Back in November when Senate Democrats reformed the filibuster -- breaking the GOP efforts to block almost every Obama nominee -- Mitch McConnell promised: “You’ll regret this, and you may regret this a lot sooner than you think.” McConnell wasn't seething only over the filibuster change, but also in response to Democratic successes defeating the GOP government shutdown and especially growing Obamacare enrollment numbers. We are now seeing McConnell's threat carried out through Republican intransigence on what had previously been a bi-partisan priority: providing extended jobless benefits during periods of high unemployment.
The situation became clear yesterday when Senate Republicans walked out of unemployment negotiations over a procedural issue:
As an 11-month bipartisan agreement was coming together Thursday, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) took to the floor to criticize Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) for denying GOP amendments to the legislation...An exasperated Reid, who used a tactic to prevent the minority from offering amendments to the bill, complained that Republicans were using the occasion to push bad-faith amendments to damage Obamacare.
The
New York Times reports that "an obscure procedural fight is likely to leave up to three million out-of-work Americans without benefits."
From Raw Story:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday moved to hold long-term unemployment insurance benefits hostage in an effort to delay President Barack Obama’s health care reform law.
Yes, that's right. If you've been thinking that Chris Christie's political style -- taking revenge on political opponents by hurting the public -- is an anomaly, think again.
Republicans are cutting off jobless benefits for millions as payback for recent Democratic successes, particularly filibuster reform and the launch of the Affordable Care Act. They are heartless, petty thugs. They are the party of Chris Christie.
By any measure, the American public wants unemployment insurance extended. Quinnipiac finds that 58% want Congress to pass the extension. Only 37% oppose it. Similarly, Hart Research finds a 55-34% margin.
A PPP poll of congressional swing districts shows danger for a Republican Party intent on political revenge -- voters don't really like being punished for as part of a petty congressional feud:
Polls like this, along with increasingly brutal local media coverage, must be worrying many a Republican strategist. It reinforces several major negative perceptions about congressional Republicans — that they are pervasively obstructionist, that they have little concern for worse-off Americans and that they allow ideology to hamper the economic recovery. (A failure to renew the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program would cost 240,000 jobs, according to a White House report.)
And the data is backed up by an avalanche of editorials and opinion pieces from across the nation calling on Republicans to stop obstructing the unemployment extension:
Congress Needs to Extend Unemployment Insurance
Washington Post
Congress' Job: Extend Unemployment Benefits
Los Angeles Times
Unemployment Benefits Terminated - Conservative Heartless
The Charleston Chronicle
Weak report underscores need to extend jobless benefits
MarketWatch
Congress should do the right thing and restore unemployment benefits
The Buffalo News
Extend unemployment benefits: Our view
USA Today
It makes economic sense to extend benefits to 1.3m jobless
Corvallis Gazette-Times
One Final Time: We Should Extend Unemployment Benefits
Business Insider
Don't Leave the Unemployed Out in the Cold
Huffington Post
Importance in Extending Unemployment Insurance
American LiveWire
$64.8 million drained from California economy due to unemployment benefits lapse
Lake County News
Harry Reid plans to bring the unemployment extension up for a vote on Monday and Republicans are planning to filibuster. Republicans openly admit that they are obstructing the extension because Democrats won't cave to Mitch McConnell's demand to gut Obamacare. Is the GOP ready for the national backlash against their political revenge-killing: cutting off the unemployed as punishment because the American people are signing up by the millions for new health insurance policies through the Affordable Care Act? They may want to keep this in mind:
A common rejoinder to such polling data is that perhaps voters will not prioritize the issue when casting a ballot next fall — but PPP also asked if a failure to extend long-term unemployment benefits would make voters less likely to reelect the incumbent. In each district the answer was yes.
Disclaimer:
I'm one of the 1.3 million Americans who lost my unemployment insurance on 12/28 and I want to write a personal note about how congress is handling this. I was laid off from a middle management job in the SF Bay Area high tech industry nine months ago. Like most of us collecting unemployment I'd been desperately searching for a job in the same pay range and career station as the one I'd lost, while knowing that I may have to eventually settle for something less. I approached the situation like most would -- knowing how much unemployment insurance I had available and how long it would last, I kept focusing on higher paying jobs, planning to wait until the last couple of months of benefits until giving in and taking something that would be a huge step back, damaging my career. That strategy meant that I was trusting that those benefits wouldn't be suddenly cut off. So now I'm in a true emergency, almost completely broke, trying to figure out if I need to take a minimum wage job or something close to it. I will do what I have to do to survive, but forcing people to wreck their careers and take entry-level jobs isn't doing anyone any good. Maybe I would have ended up here any way, but I doubt it. I was given false hope that I could take the time necessary to land on my feet. I am now terrified and struggling to figure out what to do. It's bad enough to end the extended benefits, but to do it this way -- to cut off those of us currently collecting, with essentially no warning, is awful. At least I can probably find a minimum wage job so that I can (barely) survive. It breaks my heart that there are people in the same situation in other parts of the country, with fewer skills and even more dire prospects. This is scary as hell.
Sign and send the petition to Senate Republicans: Restore emergency unemployment benefits