During the Great Depression, the Roosevelt administration created millions of jobs in the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration. Both programs not only produced useful employment but were wise investments, some of whose benefits can still be seen three-quarters of a century later. The opposition to those programs was almost exclusively Republican. We don't have the modern version of such programs now, although the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed 15 months ago has put 2 million Americans to work or kept them from losing their jobs. Many of those jobs – weatherizing housing, for instance – are investments that will pay dividends for decades. The opposition to that act was exclusively Republican.
Fifteen million Americans are officially out of work; with 6.5 million of them having been without a job for 27 weeks or longer. Millions of them have gained some measure of relief during the Great Recession because of the jobless insurance program created under the Roosevelt administration. Opposition to that program was exclusively Republican. More than 1.2 million Americans are now in jeopardy of losing their unemployment benefits. It didn't have to be that way. It is thanks to Republican opposition.
Chart from Paper Economy. Click to see larger version of this and additional charts.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said Friday:
"There is no room for partisan roadblocks when Americans are depending on their government's action and the stakes are this high," said Solis. "As I have said before, we cannot stop supporting workers who are desperately seeking jobs, but — in many cases — simply cannot find them."
To be fair, many Republicans didn't want to see the extension blocked. But a few obstructionists – led by Sen. Tom Coburn – managed to stand in the way of passage of another extension of unemployment benefits before the Senate adjourned for their two-week spring break March 26.
Sen. Jim Bunning, another obstructionist, has what we used to call the unmitigated gall to blame Democrats for this situation. As mcjoan pointed out last week, it's not the first time. If only they'd find some programs to cut to pay for these benefits to keep the deficit from getting larger, no problem, he says. That is exactly what Coburn says, too. It's practically his mantra. Except, of course, when he's voting for proposals that would make the deficit larger, such as reducing the estate tax on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, as he has done on more than one occasion.
But there is some blame for Democrats. They could have moved for cloture sooner. Indeed, they should have done so the minute the previous temporary extension passed and put the pressure on Coburn, et al.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly report released last Friday showed the first real glimmering of hope in the job situation since the Great Recession began. But even if the number of private-sector jobs created in March are doubled in April and stay at that level in the months to come – no sure thing – it will take until April 2013 before as many Americans are as employed as were in December 2007 when the recession began. Which means a lot of painful years.
We of course need more than an extension of unemployment insurance. For one thing, some 4.7 million out-of-work Americans are ineligible for benefits. But nobody is foolish enough to believe that anything like a modernized WPA or CCC has a ghost of a chance getting through Congress this year, and neither the administration nor any congressional Democrat with clout has proposed such a plan. Meanwhile, as a million or so Americans lose the $275-$440 lifeline that jobless benefits give them, grandstanders whine about the deficit. When the extension passes, as it most certainly will, the jobless will get their money retroactively, Senate leaders have vowed. But until then they'll have no money for food, rent and health care. For this they can thank the sometimes guardians of the public purse.