Senator LeMieux

[daytonaman]

Update: According to Sen. Debbie Stabenow's Twitter page,

Stabenow's bill, #S3706, The Americans Want to Work Act, will be on the Senate floor tomorrow. https://twitter.com/#!/StabenowPress

Florida's Republican Senator George LeMieux is actually supporting this bill, this is the 1st he has supported in over 2 years

[nancym]

Sen Stabenow is on CSPAN2 NOW to bring S. 3706 to the floor. Watch the stream here:

http://www.cspan.org/Watch/C-SPAN2.aspx

The Senate appears rather empty in the background, so don't expect anything dramatic. Chances are there will be notice of a behind-the-scenes objection from the Repub leader so that this process will either be put off or go into the whole long effort to overcome the threatened filibuster.

But at least she is coming on the floor to request unanimous consent to move the bill forward (the first step necessary in the attempt to pass the bill).

If you miss this, you can view the proceedings in the CSPAN video library, where they also have the transcript shortly after the video is shown.

[sc4ram]

I watched the archive of this, and my take is this was a campaign excercise, not a serious attempt at a bill. I cant believe Ms Stabbenow thought that in this political climate that 60 Senators would vote for this funded with borrowed money (if she did all she had to do was ask Sen Lenmiux before hand if he would support it under emergency spending or not.) It looked to me that Sen Lemuix was trying to find a excuse to support this,. It seems so obvous that all the leadership would have to do is fund it with Stimulus or reclaimed TARP monies. This would take away the stigma of debt spending and give a few Repubs enough cover to vote for it. But no, Sen Stabbenow acted like it was 2009 and this could be painted as emergency spending and therefore could be deficit funded. Thats not going to fly with a election pending where the electorate is in a uproar over spending and debt. (And Im sure the Senate leadership knows this, they just wanted the talking point and a target to point a finger at on the campaign trail when they are confronted by their unemployed constituents)

IMO thats all she wrote for TIER V until after the election, the only hope is the lame duck Congress will come back and fund this with some of the slush money they have collected in the last 2 years .

This isnt the only thing they have punted on, we (which includes most small businesses) are going into next year having no idea what the tax rates are going to be. (no action in Congress on the defacto tax increases scheduled to go into auto-effect Jan 1 either) That does not contribute to business certainty which is a major factor in hiring. This is going to be a tough election for the people running the Capital.

[daytonaman]

Sen Stabenow is on CSPAN2 NOW to bring S. 3706 to the floor. Watch the stream here:

http://www.cspan.org/Watch/C-SPAN2.aspx

The Senate appears rather empty in the background, so don't expect anything dramatic. Chances are there will be notice of a behind-the-scenes objection from the Repub leader so that this process will either be put off or go into the whole long effort to overcome the threatened filibuster.

But at least she is coming on the floor to request unanimous consent to move the bill forward (the first step necessary in the attempt to pass the bill).

If you miss this, you can view the proceedings in the CSPAN video library, where they also have the transcript shortly after the video is shown.

Senator LeMiuex OBJECTED to Stabenows request for unanimous consent for the discharge resolution to bring S 3706 to the floor. A nail in the 99ers coffin, be sure to let our Republican senator how we feel about him BLOCKING aid to the 99ers. Florida is in the top 5 Highest unemployment states in the Continental US, Vote that moron OUT OF OFFICE

http://www.examiner.com/unemployment-in-san-diego/senator-george-lemieux-puts-nail-99ers-coffin

[sc4ram]

Im still stunned as to how this looked like a throw-away exercise to me. I doubt that all of the Dems would of voted for this as emergency spending (let alone the Repubs on a unanimous consent motion) . These guys just want to close up Congress and get out of town and try to do some damage control in anticipation of the upcomming election. They now have their issue and can technically say the Repubs blocked it. In addition to not clarifying next years tax rates, apparently the Govt is about to run out of money so they are tinkering with a Continuing Resolution to fund the Govt, I saw tonite they are also trying to finalize NASA funding. All of this with no offical budget having been generated for the new fiscal year.

