2010 Unemployment Extension - Reid May Choose to Drag UI Extension Passage Out AGAIN

2010 Unemployment Extensions - Earlier today I reported at length that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had apparently decided to go ahead with a vote on the standalone House version of unemployment benefits extensions rather than the whittled down Senate version that had failed cloture by one vote back on June 30. (Read "Senate to Vote on House Version")

And what a relief that was to me. At last, it seemed, perhaps Senator Reid had decided he had gotten all he could out of our suffering and he was just going to pass the unemployment extension bill next Tuesday and get our benefits back to us.

Reid had, indeed, taken care of a number of procedural issues during the Senate's Thursday session in preparation for a vote on H.R. 5618, the "Restoration of Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 2010", which the House passed on July 1, just before breaking for the 4^th of July recess.

This would have been the swiftest route for restoration of unemployment benefits. This bill, a standalone UI extension bill, has already been passed in the House and would require only passage in the Senate to be sent up to the President for signature and enactment. At last, it appeared that Reid was going to quit stalling or taking other action for political gain that jeopardized or slowed restoring benefits to the millions of Americans already dying on the vine over the Senate's delays.

However, it now appears that, in spite of taking those procedural actions to clear the way for a vote on H.R. 5618, Reid has, instead, put H.R. 4213 as well as a new amendment to that bill on the schedule for Tuesday, June 20, a strong indication he may put that UI extension bill version up for a vote rather than the House bill.

Both are similar in terms of the benefits to the jobless. However, there are several other more glaring problems with choosing the Senate version of unemployment extensions.

First of all, neither the House nor the Senate have apparently seen Reid's new amendment to the unemployment extension bill yet. If Reid chooses to bring this bill to the floor, Senate rules would allow debate for another 30 hours before the vote - More delay. Perhaps it won't happen and they the Senate will agree to move forward with the vote where it will no doubt pass. But the Republicans, still concerned over adding to the deficit, could continue to take that time to try to make their point. Why allow that to happen? No - Why CAUSE that to happen? Honestly, if Reid is concerned about the unemployed, why would he subject us to that kind of additional stress and further delay? Could it be to continue to use it to demonize the Republicans for "obstructing" the bill?

Secondly, for a bill to pass through Congress and go on to the President, it must have been approved by both houses in identical form. The Senate's version of unemployment benefits is a greatly altered iteration of the House's original H.R. 4213, the "American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010" or "Tax Extenders" bill. But the Senate's recent version of the unemployment extension bill, along with Reid's new amendment, is barely recognizable as the original House version at this point. This means, if this is the unemployment extension bill that Reid puts up for a vote, even after the Senate finally passes it, it will then have to go back to the House AGAIN for them to vote on it.

Again, I don't mean to alarm you. It is most likely to pass. But by choosing the Senate version, Reid is choosing to allow all this to take one or two days LONGER than the House bill would have taken. Another delay for the unemployed who have already been stalled and stalled and are suffering mightily - many of us perhaps irreparably - for it.

For a man that continuously tells the media and the American people that he is "in touch" with us and understands our pain, it seems Reid really doesn't get it at all. Many hundreds of thousands of us have been without benefits now for many weeks. Many have already lost homes, cars, everything they have and have already been forced to the street, having difficulty even feeding themselves or their families. Still more, like myself, are not far behind them. Every day that we have to wait for our unemployment benefits to be restored is a day that we grow closer to losing everything we have. The despair in the thousands of comments I have read from good people all over this country that are suffering is absolutely heartbreaking. How can Harry Reid, if he is so concerned about us, do ANYTHING that would delay passage of unemployment extensions by one more day? By one more HOUR??

I have written about this extensively. I hope some of you will dig through some of my library and find out more. Reid and the Democrats could have passed UI extensions long ago if they had been willing to compromise even just a little. The Republicans have offered multiple bills and amendments for our unemployment benefits extensions that were all actually much more generous for us than the Democrats are offering. And they have found ways to pay for our extensions that stops adding to the job killing deficit that is destroying this economy and this country.

The Republicans offered using unallocated stimulus funds. I hear the Democrats and the liberal media saying that they don't want to spend the stimulus funds on us, they want to use it for job creation. But didn't Nancy Pelosi just say that unemployment benefits are the best form of stimulus and job creation there is?? Then why not use them for us and do that job creating she was talking about right here, right now?

The Republicans offered all sorts of ways to cut unnecessary spending and bloated budgets in Washington. I keep hearing the liberals saying that the Republicans were spending a lot and adding to the deficit before. Well, so what? Didn't you and I spend more when we had more? Didn't a lot of us get credit cards and spend beyond what we actually made at some point in our lives when our income seemed solid and we felt we had a way to pay for it? But haven't you changed your ways now that times and your finances have changed? Well, so have the Republicans. Wish they'd done it sooner and more effective at stopping the Democrats and this president from QUADRUPLING the Bush deficit they all remind us of constantly. They quadrupled it IN LESS THAN 18 MONTHS!
Even the President's own commission has just told Obama that this deficit is KILLING THIS COUNTRY AND IT HAS TO STOP NOW OR THE COUNTRY WILL NOT SURVIVE. So, why are the Democrats so intent on adding to the deficit when the Republicans have already given them easy ways to take even better care of us with MORE in unemployment benefits extensions without further damaging the economy and ruining our chances for jobs?

The truth is, the Democrats, this President and the biased media has been misrepresenting what has happened in the Senate on this issue all along. The Republicans have never been against extending our unemployment benefits. They have merely asked, over and over again, that their cost not be added to the deficit. That the bleeding finally be stopped.

Harry Reid could have accepted any number of Republican offers to provide us even temporary benefits so we didn't have to go through this hell while they hashed all this out.

Harry Reid could have put up for a vote a Republican UI extension bill before the 4^th of July recess.

He could have accepted a compromise with Republican Senator George Voinovich for his 60^th vote on REID'S UI Extension bill before the recess.

He could have put up a Republican unemployment extension bill on July 12 and gotten it passed.

He could have done that any day last week.

But let's just say the "right" thing for the country is to add the cost of our unemployment extensions to the deficit instead of pay for it as they could (Does that sound "right" for the country to you?). Okay, then if Reid's and the Democrats' true concern was for us, now that the replacement for Senator Byrd has been named, he could have kept the Senate in session Friday night and through the weekend and gotten this taken care of days earlier. Seems fair to me, since they've taken TWO vacations since this all started and we all started losing unemployment benefits weeks ago.

But let's just say that those poor, overworked Senators just couldn't work a weekend to help us out. Reid could do what he was originally apparently preparing for and just pass the House version of unemployment extensions on Tuesday so it's done and over with. There is no rational reason to take any more risks with our benefits or to allow them to take one more day, one more hour, one more minute longer to get to the President's desk.

Except, of course, as I have explained in previous articles, unless Reid and the Democrats benefit every day, every hour, every minute they can keep us hurting, while they go to the microphones and blame the Republicans so at least the unemployed will vote for the Democrats. THAT is the ONLY reason I can see for extending our pain and voting on an unemployment extension bill that will take longer to make into law.

Harry Reid is in control of the Senate. He will have the option of putting whichever unemployment benefits extension bill he wants to on the floor for a vote on Tuesday. Whatever he puts up should pass. Don't worry about that. It's just a matter of milking every last vote out of our plight that he can, which bill he chooses. Be watching.

Source:

http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1984-Update-on-Tuesday-s-Unemployment-Vote