Jobless Benefits .........

[Joanne98]

Naturally, the deficit hawks aren't too keen on the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010. The fact that so many millions of Americans are out of work or employed in part-time jobs because they can't find full-time positions doesn't bother those for whom deficits are the most important matter. Never mind that many of today's objectors had nothing deficit-related say about the Cheney-Bush administration pumping megabucks into war - including the cash boxes of out-of-control private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their lips were zipped about deficits when they gave their ultra-rich cronies yet another round of the tax cuts this cohort has enjoyed repeatedly since Ronald Reagan popped into the White House for eight years of wealth redistribution.

The jobs and loopholes bill, if it passes, would help expand demand, thus generate and save jobs - a million of them, it's estimated - and temporarily keep what's left of the economic safety net in place. Some highlights courtesy of the Economic Policy Institute:

• A $7 billion package of loan guarantees for small business, and bonding authority for state and municipal infrastructure investment;
• Renewal of the $6.6 billion research and development tax credit;
• A $2.3 billion tax credit for capital investment in the United States in 2010;
• Funding relief to keep employers from having to cut operations and lay off workers to meet the stringent, poorly conceived rules of the Pension Protection Act of 2006;
• $24 billion in additional funding to help states pay for Medicaid, without which there will be significant layoffs in state governments across the nation;
• $5 billion to renew individual tax cuts;
• $2.6 billion for a one-year extension of the TANF emergency jobs fund, which has created almost 200,000 jobs; and
• $1 billion to create 300,000 jobs for young people this summer.

The bill would also "provide a three- to four-year fix for Medicare’s flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) payment formula for physicians." It would close some tax loopholes for the wealthiest Americans, raising $40 billion in the process.

Most important of all would be the bill's $55 billion extension of unemployment benefits and COBRA tax credits through the end of 2010. Those benefits expire next week if Congress doesn't extend them. We've been on that precipice several times already during the recession. For many Americans, those benefits are their only source of income. Given the huge numbers who have been without work for more than six months, the extensions are critical. The chart shows what's at stake.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/5/25/869977/-Open-thread-for-night-owls:-jobless-benefits

[Shireling]

1. Thanks for posting this.

So much is going on, that we have forgotten about the unemployed.

:hippie: