Jan. 29—For the second time in two months, Republican leaders in Congress have refused to extend unemployment insurance (UI) to the millions of unemployed workers whose state UI has expired. Among the 8.4 million officially unemployed U.S. workers, 2 million have been job-hunting for 27 weeks or more, the highest level in 20 years, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)—and their state UI has expired.
Because Republican lawmakers have not extended UI coverage—and President George W. Bush has refused to urge them to do so—90,000 unemployed workers each week are exhausting state UI benefits, with neither jobs nor Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) benefits to help pay bills.
A new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities finds the number of unemployed workers who will exhaust their state jobless benefits this month—375,000—who are without jobs or a federal program to fall back on is at the highest level of any January on record. Similarly, the number expected to exhaust state benefits without federal benefits as back-up support between January and June (almost 2 million), breaks records for any previous January–June period.
The TEUC program, which provides federal unemployment insurance support to unemployed workers who have exhausted their state UI without finding new jobs, expired Dec. 21. Led by Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who in November said extending UI to struggling workers “was unnecessary,” Republican members of Congress left Washington, D.C., in December without extending UI and again refused to provide critical support for the nation’s long-term unemployed when they returned in January.
Republican leaders of both the House and Senate last week rejected efforts by Democratic lawmakers to pass legislation extending the TEUC, including S. 2006, sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). Afterward, Kennedy said he would attempt to bring the issue to a vote as soon as possible. “It’s urgent,” he said, “for Congress to reinstate these unemployment benefits with or without the support of this ‘Let them eat cake’ White House.”
Since Bush took office, the economy has lost 2.9 million net private-sector jobs (the largest loss since President Herbert Hoover’s administration), and only 1,000 net new private-sector jobs were created in December.
“It is unconscionable that Bush and Republican congressional leaders refuse even to vote on a temporary renewal of TEUC,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
Extending UI Is a ‘Win-Win’ Situation for Workers and the Economy
Republican congressional leaders insist that extending TEUC is unnecessary because some economic indicators are better than in 1993, when the Democratic leadership last ended the emergency unemployment program. But in 1993, the economy had nearly 3 million more jobs than before the early 1990s recession. When the Republicans let TEUC expire last year, there were 2.4 million fewer jobs than before the recession that ended officially in November 2001.
In fact, most economists see extending UI during periods of high unemployment and low job creation as a win-win situation, says Economic Policy Institute economist and research director Lee Price. “Not only is extending benefits a humanitarian act,” he says, “but it helps match people to the right job and boosts the economy because they spend the money immediately on household necessities.”
What’s more, the economy isn’t creating jobs quickly enough to absorb the unemployed workers who outnumber available positions by about 3–to–1, according to the BLS.
Bush’s economic policies, including the 2003 “Jobs and Growth” plan—which gave millionaires an average $93,000 tax break—have fallen 1.6 million jobs short of the 1.8 million his Council of Economic Advisers promised would be created between July and December. At the same time, the jobs that are being created pay less, on average, than those the nation is losing and are less likely to provide affordable benefits.
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