2010 Unemployment Extensions - Why Did the Republicans Really Say No?

While doing my daily research on the issue of unemployment extensions and the current fiasco in the Senate as the two sides argue over the unemployment benefits "Extenders" bill, I have read hundreds, maybe thousands, of comments from the jobless. Most all are heartbreaking stories of hurt and loss and fear. Many are expressions of massive frustration and outrage. Many are specific as to things they wish our legislators knew or had to experience or had to endure, just like we, the unemployed, are having to go through.

While our legislators are not likely to ever have to go hungry or homeless, as many of us are now already or coming close to experiencing, many of the jobless' comments call for our Congressmen to tighten their belts, to take pay cuts, to trim their budgets, to have to get rid of things, to have to make due on less. They ask that our government share at least a little in scaling back in order to be able to pay for unemployment benefits extensions to help us survive, considering they've managed, through bad policy, to destroy our jobs and our livelihood.

What's interesting to me, is that it seems that many of the unemployed are not aware that about 42 of the Senators have offered to do just that. For instance, what do you think of these ideas?:

Do you think it would make sense for the government to freeze all government salaries, including that of the Congressmen, for a while until we get through this economic mess? Would it make sense to suspend their bonuses, too, if it would mean more money for unemployment benefits extensions when there are no jobs for us?

Do you think it would make sense for Congress to trim their office budgets a bit while we're in this crisis?

Do you think it might make sense to cut back on unnecessary travel and travel related expenses, like say - in flight alcohol budgets - for Congress?

Do you think it would make sense to collect $3 billion in unpaid income taxes from federal employees, especially considering that even we, struggling to survive on nothing but unemployment benefits, have to pay taxes on them?

Do you think it would be a good idea to use unallocated stimulus money to pay for unemployment benefits extensions and to reduce the deficit, so the economy can start to heal?

Do you think it would make sense to sell off unused federal property?

Do you think it would make sense to trim budgets across the government just 5% until this is over?

If you think these are good, common sense ideas, perhaps you would be interested to know that they were proposed, and the result was that ALL of our unemployment benefits extensions could be paid through November, including the $25 per week FAC stimulus addition, and without even killing job creation by raising taxes on anyone, they were able to reduce the deficit by $55 billion!

On June 17, Senator John Thune (R-S. Dakota) made the proposal including all of the things I've listed and more. All of the Republicans voted for the "Thune Amendment", which would have given us our unemployment benefits extensions without continuing to add to the already astronomical deficit and further damaging our country.

As you may have already guessed, the Democrats voted no. They were not willing to freeze their own salaries, or cut their spending or sell off unused properties or ask for IRS collection of unpaid federal income taxes and they weren't willing to dip into the remaining stimulus slush fund. Not even to pay for unemployment benefits extensions so you and I can live. (Read: "Democrats Block Benefits Extension")

For those of you who would like to know more, here, quoted directly from a pdf overview of the legislation provided by Senator Thune's office, are some of the major provisions of his unemployment benefits and "Extenders" bill. (Note: I have include select provisions that I felt were of most interest to my readers. While all but comments I have included in parenthesis are from the bill, formatting of the information in this article, as well as highlighting and italics are mine. To view the actual pdf, go to thune amendment summary pdf If this link does not work, please Google Thune Amendment Summary pdf.) Here are excerpts from that pdf:

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Thune amendment summary:

The Thune amendment includes all the major priorities accepted by both sides in the Democrats' "extender" bill, and fully pays for it by cutting wasteful spending without raising a dime in taxes.

The underlying proposal sponsored by Senator Baucus increases spending $126 billion, includes over $70 billion in new taxes (for a net tax increase of $48 billion), and increases the deficit $79 billion over the next ten years.

The Thune amendment takes the exact opposite approach - it cuts taxes by $26 billion by extending current law, cuts spending by over $100 billion, and reduces the deficit by $55 billion, according to CBO.

- The amendment extends the expiring unemployment provisions until November, just like the Baucus proposal and the House‐passed bill. (Note from S. Gardner - This INCLUDED the $25 per month in stimulus monies that the Democrats later removed.)

- The amendment extends expired tax provisions including the tax credit for research and experimentation and the state and local sales tax deduction through the end of the year.

