managers’ tax loophole — completely.
That so many senators have balked is a bad sign for the economy and for the most vulnerable Americans. The fact that lawmakers are not willing to ask the nation’s wealthiest to pay their fair share of taxes also makes a mockery of all their talk about deficit reduction. (emphasis added)
To overcome the Republican-led filibuster, on both the COBRA amendment and the bill itself, the votes of a number of the following Senators will be needed:
Bayh (D-IN)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Nelson (D-NE)
Webb (D-VA)
Warner (D-VA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Brown (R-MA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Snowe (R-ME)
Collins (R-ME)
You can call the Senate toll free at 888-254-5087.
Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska has already been pretty clear that he’s a “No” vote. That means that even if all the other Democrats can be convinced to vote “Yes”, the bill would still need 2 Republicans.
For the sake of the Senators still wavering, while hundreds of thousands of long-term unemployed workers have already lost jobless benefits, economist Dean Baker reports today:
Senator Nelson Proposes to Reduce GDP by $120 Billion, Eliminate 800,000 Jobs
The Washington Post reported on the opposition in Congress to spending more money to aid financially strapped state and local governments or unemployed workers. It highlighted the complaint of Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson that President Obama’s request for $80 billion was in appropropriate in a situation where the government has a $12 trillion debt.
It would have been helpful to include some discussion of the economic implications of the opposition to this bill. The economy will be weaker if Congress refuses to appropriate the funds requested by the Obama administration. Assuming a multiplier of 1.5 (most of the proposed spending is generally estimated to have a relatively high mutliplier), not spending this money will reduce GDP by $120 billion.
When it outlined its stimulus plan, the Obama administration assumed that a 1 percentage point increase in GDP creates 1 million jobs. This implies that a loss of $120 billion in output would lead to a loss of 800,000 jobs. It would help readers assess the proposed spending if they understood its likely economic impact.
Tags: COBRA, HR 4213, jobless benefits extentsion, Jobs, unemployment
In the seemingly never ending saga of getting a bill passed to continue the extended federal unemployment insurance programs — one that has been going on now for four months — the Senate has returned to take up H.R. 4213 yet again.
But the bill they have before them lacks the previous provisions to extend the federal COBRA premium subsidy, those provisions having been removed two weeks ago in the House.
As I reported last week, the version passed by the House before the Memorial Day recess was a clear indication that we had reached a dangerous crossroads in the effort to aid those hardest hit by the Great Recession and provide a foundation for a job market recovery.
The COBRA subsidy, originally included in the Recovery Act and since extended several times, provides for reduced premium payments for up to 15 months for those who qualify and wish to continue health insurance coverage with their former employer’s plan. Since the employer no longer contributes to the premium payments, the COBRA subsidy picks up 65% of the monthly premiums, allowing the unemployed to maintain at least some semblance of affordable coverage.
According to Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, on average the monthly COBRA premium for a family would be $1,107 nationally. The average monthly payment from unemployment insurance is $1,313. Without the COBRA subsidy for the unemployed, COBRA premiums would gobble up an average of 84 percent of unemployment benefits. In a number of states, the average COBRA premiums are actually higher than the average unemployment payments.
Unless the COBRA subsidy is restored in the bill, private insurance companies would be able to suck up huge chunks of many jobless workers’ unemployment payments, despite the recent passage of health care reform.
Unless the COBRA subsidy is restored in the bill, the ranks of the uninsured would swell dramatically, despite the recent passage of health care reform.
Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) has an amendment to restore the COBRA provisions to H.R. 4213. Here’s the announcement from Sen. Casey:
Amendment to Reinstate COBRA Premium Assistance
WASHINGTON, DC—U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) were joined by fourteen other senators today in introducing an amendment to the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010 that would reinstate the expired COBRA health care premium assistance for laid off workers.
“Millions of Americans have been hard hit by the recession and lost their jobs through no fault of their own,” said Senator Casey. “Unfortunately, some people in Washington want to pull up the ladder and take away help for these struggling families. Not extending COBRA premium assistance will hurt hundreds of thousands of people in Pennsylvania and across the country and it will add further strain on our recovering economy.”