If you consider the circus that Colbert put on up there last week, and ethics probes, I would sure hate to have to defend a record like that. (a good question for them would be , 'what the hec have you been doing all year?')

Should be a interesting lame duck session after the election.

[sc4ram]

In hindsite, its clear that our bill didnt have a chance in this environment.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_departing_congress

[sc4ram]

I happened to catch the Mr. Ed show tonite and he devoted a good chunk of time to this subject. If you watch the video at his site titled "99ers Still Need Help" After he evangelized for a while on how evil the Repubs are, then he had Sen Whitehouse D-RH on and he did his share of bashing the opposition, at the end (minute marker 9:09) he had a lady from the 99ers on (Mignon Veasily-Fields) who seemed to be quite objective on the whole process. She expressed her dissapointment with the Democrats and although appreciative of Sen Stabenow's efforts, called yesterday's excercise a "dog and pony show". She also said she had researched the history of the previous Tiers and discovered that the Repubs had always said they would support a Tier ext if it was paid for by stimulus funds. She then concluded that the Dems beared some responsibility for the situation we are in in.

After reading some history on Mr. Ed's noble involvement here, apparently a group called NOVO (for dont vote ) formed in response to the perceieved lack of execution from the Dems on a Tier ext, Ed observed this and thought this group could impact the election by not voting, then Ed sucessfully encouraged Sen Stabenow to intro her bill yesterday. (Which might support the theory the Senate leadership trotted this out for a issue and not a bill.)

I think it is going to be one hell of a lame duck session this fall. stay tuned

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30031533/

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http://worldnewsvine.com/2010/10/congress-go-ahead-and-campaign-but-what-if-no-one-votes/#comments

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This is shaping up to be quite a circus...........................


http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/121223-dems-stuff-lame-duck

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http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/04/news/economy/unemployment_benefits_extension/index.htm

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http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2010/1104/When-unemployment-extensions-end-a-movement-rises-the-99ers

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http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/workinglife/article1132548.ece

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http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/05/gop-seeks-cuts-to-pay-for-renewed-jobless-benefits/

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http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5975282/2010_unemployment_extension_republicans.html

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/05-4

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TNR Staff November 5, 2010

Unemployment benefits: Historically, one kind of counter-cyclical spending that both parties have supported is aid to the unemployed. Jobless benefits tend to boost growth, since the unemployed tend to spend their benefit checks on immediate needs. The benefits also seem easy to justify: People contribute towards unemployment insurance while they work. And once they are out of work, they need the help.

Unemployment benefits usually last 26 weeks, and some recipients can qualify for an extra 13 weeks. Congress has, during this downturn, made benefits available for up to 99 weeks. But the extension is temporary, due to expire on November 30. And there’s no guarantee Congress will renew the extended benefits after the election. The last extension cleared the Senate only because Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins crossed party lines to vote with the Democrats. Will it be possible to pass another extended-benefits extension after the Republicans win more seats in the Senate, even if Democrats retain control? The odds aren’t good—some of the potential winners (most famously, Sharron Angle) actually believe in cutting unemployment benefits.

The best hope for the unemployed is some kind of long-term extension during the lame-duck session. Retiring Republican moderates, like New Hampshire’s Judd Gregg or Ohio’s George Voinovch, might feel free to vote as their conscience dictates, rather than how the party line demands. That, of course, assumes their consciences believe extending unemployment benefits is a priority. If it isn’t, or if the extension only lasts until the new Congress is sworn in, millions could lose their benefits.

Note that even if Congress saves the extended benefits, the extra-long-term unemployed are still in trouble. These “99ers” have been unemployed so long that they’ve run through the extended benefits, but aiding them has not been a significant priority for either party, in part because it’s hard to even get a good estimate of how many there are. But it’s improbable a Republican-controlled Congress will act to aid the 99ers.

[nancym]

It just infuriates me that this article and others seem to continue the misguided meme that the DOL has no reliable way to know how many have actually exhausted all benefits, thus leaving the only numbers floating around at about 2 million, which accounts for ONLY those who will be cut off on Nov 30.

