Late Thursday, the House passed an extension of unemployment benefits and COBRA health insurance on a voice vote. However, two GOP leaders have decided extending benefits programs for more than 1.2 million Americans is less important than getting their pet projects enacted.
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) is refusing to extend unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits subsidies through the end of 2010 unless stimulus funds are used to pay for the bill. The heightened anxiety and stress for the 200,000+ Americans who, according to NELP, will be kicked off of unemployment benefits this week is not weighing on a remorseless Bunning. Nor is triggering a 21 percent fee reduction to doctors seeing Medicare patients, by standing in the way of this legislation. The kooky 'ole sports fanatic is still too busy holding a grudge against the Dems, whose efforts to get past his filibustering the reauthorization unemployment benefits caused the Kentucky Senator to miss a college basketball game Thursday night.
The blocked measure is also thanks to Senator Jon Kyl from Arizona, who believes working Americans hit hardest by the recession should only receive help AFTER we have cut taxes for the heirs of multi-millionaires. Kyl, along with Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), is leveraging the unemployed to push for a cut in the estate tax, which would cost $138 billion over the next decade, according to estimates by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Let's not forget that the Senate already failed to extend the estate tax this year, which means that folks who inherit huge fortunes - $3.5 million and above - no longer have to pass taxes on their gains. It's not enough for Kyl, who is prepared to keep blocking debate on extending unemployment benefits unless Congress permanently shields the heirs of multimillionaires from fair taxes on their inherited wealth.
Sen. Kyl helpfully brought more reasons to light--besides shielding the heirs of multimillionaires from fair taxes on their inherited wealth--that he will refuse to support extension of unemployment benefits during today's Senate floor debate: It dissuades unemployed people from trying to gain employment "because people are being paid even though they're not working." Sen. Kyl pontificated further on this little theory of his, saying "if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work."Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) appeared slightly flabbergasted at these remarks from the Senator from Arizona.
"I don't know anybody who's out of work and is receiving some unemployment insurance believes that that payment is sufficient not to find a job. The payments are so much lower than any salary or wage would be, it's just ridiculous. I might add, there are five unemployed Americans today for every job opening in the economy..."
As a direct result of these Senators "taking a stand" on the backs of the unemployed, the Senate recessed for the weekend without taking action to reauthorize UI and COBRA health benefits created by the Recovery Act. Their abuse of the Senate's filibuster rules has cost hundreds of thousands of jobless Americans their benefits, forced many physicians to limit the number of Medicare and TRICARE patients they see, and even put several thousand federal employees out of work.
Sen. Bunning may say "tough sh*t" when it comes to caring about vital safety net programs for jobless workers, but you and I--and pretty much everyone else who lives in the real world--care deeply about maintaining these services. Contact your Senator and tell him or her NOT to let unemployed workers and their families be held hostage another day.
