Dems Reject Plan to Pay for Unemployment Benefits

[boedicca]

The Senate Dems rejected an amendment which would have paid for the extension of unemployment benefits:

The cuts were offered by Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, as the way to pay for the $60 billion in new unemployment insurance spending authorized by the provision of the tax deal passed later in the day by the Senate to extend the current tax rates for two years.

Coburn later was one of four Republicans who voted against the tax deal, which passed the Senate 81 to 19.

The actual amount that would have been saved by ending unemployment benefits to millionaires – about $100 million over five years according to Coburn’s staff – was small in the context of the federal budget, but nonetheless symbolic.

“As many as 2,840 households that reported income of $1 million or more on their tax returns were paid a total of $18.6 million in unemployment benefits in 2008, according to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service,” read a document prepared by Coburn staff, citing a report by Bloomberg News in October. “This included more than 800 earning over $2 million and 17 with incomes exceeding $10 million. In all, multimillionaires were paid $5.2 million in jobless benefits.”

“This amendment would stop payments to individuals with assets of $1 million or more and those earning at least $1 million.”

Other cuts offered by Coburn included 24 different ideas included in the report released this month by President Obama’s deficit commission. Among them:

* a 15 percent cut in the budgets for the White House and congressional offices, saving $3.8 billion over five years
* a three-year pay freeze for members of Congress, saving $6 million over five years
* a 10 percent reduction of the federal workforce, saving $13.2 billion over five years
* a 20 percent reduction in the federal motor vehicle fleet, saving $1.5 billion over five years
* a 10 percent reduction in voluntary additional payments to the United Nations, saving $1.5 billion over five years
* a 15 percent reduction in Defense Department procurement, saving $61.4 billion over five years

Senate Democrats reject elimination of unemployment benefits for millionaires | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment


All of the above cuts are quite sensible - and yet the Dems in the Senate cannot support doing the right thing and paying for the UI benefit.

 

[waltky]

Granny says dey lyin' to us `bout things getting better...

Unemployment Up in 31 States Despite ‘Recovery’
February 25, 2011 — Unemployment rates increased in the majority of states throughout 2010, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in a further sign that the economic recovery has yet to reach the job market.

In the country’s first full year out of the recession, 31 states saw their average annual unemployment rate increase compared to 2009, while just 18 experienced year-over-year improvements and one state remained unchanged. On the whole, the unemployment rate for the U.S. was 9.6%, up from 9.3% the year before. “The unemployment rate is certainly still high, but it often keeps going up after a recession ends,” said Ken LeVasseur, senior economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “We saw big year-over-year increases in unemployment in 2008 and in 2009. By comparison, the increase this year was relatively modest.”

Several of the states that experienced the biggest annual increases in unemployment were the same ones that had already been particularly battered during the recession years. Florida and California, which both had double digit unemployment throughout 2009, saw their unemployment rates continue to rise by more than 1 percentage point in 2010, and Nevada saw its unemployment go up by more than 2 percentage points, averaging 14.9% on the year.

As LaVasseur notes, these three states also helped to drive down their surrounding regions, as the Mountain and Pacific regions experienced the steepest increases in unemployment for the year, with the South Atlantic region around Florida not far behind. Indeed, this coincides with previous reports speculating that the Sun Belt regions – the South and Southwest – would experience more long lasting hardships from the economic downturn, as these areas were particularly vulnerable to the housing market. For some states though, the numbers in this report may be a bit deceptive.

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[RDD_1210]

All of the above cuts are quite sensible - and yet the Dems in the Senate cannot support doing the right thing and paying for the UI benefit.

Doing the right thing? That's what is most important to you now?

Funny, I seem to remember the republicans holding unemployment benefits until millionaires received their additional tax cut. That was doing the right thing too?

 

[LibocalypseNow]

Yea i like Coburn. He walks the walk. I'm very disappointed so many Republicans joined the Democrats on this. I guess the old school Check-Pant Republicans are still running the show. I hoped things would change. I'm becoming more pessimistic by the day though. Looks like it could be business as usual. How sad.

 

[Meister]

The democratic party is now the party of "No"....who would have thunk?

 

[The T]

Yea i like Coburn. He walks the walk. I'm very disappointed so many Republicans joined the Democrats on this. I guess the old school Check-Pant Republicans are still running the show. I hoped things would change. I'm becoming more pessimistic by the day though. Looks like it could be business as usual. How sad.

Repubs had better be careful...they have been and continue to be on probation...

 

[MaggieMae]

The democratic party is now the party of "No"....who would have thunk?

Check the date of the article.

 

[LibocalypseNow]

Looks like it's gonna be Party before Country for the Democrats from here on out. They have no interest in solving our nation's terrible problems. They're just gonna go on playing their Class Warfare Games and look to the 2012 Elections. They think that's gonna be enough for them to win. I guess we'll see. It really is sad though. Party before Country hurts everyone in the end.

 

[The T]

Looks like it's gonna be Party before Country for the Democrats from here on out. They have no interest in solving our nation's terrible problems. They're just gonna go on playing their Class Warfare Games and look to the 2012 Elections. They think that's gonna be enough for them to win. I guess we'll see. It really is sad though. Party before Country hurts everyone in the end.

One minor correction? Party, POWER...over Country...

 

[JimH52]

Yea i like Coburn. He walks the walk. I'm very disappointed so many Republicans joined the Democrats on this. I guess the old school Check-Pant Republicans are still running the show. I hoped things would change. I'm becoming more pessimistic by the day though. Looks like it could be business as usual. How sad.

Repubs had better be careful...they have been and continue to be on probation...

I am waiting for the Hypocrite Republicans to say they are ready to cut Social Security and Medicare. Then we can watch the blood flow. They will have to evenually say it, unless of course, they are not serious about their "Promises."