By Brandon Kosters - Talk Radio News Service
With a vote of 60-40, the Senate has ended a filibuster on a measure that will offer $34 billion in benefits to out-of-work Americans. The only two Republicans who voted to advance the measure were Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.
President Barack Obama pushed Senators to ignore the fact that midterm elections are right around the corner and seize the opportunity to lend a helping hand to the backbone of America - the middle class.
The president told reporters Monday that the time has come “to stop holding workers laid off in this recession hostage to Washington politics.”
Obama called out Republican Senators saying many of them supported extending emergency relief in the past, but have now decided to withdraw that support despite a longstanding tradition of providing the unemployed relief during Republican and Democratic presidencies.
“A majority of Senators have tried, not once, not twice but three times to extend emergency relief on a temporary basis,” Obama said. “Each time a partisan minority in the Senate has used parliamentary maneuvers to block a vote denying millions of people out of work much needed relief.”
The president urged Senators to stop focusing on the upcoming midterm elections and to start thinking of middle-class Americans.
“It’s time to do what’s right,” Obama said. “Not for the next election, but for the middle class.”
Extended unemployment benefits and small business tax cuts are only pieces of a larger package the Senate will vote on Tuesday. The president reminded members of the media that extended unemployment benefits is an issue that should be met with bipartisan support, even if midterm elections are just a mere four months away.
“Times are hard right now… I know it’s getting close to an election but there are times where you put elections aside, this is one of those times,” Obama said.
By Rob Sanna-Talk Radio News
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis held a press conference Wednesday urging Republicans to lift a filibuster on the extension of unemployment insurance.
“Nobody is getting rich on unemployment insurance,” Reid said. “Every day we deny it to those who are out of work, we weaken our nation.”
Reid emphasized that Republicans share the responsibility of helping those who have lost their jobs in the tough economic climate.
“It’s the right thing to do, it’s what’s needed and it’s what the people of this country deserve,” Reid added.
According to Solis, the lag in the Senate has cost over one million individuals their benefits.
Senators Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who joined Reid and Solis, were also tough on opponents of the extension. Reed went as far as to say people who argue that the unemployment benefits are a disincentive for people to work, “don’t know what they’re talking about.” Stabenow characterized the decision as very simple: “It is a choice between the wealthy and powerful in this country and the middle class families.”
Reid told reporters that two unnamed Republicans currently support the extension and that recently deceased Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) would have been the 60th vote.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 3:47PM
New Report Predicts Dismal Job Growth
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said Tuesday that a new report put out by the Center for Economic and Policy Research signals the need for Congress to pass a bill he co-authored aimed at boosting the labor market.
“When I go back to my state and talk to folks, I see a lot of people really hurting and I see a lot of people who are out of work. We need this bill.”
Franken and Rep. Keith Ellison, each co-sponsors of the Senate and House versions of the Local Jobs for America Act, believe the report’s dim forecast for job growth greatly underscores the need for legislation.
The report, entitled, “The Urgent Need for Job Creation,” shows that the U.S. economy as a whole will not recoup all of the jobs lost since the start of the recession until March of 2014. Additionally, the report highlights the fact that, assuming the trend rate of growth in the labor force, the nation’s unemployment rate will not return to pre-recession levels until April 2021.