“We need to prevent unemployed workers for joining the rolls of the uninsured,” Brown said. “When there are few jobs to be had, the inability to afford COBRA premiums becomes an even more acute problem. I’ve received letters and emails from Ohioans who describe how COBRA is more expensive than rent or food. That’s why we need to extend this subsidy for workers who have recently lost their jobs.”
The COBRA assistance expired on May 31st. The Casey-Brown amendment would extend the program through November 30, 2010.
The amendment to extend COBRA premium assistance is also cosponsored by Senators Pat Leahy (D-VT), Carl Levin (D-MI), John Kerry (D-MA), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Jack Reed (D-RI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Mark Begich (D-AK), Roland Burris (D-IL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and AL Franken (D-MN).
In addition, Senators Casey and Brown also sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) urging support for an extension of COBRA premium assistance. This letter was also signed by Senators Leahy, Levin, Chris Dodd (D-CT), Arlen Specter (D-PA), Kerry, Harkin, Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Akaka, Wyden, Reed, Stabenow, Lautenberg, Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Whitehouse, Ted Kaufman (D-DE), Gillibrand, Begich, Franken and Burris.
Without the extension of the COBRA Premium Assistance Program a report from the National Employment Law Projects predicts as many as 150,000 Americans each month will lose out on the subsidies necessary to afford quality healthcare.
A study by Families USA shows that 4 million Americans, including 98,500 Pennsylvanians lost their employer-based coverage due to job loss in 2009.
The average cost of COBRA family coverage is three-quarters of monthly unemployment benefits in Pennsylvania and 40 other states. In some states, health premiums actually cost more than monthly unemployment benefits, slowly driving families further into debt.
Call your Senators toll-free at 888-254-5087 and tell them to support the Casey amendment to H.R. 4213 to restore the COBRA premium subsidy for unemployed workers.
And, since the amendment will almost certainly face a 60 vote threshold, the votes of the following Senators will be particularly critical:
Bayh (IN)
McCaskill (MO)
Nelson (NE)
Webb (VA)
Warner (VA)
Brown (MA)
Voinovich (OH)
Snowe (ME)
Collins (ME)
Make those calls now… then come back and I’ll run down some more on the bill:
Also cut short in the House bill was the date of the federal unemployment program extension to November 30 from December 31. The Senate’s version maintains that eligibility expiration, so that those who became jobless from December of last year through May of this year and exhaust their 26-weeks of regular state unemployment would still be eligible. That, of course, is assuming the bill passes, which is not a certainty. At the same time, the November 30 date means that newly unemployed workers, those who lose their jobs through no fault of their own after May 31 will only be eligible for the regular 26-weeks of state benefits.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits are still averaging nearly 460,000 a week, nearly 40 percent more than when the recession began. Those claims, as well as continuing claims, had been declining consistently but have recently flattened out.
source: Paper Economy
Click here for a large format interactive version.
With many employers still laying off workers and a still anemic job market, newly unemployed workers will be facing a shorter period of benefits coverage even as long-term unemployment continues to soar. The average duration of unemployment is now 34 weeks. Nearly 6.8 million workers have been jobless for six months or more, and they represent 46 percent of all unemployed workers.
The Senate’s substitute for the House bill does include the $24 billion in additional FMAP aid to states to help support their Medicaid programs, another provision like COBRA that had been stripped out of the House version.
The extension of federal benefits through the end of November is an essential bare minimum to help the long-term unemployed and their local communities. Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project said today that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, unemployment insurance is the most effective form of economic stimulus, creating $1.93 in GDP for every $1 in benefits. “Our real deficit is a jobs deficit,” she said on a conference call with reporters. “It is urgent that Congress act to restore the extended unemployment and COBRA programs as quickly as possible.”
Tags: COBRA, HR 4213, jobless benefits extentsion, Jobs, unemployment
Picture this.
If the 15 million unemployed workers in this country stood side-by-side, literally shoulder to shoulder, they would stretch from Bangor, Maine to Los Angeles, California… and back again.
And that’s not even counting the more than 9 million who are working only part-time even while wanting full-time work, nor the more than 1 million who are too discouraged to even look for work because of the lack of available jobs.
Nearly half of America’s unemployed have been out of work for six months or longer. And more than 5 million of them rely on the extended federal unemployment insurance programs while they look for work in a very weak job market.
