GOP is losing on unemployment insurance — and running scared

[DonViejo]

Newly assertive Democrats force Republicans to scramble to defend their insurance-cutting cruelty to the unemployed

JOAN WALSH

It’s way too early to declare victory on extending unemployment insurance benefits to the long-term jobless. Yes, six Republicans joined Democrats to let the measure come up for debate and a vote. That shouldn’t even make headlines, but given the filibuster-happy GOP Senate minority in the age of Barack Obama, it’s news. Still, not all of the six are likely to support the bill, though it will almost certainly pass the Senate. It faces real trouble in John Boehner’s House, where the tanned and rested speaker returned from his long vacation telling Democrats they’ll have to cut other safety-net programs to pay for it.

But it’s worth noting how much Democrats have already changed the UI debate. Republicans have gone from flat refusals to extend long-term unemployment to insisting they’ll consider an extension, as long as it’s paid for. That’s progress worth acknowledging.

Sure, Congress extended UI 14 of 17 times without finding funds to pay for it, including five times under George W. Bush. The party’s recent extremism on unemployment insurance is just another measure of how far it has shifted right in the last five years. But Democrats’ new boldness on issues of economic populism and income inequality has Republicans scrambling for a politically palatable reply – on UI as well as the larger issue of poverty and opportunity.

Sen. Rand Paul is the poster boy for the GOP’s ideological scramble. In early December he flatly dismissed a UI extension by saying it did a “disservice” to the unemployed. Four weeks later, after spending some of his winter break back in Kentucky, where unemployment remains high and 38,000 jobless people lost benefits Dec. 28, Paul shifted a little, agreeing to consider an extension as long as it’s paid for.

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/07/gop_is_losing_on_unemployment_insurance_and_running_scared/

[global1]

1. I've Been Hearing A Lot Of Talk From The Repugs About A Jobs Package Now.....

I listened to the debate in the Senate on this UI issue. Seems like they are trying to moderate their stands and look like they are being good guys (in some odd way) to the middle class - that they have consistently and systematically tried to destroy. Oh yeah - it's an election year. Hmmmm.......

Well - President Obama and the Dems should call their bluff on this jobs thing - and come back at them with a infrastructure jobs proposal.

Give them the one-two punch here and make them put their money were their 'election year' mouths are.

[elleng]

2. That's the Senate, though.

Wait for the 'lower' house.

[beachbum bob]

3. top Democratic talking points for 2014

must center around fairness for those in need, the lost ground for the middleclass and portraying the GOp as the heartless bastards they are in protecting the rich and powerful


unemployment insurance is just one of many issues:

- federal minimum wage
- corporate tax loophole closures as well as a minimum corporate tax rate that must be paid
- medicare expansion even more into obamacare moving towards a single payer program
- infrastructure investment program and jobs bill


the best way to overcome the GOP is to be sure to remind all people what what they stand for

[freshwest]

6. I wonder what would happen if Eisenhower's 'liberal' budget was put before these guys... n/t

[Brigid]

8. Forgot one.thing:

Public funding for election campaigns.

[mucifer]

4. What worries me is the working class people who buy into the race to the bottom.

There are lots of working class and middle class people who have jobs who say no one who doesn't work should get any help.

Of course the people saying that aren't thinking they could be laid off and suffer the same consequences as those they are criticizing. It just drives me crazy.

[DCBob]

5. The Rethugs know this is a looser issue for them.

They will try to find some way to blame Obama and the Dems if it doesn't pass.

[Cha]

7. Exactly! From the President to butthead rand paul..

"President Obama gleefully took Paul to task in brief remarks urging Congress to restore the benefits. Noting that some Republicans say UI “saps their motivation to get a new job,” Obama savored a chance to rebut that argument. “I wanna go at this for a second,” he said. “That really sells the American people short. I can’t name a time when I met an American that would rather have an unemployment check than the pride of having a job.”

Mahalo DonViejo

[Brigid]

9. For the GOP, anything they do now would be too little too late.

People have only to look around at the economy, which is slowly beginning to improve despite the efforts of the GOP to prevent it (can't let the black guy get a win, yanno), and their obvious contempt for struggling Americans to see what they're really about.