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Senate Breaks Republican Stranglehold on Jobless Help
The U.S. Senate this afternoon broke the Republican blockade of unemployment insurance (UI) for long-term, jobless workers—a blockade that cost more than 2 million unemployed workers their benefits. The U.S. Senate voted 60-40 to end the filibuster led by Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) which all but ensures the bill’s final passage.
The legislation continues the program of UI benefits for workers who have been jobless for six months–nearly 7 million of the nation’s official 15 million unemployed workers. The final vote is expected later today. Says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:
Finally, the Senate has overcome the final hurdle to provide relief for more than 2 million people who have lost their benefits since Republicans in Congress launched their latest political stall tactics against the jobless. Millions of Americans will have the means to feed their families and pay some bills while they seek work.
The House approved an extension in May, but because there were minor changes in the Senate, the House must vote again and is expected to do so tomorrow. The bill is retroactive to June for the more than 2 million unemployed workers who have lost benefits. However, the extension is only through November. Says Trumka:
We still need our leaders to do more, not less, to create jobs and sustain the economic recovery. Our nation must invest in jobs now—so we can lay a foundation for long-term growth and shared prosperity.
The swearing in of Carte Goodwin, who was appointed to fill the seat of the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) until a special election is held, gave Democrats the vote they need to reach the 60 needed to beat McConnell’s obstruction. Two Republican senators from Maine—Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe—voted for the legislation and Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska voted against it.
With this fall’s congressional elections fast approaching, Trumka says:
Creating jobs and helping those who have lost their jobs are defining issues for all Americans. Leaders in Washington must rebuild an economy that works for everyone, or they will take us back to one that works only for Wall Street.
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18 Comments
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The next time this bill comes up some one should remind the Republican’s about the extended unemployment benifit tax that was collected from the same wage earners who are currently out of work! I, However, think they know about this, don’t you? I don’t recall seeing this in any news article or even on this web site. Seems to me that would be a pretty good arguement to support any and all future extensions without delay.
Hello
Get rid of illegal aliens and life would improve exponentially in the U.S. job market. Get them off all the welfare they get and deport them.
What a shame. We (Republicans) were never against the extension. We are against adding even more back breaking expense on the backs of our Children.
How much COPE and PEOPLE and DRIVE (etc., etc.) money has Nelson gotten? And exactly why?
Ben Nelson needs to be voted out of office! He is just as evil as any other member of the party of NO!
We need more people like Congressman Alan Grayson who have not forgot their roots. The guy may have a ton of money, but he never forgot what the union has done for his parents in order to get him where he is today.
Remember in November
Well, what have we learned? – That 41 douchebags appointed by billionaires through phony ‘democratic’ elections can starve 7 million American families for 2 months with impunity. – That 39 Republicans is all it takes to set policy. – That there is no Democratic Party majority that is enough, because so many of them feel such a close kinship with the Republicans, and praise the ideal of ‘bipartisan’ policies. If you don’t know it already, ‘bipartisan’ is a term made up by the American ruling clase, which means ‘Let’s admit that we have no principled differences, but still pretend to the public that we are somehow crossing some big bridge by reaching an agreement to screw workers everywhere.’
Bipartisan is a misnomer, because we are only allowed to choose between two versions of the same party. Supposedly, this is all we need for ‘deliberations’ and ‘debates’ about what is best for ‘the people’. Unfortunately, ‘the people’ that they care about are only really rich people. Apparently, it costs a lot of money to spread lies on TV so you can BS workers into voting for you, and it looks like only the rich people have that kind of money. Don’t worry – its constitutional – the Supreme Court said so. (And they are supreme – kind of like the pope.) Yes, unless there is some move toward the public financing of campaigns, voters will not be allowed to consider opposing views. That is why, while most people want to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, the govenment continues to empty our treasury in pursuit of endless occupation of strategic and oil-rich lands.
I, however, will vote Labor from now on – only Labor, and if I have to write that in, so be it. The front page of my paper today had a story on a report which compared paid maternity and paternity leave benefits in 21 advanced countries. The USA came in last, because we have nothing. We are the Walmart of advance countries, with no benefits for citizens. Coincidentally, all of the other countries with programs offering from 13 to 44 weeks of PAID maternity/paternity leave – ALL OF THEM HAVE LABOR PARTIES WHICH WIN ELECTIONS AND HAVE RELIABLE LABOR DELEGATES IN GOVERNMENT.
They have health care, we have diabetes. They have choice in elections, and we do not. They have education, and we have morons who think the cavemen ran around with the dinosaurs – in charge of school boards. They have sex education, and 1/3 of our girls are pregnant before the age of 20. They have peace, and we have bipartisan agreement on an endless series of imperial wars. All of this is because the workers in those countries
embraced the obvious long ago and built their own parties to make sure they had a voice. ( Don’t worry – we’re still the ‘greatest’ country in the world – just not in health care, education, peace, social justice, citizens rights, incarceration rates, infant mortality rates, literacy rates, draconian drug laws, racial justice, social safety net, jobs, and, I guess, probably a number of other things.)
It is time to learn from our union brothers and sisters from Australia to Finland, from Canada to Japan, and embrace the obvious as well – WE ARE NOTHING WITHOUT OUR OWN LABOR PARTY!
Hooray for Carte Godwin & brave politicians like him. Thank you for the people of the United States.
Thank God.
THE FATS THE GOP ASKED THE CONTROLED U S SEANTE AND CONGRESS TO USE THE APROX 187 BILLION SURPLUS THATS JUST SITTING THERE AND USE 32 BILLION TO PAY FOR THE EXTENTION THEY WERE ALL FOR THE EXTENTION . THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER WAS OBAMA DID NOT WANT TO USE THAT MONEY , HE WANTED CONGRESS TO BORROW MORE MONEY AND MAKE MORE TAXES !
I REALLY WISH THE UNION WOULD NOT BE SO BIAS TO POLITICAL PARTYS THAT OUR TRYING TO BE HONEST , AND WORKING FOR TRANSPARENCY , ACCOUNTABILITY AND HONESTY FROM THE WHITE HOUSE ! THEY SHOULD BE SUPPORTIVE AMERICANS THAT WANT A CONSTITUTION AND A BILL OF RIGHTS THAT WORK IN AMERICAN , NOT THE RIGHTS ON MAN WHO DICTATES IDEOLOGYS AND HAVE THE UNION LEADERSHIP ON THE END OF A STRING LIKE A PUPPET !
WE ARE ALL AMERICANS WORKING TO MAKE LIFE BETTER FOR ALL AMERICANS WE LEAD BY EXAPLE NOT BY FOLLOWING MONKEY IDEAS FROM CONGRESS AND U S SENATE AND STATE LEGISLATORS , WHO HAVE LEAD US INTO THIS ECONOMICAL DISASTER IN THE FIRST PLACE AND THE UNIONS THAT SHOULD OF STEEPED UP TO THE PLATE A LONG TIME AGO FOR AMERICA , HAVE THEY FORGOTTEN HAS THE LEADERSHIP BEEN BOUGHT AND PAID FOR FROM LOBBYIST AND SPECIAL INTEREST SOME STINKS WITH THIS PITCHER AND WHERE THE UNIONS IS COMING FROM ! TO MUCH CORRUPTION IN AMERICA AT MANY LEVELS AND ITS ONLY GETTING MORE DEEPER INTO IT ! MANY OF US FEEL THIS ITS THAT JUST MANY DONT TAKE TO TIME TO SPEAK OUT HERE ABOUT IT !
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