Yet, before leaving for last week’s recess, Congress failed to pass an extension of the federal unemployment programs for the long-term jobless, allowing eligibility for those programs to expire, at least temporarily. An estimated 300,000 unemployed workers will lose unemployment benefits by the end of this week, and 1.2 million by the end of June unless Congress restores them retroactive to June 2.
The House did pass a vastly scaled-down unemployment extension, but one that begins to dismantle some of the economic underpinnings of a recovery. That bill cut short a planned end-of-year extension by a month, and eliminated extensions of both the temporary federal COBRA health insurance subsidy and the FMAP provisions to send added help to cash-starved state Medicaid programs.
Currently 15 percent of all unemployment insurance recipients are benefiting from the reduced insurance premiums offered by the COBRA subsidy. Without it, COBRA premiums for an average family would increase to $1107 per month, which would account for 84 percent of the national average one-month unemployment insurance payments.
Unless the COBRA subsidy is restored by the Senate, newly unemployed workers who become jobless through no fault of their own will no longer be eligible for the reduced COBRA premiums. That would mean either going without insurance coverage when it’s most needed, or if eligible, applying for Medicaid at a time when state Medicaid programs are being denied additional federal support.
A new national poll, based on a survey conducted last week, shows that 67 percent favor continuing to extend federal unemployment insurance for those who exhaust their state benefits. The poll also finds that when asked which statement they agree with more, 74 percent agreed that “With unemployment close to ten percent and millions still out of work, it is too early to start cutting back benefits and health coverage for workers who lost their jobs,” while only 21 percent agreed that “With the federal deficit over one trillion dollars, it is time for the government to start reducing spending on health care subsidies and unemployment benefits for the unemployed.”
“The public overwhelmingly supports continued aid for the unemployed as joblessness still affects a stunning 15 million Americans,” said Christine Owens, Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project. “We cannot let a handful of misguided deficit hawks pull the plug on benefits that are precisely the kind of stimulus needed for economic recovery and deficit reduction. Given the choice, the vast majority of the American people would provide unemployed workers and their communities the benefits they continue to need – Congress should be listening to them,” she said.
Call your Senators toll-free at 888-254-5087. Tell them to pass the extended federal unemployment insurance programs retroactive to June 2 and restore the COBRA insurance and FMAP state Medicaid support.
Tags: COBRA, jobless benefits extentsion, unemployment
Ominous signs emerged last week that a threat to undermine an economic recovery is afoot, and that threat has particularly severe consequences for America’s 15 million unemployed.
Before voting on an already scaled-down jobs and jobless aid bill, House Democrats succumbed to pressure from conservative Blue Dogs and nervous moderates and weakened the bill further, eliminating some of its core provisions.
Then, despite narrowly passing the bill on a vote of 214 to 205, the House joined the Senate in leaving town for a week-long recess — allowing eligibility for extended federal unemployment insurance programs to expire June 2.
As a result, an estimated 300,000 long-term unemployed will go without benefits by June 12, and 1.2 million would lose those payments in the month of June unless the program is retroactively, fully restored.
The changes made to the House bill were numerous. First, the provisions to continue the extended federal jobless benefits through Dec. 31 were changed to Nov. 30. This is not insignificant. It would mean that, from now on, newly unemployed Americans, like those 460,000 who have been filing initial state unemployment claims on average each week, would no longer be eligible for extended benefits. The newly unemployed would only qualify for the regular 26-weeks of state benefits.
With long-term unemployment continuing to rise, and more than five job-seekers for every opening, this is just part of a looming potential disaster.
Even worse, the provisions to continue the federal COBRA health insurance subsidy for newly unemployed workers was eliminated from the bill completely. Without the COBRA extension, newly unemployed workers would have to pay 100 percent of monthly premiums to keep their health insurance. For many workers with families that would mean that 40 percent or more of the unemployment check would go for insurance — that is before any actual medical or other expenses.
Clearly, the effect would be for many to simply drop their coverage, and those who might qualify would apply for Medicaid, putting additional pressure on state Medicaid finances at a time when the states can ill-afford it.
Worse still, as the AP reported, the $24 billion in continued aid to the states to help their Medicaid programs was also eliminated.
A modest $1 billion summer youth jobs plan was kept in the bill, but that will barely make a dent in the near 20 percent unemployment rate among those age 16 to 24.
All of these developments point to the fact that too many Congressional Democrats are choosing to do the Republicans’ bidding for them. Fearful of being attacked for the new bogeyman word “spending”, they are now caught in the booby trap of asserting that current spending — to provide essential support for the still very weak economy and job market — somehow represents a threat to our economic future.
But while, in a sense, it’s all for show, it’s both disingenuous and dangerous. They raise a cry that spending must be “paid for” — but when they had a chance to do that in this bill, they buckled to pressure from wealthy hedge fund and private equity managers. The amount of their incomes that would be taxed at regular federal income tax rates, instead of the current 15 percent ‘capital gains’ rate, was reduced by 25 percent at the last minute. And then the actual implementation of those new tax policies — which would make them pay according to the same rates as the rest of us — was pushed back to next year. “Paid for” indeed.
This is the worst possible time to start dismantling the fiscal pylons that have thus far stabilized the economy and allowed for the beginnings of a recovery. As Christina Romer, chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, has reminded us — think 1937. In response to a policy pivot that emphasized short-term deficit reduction and lower spending, the still-weak economy headed back into a second severe recession.
That the short-term deficit argument was, temporarily, accepted then is understandable. After 1932, under the New Deal, unemployment had been steadily declining for four straight years and GDP growth had been averaging 9 percent annually. That is far from the case today. Recent GDP growth of about 3 percent is less than half that needed for sustained recovery. And unemployment has not shown any sustained, measurable decline. To the contrary, we’ve had 15 million unemployed each month for nearly a full year.
In Paris last week, Romer warned against taking the 1937 road.
The economy is at risk of sliding back into a double-dip recession. And pulling out the fiscal supports, especially for the unemployed and for state Medicaid programs, is certain to increase that risk dramatically.
After asserting pressure to weaken the House jobs and jobless aid bill last week, more than 30 Blue Dog and moderate Democrats voted against the bill anyway. Like BP in the Gulf, they will disregard the warning signs and proceed in a full state of denial, as if the worst can’t happen. They seek to deconstruct the underpinnings of a nascent recovery, eliminating supports that are keeping the economy from literally crushing both low-income working families and, especially, the unemployed.
These moves could be called a lot of things, but ‘smart’ isn’t one of them.
In his column this weekend titled “The Pain Caucus”, Nobel Laureate economist Paul Krugman warned:
What’s the greatest threat to our still-fragile economic recovery? Dangers abound, of course. But what I currently find most ominous is the spread of a destructive idea: the view that now, less than a year into a weak recovery from the worst slump since World War II, is the time for policy makers to stop helping the jobless and start inflicting pain.
The sudden political lurch toward short-term deficit reduction and spending cuts (is anyone else baffled by the lack of discussion of bloated defense spending and the cost of the wars?) has Democrats doing the Republicans’ bidding. If they succeed they will cause massive economic misery for millions already struggling. And they will undermine any recovery, making the economic situation worse. Then, with the November mid-term elections approaching, Republicans will blame Democrats for a worsening economy.
We’re at an ominous crossroads, and a dangerous one at that.
Tags: COBRA, jobless benefits extentsion, Jobs, unemployment
As I write, the House of Representatives is finally taking up the scaled down jobs bill that includes a continuation of existing federal unemployment insurance programs through November 30 instead of December 31.
But even if it passes the House today, eligibility for the extended federal jobless aid programs will expire — at least temporarily — on June 2nd. Shameless disregard and deficit fear-mongering have delayed action in the House for so long that even if the Senate knew what bill it was getting from the House, it wouldn’t have the time to act before June 2nd. The Senate has nothing scheduled today, and won’t return until June 8th.
Meanwhile, according to a report from the National Employment Law Project (NELP):
The Department of Labor has reported that more than 300,000 workers will run out of benefits by June 12th, the end of the first week Congress returns from recess.
NELP estimates that if Congress fails to restore these programs 1.2 million long-term unemployed will lose jobless benefits in the month of June alone.
More than 15 million Americans are officially unemployed right now — as many, in fact, as were unemployed in 1933 at the depths of the Great Depression. Nearly 7 million have been out of work for six months or more. More than 5 million of them currently rely on the extended federal unemployment insurance programs. And those ranks have been increasing as tens of thousands each week exhaust their state-based 26 weeks of benefits.
Now, eligibility to apply for the extended federal programs, or to apply for the next Tier of benefits for those already receiving them, will start expiring next week.
Needless to say, your Senators and Representatives need to hear from you.
You can reach their offices in Washington today toll-free at 888-254-5087. And you can contact them through their state and district offices before they return to Washington June 8.
Assuming there’s a House vote today, we’ll see who in that chamber is on the side of America’s working families and the unemployed, and who’s on the side of wealthy hedge fund managers and corporations who get tax breaks to ship jobs overseas.
Tags: HR 4213, jobless benefits extentsion, Jobs, unemployment
A bill including provisions to continue eligibility for extended federal unemployment programs through the end of 2010, which was expected to be taken up last week and then delayed, is being scaled back by Congressional Democrats who could not muster the votes for the larger original measure.
Excuse me for asking, but wasn’t crafting a bill that could pass the House and Senate — before these programs expire again — supposed to have been accomplished over the past two months?
Late last night Reuters was reporting:
Congressional Democrats cut the cost of a package of spending and tax hikes by nearly a third on Wednesday and delayed action for one more day as they raced to ensure passage before safety-net programs expire next week.
With some centrist lawmakers balking at the cost of the original package, House Democratic leaders scaled back unemployment benefits and doctor payments, according to a summary released late Wednesday.
The latest version of the legislation would add about $90 billion to the deficit over 10 years, down from $134 billion in the original legislation, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
“We’re determined to get this bill passed by the end of the week,” said Chris Van Hollen, a member of the House Democratic leadership.
One of the key changes to the bill is that the continuation of eligibility for the extended federal jobless programs would be November 30 instead of December 31. Eligibility for those programs is currently set to expire June 2.
Like the original bill, the scaled back version does not include a ‘Tier V’ extension of the duration of unemployment coverage beyond the current programs.
The Boston Globe reports on some of the key provisions in the scaled down bill.
■ Jobless benefits and other safety net funding. Would extend several programs designed to help the poor and unemployed during the economic recovery. The ongoing extension of unemployment insurance, which is set to expire this month, would be continued until Nov. 30. COBRA benefits, also set to expire at the end of May, would also be extended through Nov. 30.
■ Summer jobs. Would help fund 300,000 jobs for those ages 16 to 24 across the country, extending programs funded through the federal stimulus.
■ Funding for states. Would extend higher-than-normal Medicaid reimbursements for the first six months of next year, at a cost of $24 billion.
■ Change in investment income: Would tax investments by investment managers as ordinary income instead of as capital gains. This would hit the wallets of venture capital and hedge fund managers and would increase federal revenues by $19 billion over 10 years.
Meanwhile, this morning the Labor Department reported 460,000 initial claims for state-based unemployment insurance last week. First-time state unemployment claims have not dipped below 400,000 for any single week since early September 2008.
Christina Romer, head of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, warned against cutting back on fiscal stimulus to support the economy and spur employment. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, Romer is quoted by the AP:
“It would be wrong to tighten fiscal policy immediately, as that would nip the nascent economic recovery in the bud”
“nothing would be more damaging than a protracted recession that brought about permanent high unemployment.”
Romer said there is a risk that current high cyclical unemployment in the U.S. could become permanent structural unemployment unless measures are taken to increase the pace of the U.S. economy’s recovery.
It seems that permanent high unemployment is exactly what Republicans would like to see.
The House is set to take up the newly scaled down H.R. 4213 today. The vote is expected to be close.
Call your Representative now. Call toll-free 1-888-254-5087. Tell them to pass H.R. 4213 today.
Tags: HR 4213, jobless benefits extentsion, Jobs, unemployment
The bill that would continue eligibility for extended federal unemployment benefits and other core jobless programs through the end of 2010 won’t come up in Congress until next week.
The Hill reported late yesterday:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday said a vote on legislation extending several tax and spending measures will be delayed until next week. The chamber was originally expected to vote on the measure tomorrow.
The legislation will likely be posted today to give lawmakers a chance to educate themselves on the bill’s specifics.
The current plan is for the bill to go before the House Rules Committee on either Monday or Tuesday, with the full chamber voting on it later in the week.
But swift action on the bill is needed in both the House and the Senate. The same measure would have to be passed by both chambers and signed by President Obama by June 2nd. Otherwise, millions of jobless Americans faced with exhausting the 26-week state unemployment benefit would be unable to file for the extended federal programs. Eligibility for those extended programs is set to end June 2nd, when the current two-month law passed in April expires. (For clarification: the bill does not include a new ‘Tier V’ or other duration-of-coverage extension)
In addition to the jobless aid provisions, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act (H.R. 4213) includes other critical economic safety net, summer youth jobs and infrastructure investment programs as well as extensions of tax credits for many individuals, families and some businesses. It would provide an obviously-needed boost to spur economic recovery, and it would finally deal a huge blow in favor of tax fairness by eliminating the loopholes that allow wealthy investment fund managers and corporations to avoid paying their fair share in taxes.
So it’s no surprise that, as Laura reported earlier, Republicans are hoping to slice and dice the bill.
By delaying the measure until next week, House Democratic leaders have more time to work on gaining support from wavering Blue Dogs. It also gives grassroots supporters more time to tell Congress to pass the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loophole Act (H.R. 4213).
Support for the bill is also coming from some new quarters. Citizens for Tax Justice, which had not supported the “tax extenders” provisions in previous versions of the legislation, has gotten behind H.R. 4213 now big time:
While we have never supported the “tax extenders,” we believe that this is a more responsible approach than Congress used in the past, when the tax extenders were deficit-financed. We also believe that the loophole-closing provisions used to pay for them will enhance tax fairness. For these reasons, we believe passage of this bill would be a major victory in that it shows Congress is finally putting the economic needs of ordinary Americans ahead of tax cuts for the wealthy and powerful.
CTJ has released an excellent report (pdf) highlighting the provisions to close the massive tax loopholes that companies, hedge fund managers, private equity fund managers and others use to avoid paying their fair share in U.S. taxes.
With so much at stake for tens of millions of Americans struggling with persistent and increasing long-term unemployment, time is of the essence. Tell Congress to act and act quickly.
Tags: HR 4213, jobless benefits extentsion, Jobs, unemployment
A new jobs bill that the House expects to take up shortly includes a year-end extension of eligibility and continued future funding for all of the expanded federal unemployment insurance and COBRA programs.
Urgent action is needed to pass this legislation quickly, as eligibility for these critical programs is set to expire June 2 unless Congress acts.
More than 10 million Americans currently depend on unemployment insurance while they look for work, including 5.4 million who rely on the federal programs that extend jobless aid to those out of work longer than 26 weeks.
According to the Economic Policy Institute:
Nearly 46% of unemployed workers have been jobless for at least six months, representing the highest long-term unemployment rate in at least six decades. Those workers face dim employment prospects with well over five unemployed workers competing for every available job.
The bill being prepared in the House, H.R. 4213, is now called the Promoting American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010, and it includes not only the year-end unemployment and COBRA extensions, but a host of other major provisions designed to bolster jobs and recovery while making wealthy Wall Street traders and corporations finally pay their fair share in taxes. I’ll summarize shortly what’s reported to be in the bill.
But first, you need to pick up the phone, call toll-free 888-254-5087 and tell your Representative to vote for H.R. 4213 — the Promoting American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act.
Or go here and email your representative now.
And tell them they must get this done before the Memorial Day recess.
Go ahead — I’ll wait….
OK, so let’s take a look at what we expect to see in this new House jobs bill in addition to the year-end eligibility extensions for the federal unemployment insurance and COBRA subsidy programs.
The bill reportedly will include an extension of FMAP, the federal assistance to states for support of Medicaid, through mid-2011, as well as a one-year extension of the TANF Emergency Fund, which provides funds to states for employment programs and support for needy families.
It includes funding to support more than 350,000 summer jobs for young people ages 16 to 21, an age group that currently faces a 25 percent unemployment rate.
The bill would also support infrastructure investment to create jobs by extending Build America Bonds and other tax credit bonds to spur investment in economic recovery zones.
A five year extension of the so-called “doctor fix” to prevent reductions in Medicare payments, thus ensuring access to physician choice for seniors, is also expected in the bill.
Other provisions would extend the National Flood Insurance Program through the end of 2010; extend affordable small business lending programs and research and development tax credits for businesses supporting American jobs; extend tax relief to middle-class families and individuals; distribute funding for surface transportation projects; and support the National Housing Trust Fund to help build and maintain affordable rental housing.
So, what about the closing tax loopholes part? This is good. Really good.
Significant parts of the bill would be paid for by eliminating the tax incentives that encourage companies to ship American jobs overseas. The bill would prevent corporations from using current U.S. foreign tax credit rules to subsidize their foreign activities, and close a host of corporate tax loopholes that allow companies to avoid paying U.S. taxes through a variety of foreign tax credit schemes.
But here’s the best part. You know how working folks are required to pay regular income and employment taxes? Even if you are unemployed you likely have to pay the regular income tax on your unemployment insurance payments. But wealthy investment fund managers don’t. No siree. The fees they “earn” are taxed as so-called “carried interest”, a tax loophole that allows their income to be taxed at only 15 percent, as if it were capital gains.
Super-rich hedge fund managers, private equity fund managers and other high-flying Wall Street traders pay a much lower tax rate than working people do — even if you’re on unemployment! And taxpayers are left holding the bag for an estimated $2 billion a year in lost revenues due to this one loophole.
Well, they helped bring down the economy while making out like bandits — and now it’s high time they paid their fair share. This jobs bill would close their “carried interest” tax loophole.
The Center for American Progress has a good overview of the expected legislation posted today.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has an excellent report on why the legislation is needed, and why budgetary objections to it are misplaced and economically wrong-headed.
Tags: COBRA, HR 4213, jobless benefits extentsion, Jobs, unemployment
Congress is expected to again take up a year-end extension of the expanded federal unemployment insurance and COBRA subsidy programs as part of a larger measure that includes fiscal aid to states and other key safety net provisions.
More than 10 million jobless Americans currently receive unemployment insurance, including 5.4 million in the extended federal programs.
An extension of eligibility and funding for these programs through the end of 2010 had already passed the House and Senate earlier this year. But differences between the House and Senate versions had been holding up a final bill.
In April, meanwhile, another two-month emergency stopgap measure was approved by Congress and signed by President Obama, despite continuous obstructions from Senate Republicans. Those extensions, though, will expire on June 2.
The New York Times is now reporting that Congressional Democrats have negotiated a new version, which they intend to bring up in the House as early as Wednesday of this week.
The House, which in December narrowly passed a $154 billion stimulus package that hit a wall in the Senate, plans to debate a substitute of at least that size that Democratic Congressional leaders have negotiated; it would extend myriad popular business tax breaks and aid for the unemployed and hard-hit states.
In an action alert the National Employment Law Project (NELP) said:
Call on Congress to Extend Filing Deadline Through 2010.
Measure needed to provide for federal extensions, COBRA subsidies, and $25 weekly benefit supplement through the end of 2010
The latest stop-gap measure of federal extensions (including both the Emergency Unemployment Compensation and Extended Benefits programs), the additional $25 per week in everyone’s benefits check, and COBRA subsidies for jobless workers are set to expire on June 2, 2010. The House and Senate have been sitting on legislation that could extend these programs through the end of 2010 since March of this year. Time is running out, and the House is set to consider a compromise version of this bill this week. If passed, it will finally extend these programs through the end of the year. We are urging the House of Representatives take immediate action this week and make sure that federal UI and COBRA supplements are not allowed to expire.
Action is needed right now. Tell Congress to pass the year-end extensions of unemployment insurance and COBRA programs immediately!
NELP has a Congressional action page to contact your Representative.
Jobs for America Now also has an action page called “Finish the Job” that explains the bill and its programs, and lets you enter your phone number to be automatically connected to your Representative. Do it!
Or you can call Congress toll-free at 888-254-5087.
