As Meteor Blades wrote last week, some of the ConservaDems in the Senate are digging in their heels at continued extensions of unemployment benefits, with Max Baucus being the chief obstacle.
"You can’t go on forever," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, of Montana, whose panel oversees the benefits program. "I think 99 weeks is sufficient," he said.
"There’s just been no discussion to go beyond that," said Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat.
Perhaps 99 weeks of unemployment insurance would have been sufficient if our government officials had made a sufficient effort to provide enough stimulus to really create jobs, instead of creating secretive deficit commissions focused on convincing the public and lawmakers that the deficit crisis is so large that the federal government can spend any more money on things as frivolous as jobs, Social Security, and Medicare. Never mind the fact that having low unemployment is a very good way to shore up the federal tax base.
Hopefully, Baucus doesn't have the last word on further extension of benefits. HuffPo reports that constituents of Chuck Schumer and Sherrod Brown say that they've received enouragement on the subject from those two, and "mildly supportive talk from other Democrats' offices, including that of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-Nev.) -- but nothing definitive."
It's called Tier 5. To fight the recession, Congress has added four tiers totaling 53 weeks of federally-funded benefits, called "Emergency Unemployment Compensation," to the 46 weeks of benefits made available by states. To people facing the end of their benefits with no jobs in sight, it's essential that Congress add a fifth tier.
HuffPost called Reid's Reno office and asked what was happening with Tier 5. "They're still negotiating this further extension," a staffer said. "I have not heard anything specific about adding a Tier 5. I have heard some senators say they wouldn't pass an extension unless it had that, I have heard other senators say they will never vote for an extension if it has a Tier 5."
Both the House and Senate have passed measures extended eligibility for existing benefits through the end of the year, but the measures need to be reconciled and voted on again in each chamber. Reid's office has said that that will happen before the end of May, which is when the current stopgap extension will expire. When asked about adding a Tier 5, members of Congress typically say they need to focus on getting the the full-year extension finished before adding extra weeks....
"The number of people exhausting all levels of benefits is increasing every single week," said Judy Conti, a lobbyist for the National Employment Law Project. "This is a highly motivated group of people who are making their political and financial needs known to their representatives."
In California, 100,000 people have already exhausted their benefits. State officials told Bloomberg that people who've exhausted 99 weeks include 57,000 New Yorkers (a higher number than in Schumer's letter), 130,000 Floridians, and 30,000 Ohioans.
The hundreds of thousands of unemployed people acros the nation need to be louder in making their political and financial needs known to the Senate, it seems. The 3.2 percent growth rate reported on Friday is encouranging, but it's not nearly enough to provide the jobs necessary. The Senate needs to shut up about deficits and start worrying about jobs and maintaining the safety net for the unemployed.