Now that the Senate has disarmed a filibuster threat
and cleared the way for legislative debate on emergency extended
unemployment benefits, it’s time to take on this specious Republican
demand that an extension of these benefits have to be “paid for” –
particularly by cuts in programs that aid many of the same people.
This is an
obscenity. Senate Democrats should hold firm and just say no to the idea
that economically struggling Americans should have to experience cuts
in one form of aid in order to preserve another – while exempting the
wealthiest Americans from having to “pay for” the tax breaks and aid
that they receive.
Many Senate
Republicans realize that blocking the continuation of extended
unemployment altogether is a nonstarter in an economy that still only
has one job for every three people who want one. Their arguments that
extending an additional lifeline to the 4 million unemployed workers who
have been looking for work for more than 27 weeks without success is
somehow making these workers lazy and unwilling to work have been
broadly debunked and ridiculed. Meanwhile, Congress’ decision to go on a
Christmas break while allowing 1.3 million Americans to lose income
they needed to care for themselves and their families was a particularly
heartless act.
With that
background, Republican Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Dan Coats (Ind.),
Susan Collins (Maine), Dean Heller (Nev.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and
Rob Portman (Ohio) today voted against allowing the extension to be
filibustered.
Meanwhile, as The Hill reported,
“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said before the vote
that his party could accept extending the federal benefits, which go to
unemployed people who have exhausted state benefits — but only if they
were paid for. ‘Many on my side would like to see them extended without
actually adding to the national debt,’ McConnell said on the Senate
floor.”
What we’re talking
about putting up for debate is $6.4 billion for three months of
benefits. It is a pittance in the context of a $1 trillion federal
budget for fiscal 2014. And McConnell and Senate Republicans want you to
think it’s no big deal to expect Democrats to agree to shave something
off of spending elsewhere to cover this modest cost.
But we know from
experience that when Republicans say Democrats have to come up with a
way to “pay for” a benefit for economically struggling Americans, the
people who end up having to make the payment are other economically
struggling Americans. That’s not right.
The budget deal
that President Obama signed late last year sets aside $520 billion of
the slightly over $1 trillion in spending for fiscal 2014 for defense,
compared to $492 billion for nondefense programs. But no Republican has
suggested that some of the profligacy that still characterizes Pentagon
spending could be tightened to make room for helping people looking for
work. Neither has any Republican suggested that one or more of the
hundreds of tax breaks – really, tax expenditures – or subsidies enjoyed
by wealthy Americans and big corporations could be ended to address the
more urgent and compelling needs of the long-term unemployed.
The tax code
contains exclusions and write-offs worth more than $1.1 trillion in
2014. By eliminating just one – the tax write-off corporations get by inflating the value of the stock options they give their corporate executives
– and requiring companies to report the same value of their stock
options to the Internal Revenue Service that they report to their
stockholders, the government could raise the money it needs to cover the
expected cost of extended unemployment benefits for a full year.
It’s a safe bet Republicans would reject such a proposal out of hand.
It’s worth
repeating again that the problem with today’s economy is that there is
too little demand, because there is not enough money in the hands of
working-class people. We absolutely should be seizing the opportunity
today to borrow money at today’s historically low interest rates and
using that money to repair the damage that remains from the Great
Recession, and help people who are still having a hard time regaining
footing in a hostile economy. The time to pay for the repair job is when
the repair is done and the economy is healthy for working people, not
before.
Democrats have an
opportunity to make that case and be seen as the defenders of the
unemployed and of common sense. Encourage your member of the Senate to
support extending unemployment benefits to the long-term jobless without
preconditions.
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