Tell Congress that one-month or two-month stopgap measures will not do. They need to pass the year-end federal unemployment eligibility extension this week.
Tags: COBRA, jobless benefits extentsion, unemployment
Actual initial claims for regular state unemployment insurance hit 514,742 for the week ending April 10, according to this morning’s report from the Department of Labor. That unadjusted figure represents an increase of 99,730 from the previous week. Seasonally adjusted initial claims figures showed a increase of 24,000 from the previous week, totaling 484,000 — the highest level since late February.
Source: Paper Economy
The early line in much of the business press is that the increase in initial claims was, once again, unexpected, and may be effected by distortions relating to the timing of the Easter holiday.
The initial claims report only includes first time filings for the regular state-based benefits, which provide unemployment insurance payments for up to 26 weeks. They include actual first time claims as well as first time claims to restart state benefits for those who had been receiving them, then began to work but are once more unemployed.
Actual initial state-based claims have not dipped below 400,000 per week since the first week of September 2008. The latest figures show that there is thus far little traction in turning the corner on jobs in the economy. In fact it shows that a very high number of people are continuing to lose jobs. Last month’s employment report showed some improvement in net jobs gained, but as we reported more than half the small number of newly added jobs were temporary positions, and the number of people unemployed for 6 months or more continued to rise.
According to today’s report, the actual number of people continuing to receive regular state unemployment payments in the week ending April 3, declined by 114,048 to 4,931,188 from the previous week’s 5,045,236. But the seasonally adjusted number increased by 73,000 to 4,639,000. Again, these are people continuing to receive only those benefits provided by the states for up to 26 weeks. They do not include any of the federal unemployment insurance extensions.
The latest statistics for those receiving the various federal benefits extensions includes the week ending March 27. For that week the number receiving Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) increased by 261,817 to 5,855,301 from 5,593,484 the previous week. That includes all EUC Tiers I through IV. For the same week those receiving Extended Benefits (EB), offered in some states for 13 to 20 additional weeks, decreased by 99,716 to 114,711 according to today’s Labor Department report.
It was eligibility to file for new EUC or EB unemployment programs, for those who had exhausted the 26-week state-based benefits, that had ceased April 5 when a Senate bill to renew the programs failed to overcome the Republican obstruction led by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK).
That bill has been taken up once again this week in the Senate. Late yesterday Senate Democrats, with the help of a lone Republican Senator, successfully overcame Republican objections to take up the measure to extend the federal unemployment insurance and COBRA subsidy programs as emergency funding measures.
Republicans argued, in essence, that more than 6.5 million long-term jobless Americans needing relief should no longer be considered an emergency. Sen. Coburn introduced an amendment to require that funds for the bill be taken away from already approved federal stimulus funds, but that move was tabled by a simple majority vote.
The vote to waive the budget resolution, and allow the emergency funding provisions, was 60 to 40.
It required all 57 Democrats, the 2 Independents who caucus with the Democrats, and 1 Republican to vote in favor. And that’s exactly what happened. Of the 41 Republican Senators, only retiring Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio voted to approve emergency funding. Earlier, Sen. Voinovich was quoted in an interview saying:
“All I know is that I’ve got two guys on my street that are unemployed,“ Voinovich said in an interview. “This unemployment (compensation) is a big deal. I hate borrowing the money for it. But … it’s allowed people to keep their families together.“
The latest version of the bill would provide an extension of the federal jobless aid programs through June 2, instead of just the beginning of May.
The $18 billion measure would provide additional weeks of jobless benefits averaging $335 a week to people whose six months of state-paid benefits have run out. It’s a temporary extension through June 2 that gives House and Senate Democrats time to iron out a measure funding the program for the long-term jobless through the end of the year.
A final vote on the two-month extension could come sometime today. If it passes, it would go back to the House, where swift approval would be expected. That would restore all the federal programs retroactive to April 5. It would also give House and Senate leaders 6 weeks to agree on a workable revenue source for significant budget-related programs that are part of the larger, year-long extensions bill.
Meanwhile, as we reported yesterday, Wall Street’s leading media outlet The Wall Street Journal declared war on America’s unemployed millions in its editorial, arguing against any extension of unemployment benefits.
Tags: jobless benefits extentsion, unemployment
