Politics

Republicans Against Help for Workers, For ?Exact Same? Failed Bush Agenda

By Karina

This afternoon, the Senate finally passed a motion to proceed on legislation that will extend emergency relief for jobless Americans. Instead of immediately acting on the bill, as over 2.5 million workers have already lost their unemployment insurance, Senate Republicans are using another legislative tactic to delay final passage:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he wanted everyone to understand the Republican strategy to use up all of the 30 hours of debate time allotted for the $34 billion measure.

“Now, I hope the American people understand how callous this is,” Reid said in a statement. “People are desperate, can’t make house payments, car payments, can’t pay for kids’ food. And they are having us wait for 30 hours after cloture’s been invoked.”

Let?s take a look at what Congressional Republicans are standing against:

1. Benefits to millions of Americans that they have earned through a lifetime of work, after years of failed Bush economic policies that cost Americans 8 million jobs.

2. One of the most cost-effective and fast-acting ways to stimulate the economy and create jobs:

The Congressional Budget Office says that extending unemployment benefits is the most efficient way for the government to generate economic growth: Each $1 spent to help the unemployed creates up to $1.90 in economic output.

?the Economic Policy Institute tallies up the economic benefits of jobless people spending their unemployment checks and concludes that expanded unemployment benefits, including health insurance subsidies, are responsible for adding 1.15 million jobs since 2007, partly offsetting the 8 million jobs lost since the recession began. The institute also says spending by the jobless has allowed thousands of other Americans to work more hours. Extending jobless benefits is ?compassionate, but it’s also good economics,? [Larry] Mishel [President, Economic Policy Institute] says?

3. Economists agree that extending these benefits will create jobs and decrease the chances of slipping into a double dip recession. Mark Zandi, Chief Economist, Moody’s Analytics:

I firmly believe that extending emergency unemployment insurance benefits and providing more help for the state governments is vital at this point to ensure that the housing downturn doesn’t take the broader economy with it.

4. More than six in 10 Americans (62%) support Congressional action to extend unemployment benefits for jobless workers.

Congressional Republicans threaten to take us back to the ?exact same agenda? of the Bush Administration?standing for billions in deficit-busting Bush tax cuts for the wealthy few, and leaving everyone else to fend for themselves.

A top Republican leader?Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)?admitted the Republican economic plan for the future is more of the same failed Bush-Republican policies that got us into this mess. He explained, “?We need to go back to the exact same agenda.”

Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona said that an extension of unemployment benefits would cost too much, but at the same time he called for the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest few?which will cost Americans 20 times more.

As President Obama stated yesterday:

?after years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit, the same people who didn?t have any problem spending hundreds of billions of dollars on tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are now saying we shouldn?t offer relief to middle-class Americans?

Full post as published by The Gavel on July 20, 2010 (boomark / email).