- The amendment drops all the harmful tax increases in the bill, drops the $4 billion extension of Build America Bonds, and drops the unnecessary $24 billion state bailout.

- The amendment is fully paid for with spending cuts that have been supported by all present Republican Senators in the past.

- The amendment saves the taxpayers $113 billion in unnecessary spending by rescinding $38 billion in unobligated stimulus funds, cutting wasteful and unnecessary government spending, collecting the unpaid taxes of federal employees, freezing their salaries and capping their numbers, imposing a 5 percent across the board cut in government spending for all agencies except the VA and DOD, and creating a new deficit reduction trust fund where rescinded balances and moneys saved through this amendment will be deposited for the purposes of paying down the federal debt.

- The Thune amendment provides relief for doctors by adding an additional year of the "doc fix" and reforming our broken and onerous medical malpractice system.

Democrats have added over $200 billion in deficits since they passed their PAYGO law - the national debt recently crossed $13 trillion and the President's budget would add another $10 trillion in deficits over the next ten years.

The Thune amendment is the first step towards returning sanity to the federal budget, cutting spending and reducing deficits without imposing further burdens on the private sector.

More details on the differences between the Thune amendment and the underlying Baucus amendment can be found below.''

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Some pertinent details you may be interested in, excerpted from the Thune Bill:

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"The non‐health part of this alternative extends expired Unemployment Insurance and tax provisions but drops the harmful tax increases and wasteful new spending previously rejected or not passed by the Senate before."

"Funds for youth jobs are maintained. "

"Drops all the tax increases including carried interest, the tax on professional service s‐corps, the

international provisions, and the increase in the per‐barrel tax that funds the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund."

"Fully pays for the bill with spending cuts that have mostly been considered by the Senate and voted on in the past:

- Rescinding $37.5 billion of the $50 billion in unobligated stimulus funds.

- Reducing $100 million from the budgets of Congressional offices.

- Rescinding $80 billion in appropriated but unspent federal funds, which will result in roughly $45

billion in savings due to CBO scoring conventions.

- Selling $15 billion of unneeded and unused government property.

- Auctioning and selling of unused and unneeded equipment.

- Imposing a one‐year freeze on the salaries of federal employees and eliminate their bonuses. Capping the total number of federal employees at current levels.

- Collecting unpaid taxes from federal employees. The IRS recently reported that federal employees owe $3 billion in unpaid taxes.

- Reducing government printing and publishing costs by $4.6 million by focusing on electronic

publication.

- Reducing and rescinding duplicative and unnecessary spending and cutting discretionary

spending across the board by 5 percent for all agencies, except at the VA and DOD. (Note from S. Gardner: President Obama had called for this very thing some time back.)

- Eliminating "non‐essential" government travel and capping annual travel expenses at $5 billion.

- Eliminating bonuses for poor performing government contractors.

- Limiting voluntary payments to the UN to $1 billion.

- Prohibiting any funds being spent on a State Department facility in Ruthsberg, Maryland. The

residents of this town are currently fighting against proposals to place a new antiterrorism and

diplomatic‐security training facility there.

- Two revenue raisers that were already passed by the full Senate in the original Baucus tax extenders bill

(the previous version of H.R. 4213): Rollovers from elective deferral plans to Roth designated accounts."

And ...

Adds an additional year of the doc fix:

Provides a 2% increase in reimbursement levels for June‐December of 2010, and additional 2% increases

in both 2011 and 2012.

Drops the $24 billion FMAP state bailout.

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So what do YOU think of the ideas the Republicans had to make it possible to pay for all of our unemployment benefits extension, reduce taxes, create more jobs, provide an even longer "doctor fix" than the Democrats initially tried for and greatly reduce, rather than increase, our nation's debt? Did you know this is what the Republicans wanted to do? Did you know they were willing to trim their budgets and their wages to get us unemployment benefits extensions but the Democrats weren't? Are you surprised you aren't hearing this in the mainstreet, liberal media?

Are you really?

Sources:

http://thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=3b86ee99-7e55-4c9f-baeb-6ecf96e0c570&Month=6&Year=2010

http://senatus.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/thune-alternative-extenders-amendment-falls/

http://www.ntu.org/news-and-issues/taxes/tax-reform/yes-amdmt-hr4213.html