It isn’t the first time, and probably will not be the last, but the House of Representatives today failed to pass an extention of unemployment benefits despite a stubbornly high recession driven jobless rate, effectively telling unemployed Americans they are on their own. The reason? 143 Republicans (and 11 Democrats) voted against the extentions on the grounds that the cost to the government of the extended benefits have not been paid for elsewhere in the budget, which would result in an increase to the deficit of $12.5 billion.
This belated concern for the Federal deficit is fairly unimpressive, given how transparantly false it is. The Republicans in Congress have made it abundantly clear, on a near daily basis, that they have no problem renewing Bush tax cuts on those earning over $250,000 per year, despite the deficit. This effectively takes $700 billion out of the government’s revenue stream over the next 10 years, and entirely to the benefit of the wealthiest of Americans. But the $12.5 billion needed to keep those hit hardest by our worst downturn since the Depression from starving is just too much. Right. Readers familiar with this post will realize that I am all for budgetary responsibility and bringing the deficit under control. But hundreds of thousands of people will exhaust their benefits by the end of November, and as many as 2 million by year’s end unless these extentions are passed. My suggestion is for the Republicans to turn off the budgetary crocodile tears, stop gloating over their new majority for 10 minutes, and do something meaningful to throw these unemployed Americans a lifeline.
Repost from my blog