The Senate on Tuesday broke a deadlock and moved ahead with legislation to extend unemployment insurance to more than 2.5 million Americans who have seen their benefits run out. Democrats and Republicans have been sniping at each other for months, and the debate over unemployment benefits marked a further escalation of partisan gamesmanship as lawmakers head into the teeth of a critical midterm election campaign.
After weeks of being stymied by Republicans, Senate Democrats rounded up the required 60 votes for their bill after the swearing-in of Carte Goodwin, D-W.Va., who takes the place of the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va. Vice President Joe Biden, who also serves as Senate president, came to the Senate chamber to swear in the body's youngest member. That came one day after President Obama sharpened his criticism of Republicans, calling them hypocritical and unfair for blocking the bill.
Republicans said they have no objection to extending unemployment insurance, they just want the Democrats to explain how to pay for it without adding tens of billions of dollars to the budget deficit. Democrats say the extended insurance is essential to help millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet, and that Republican and Democratic administrations alike have treated this type of spending as an emergency that was tacked on to the deficit.
The 60-40 vote to end a Republican filibuster means that the Senate will hold a final vote later this week and send the bill to the House, which is expected to send it on to the White House for Obama's signature. At a cost of $34 billion, the bill would extend federal funding for benefits through the end of November—after the midterm election—when they could be extended again. The last benefit extension expired at the beginning of June.
The extension would go to people who have been unemployed for more than six months whose extra benefits have been exhausted. By the end of this week, that number will rise to nearly 2.9 million people, the vast majority of whom are expected to take the benefit again, according to the Department of Labor. Forty-six percent of the unemployed have been out of work for more than six months. Though federally funded, benefits are administered by states, some of which will automatically and retroactively reinstate benefits. Others will notify eligible workers to reapply.
Democrats cast the bill as an economic stimulus, not just a moral obligation. The money injected into the economy through the bill would save the equivalent of 800,000 jobs, according to a study from the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute.
"It's terrible public policy to continue to block this unemployment extension," said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. "It's bad for individual families, and it's bad economics. You provide unemployment insurance to somebody in Lima or Zanesville, Ohio, they spend that money at grocery stores. They spend that money at the drug store. They spend that money buying clothes for their kids."
Republicans counter that the bill would be funded by new borrowing and add directly to the debt. "There's no debate in the Senate about whether we should pass a bill. Everyone agrees that we should. This debate is about whether in extending those benefits we should add to the debt or not," said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "If Democrats were as concerned about passing this bill as they say they are, they'd find a way to do it without adding to the debt."
McConnell was the only Republican who spoke Tuesday before the vote – a possible indication that many Republicans are wary of standing before television cameras on the floor of the House and opposing aid to millions of unemployed Americans in an election year. Voters may be more supportive of their argument about the deficit: a new poll shows that Americans now favor deficit reduction over stimulus by 51 percent to 40 percent.
Democrats from Obama on down say it's hypocritical for Republicans to call foul over the debt after supporting other measures that also weren't paid for, such as war spending and tax cuts under President Bush. Their new talking point pertains to those tax cuts, which will expire at the end of this year. Extending the cuts, many of which go to wealthier Americans, without offsetting their cost , would go straight to the bottom line. But Republicans say that tax cuts, unlike spending, don't need to be paid for.
"Ultimately, what we're talking about is, whose side are you on?" Brown said. "Are you on the side of laid-off workers or are you on the side of more tax cuts for the richest people in the country while you're driving up the deficit?"
From the Republican point of view, McConnell said that allowing a tax hike while the economy is still struggling would be unwise. "If Republicans have done anything wrong in this debate, it was to underestimate how committed Democrats are to spending money we don't have," he said.
This bill took weeks to get through the Senate by the narrowest of margins, and the Senate now returns to consideration of other legislation that will affect the deficit, including war spending and the expiring tax cuts.
"It's been extraordinarily difficult, though, because it does not seem to be just opposition sort of substantively, it's just opposition politically," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. "What's coming from [the Republican] side is just lack of cooperation on every point. … How do we get through? Well, we just keep have to hammering away."
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