While the DOL has not been able to track those people exactly, mainly due to the fact that some of the worst off states haven't turned in their numbers, the calculation is not rocket science to get an estimate rounded off to the nearest million. I've shown that numerous times on this and other forums, yet the media and the politicians seem to be blind to the same data. Especially since the net gain in jobs has remained about nil, that estimate is even easier to make.

By January, perhaps the end of January, there will be roughly FIVE to SIX million "99ers," that is, if you include those who never even got 99 weeks in the first place--those many who didn't qualify for that number either because of work history or because they live in states that didn't qualify. That figure does not even include the 2 million who will be cut off prematurely on Nov 30!--although there is a small overlap for those who managed to get state EB after getting 79 or fewer weeks of other benefits in a few states. But in states like Florida, there is no overlap at all after Nov 30, since that program ends abruptly.

I could repeat this until I'm blue in the face, yet it will be ignored because no one in the press or elsewhere seems to want to look at the actual figures that the DOL has posted on their website for all to see. The tables of those on EUC as of January 2010 don't lie, and no one magically gave 4/5 of those on Tier 4 in April either extra tiers or a job, so the 5-6 million figure becomes obvious to those who choose to look. That figure does include people like me who are in a sort of limbo, either taking refuge in school, or holding on to low-wage part-time or temp work for the time being. Does that mean that we've been absorbed back into the regular workforce?--hardly!

The only hope I see for the 99ers, a slim hope in this Congress now, is that this time around there actually are bills in existence that include an extra tier, like S. 3706, whereas in the spring there were no such bills when all the petitioning was going on. The Dems may be forced to compromise somewhere, probably on the tax cuts for the wealthy, or on some kind of spending cuts to get other packages through the needle-like timeframe of these coming 6 weeks (!) of this remaining Congressional session. And whether such bundled packages would include a UI extension, or a further stretch of a modest Tier V, is anybody's guess.

Even though NELP is giving out only that 2 million "premature" figure, they are making a new push to help the jobless, have dedicated an expanded website to the cause, and are making the effort a renewed campaign for the coming year. So people have nothing to lose by signing their petitions and all the petitions available out there. The more visibility for the cause right now the better, since there are a large number of other concerns that people are going to try to push through in those six weeks.

But it still is a lie to the public that only 2 million are affected by these decisions. Just because some bureaucrat in the DOL can't get a figure accurate to the decimal point, doesn't mean the data isn't there for general purposes. And if nothing is done to help, that lie will hit the country in the face in terms of more foreclosures, more tent cities, more bankruptcies, and more outrage in the coming months.

[sc4ram]

This is the first recent reporting Ive seen saying that Madam Pelosi has made extending EUC a priority in the lame duck Congress (House) . The way it is written doesnt make it look good for the 99ers...........


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/05/extended-unemployment-cou_n_775952.html

[nancym]

This from NELP about new HuffPost section:

Hey all -

A huge, 5-page dedicated virtual site-within-a-site on the campaign to continue the federal unemployment benefits programs:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/unemployment-extension

I thought you should know.
Thanks.

Mitchell Hirsch

Web & Campaign Associate
www.Unemployedworkers.org
National Employment Law Project
mhirsch@nelp.org
follow us on Twitter @laidoffleftout

212-285-3025 Ext. 352

[nancym]

One of those articles in the new HuffPost section, worth a read:

"Do Members Of Congress Understand Unemployment Benefits Legislation?"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/10/do-members-of-congress-un_n_781647.html

[sc4ram]

Good read, although not a surprise. Think of how many Congress people ran for re-election claiming not to know what was in the Health Care Reform bill (they supported) . (and that was a far reaching program compared to EUC) . There were several more members of Congress who admitted not reading the bill. scary all right

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http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_local_blogonomics/2010/11/unemployment-benefits-will-dry-up-unless-congress-acts.html

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Hard to tell if this is lip-service or not. At least someone in Neveda had the wherewithall to press the Senator on what he is doing on this issue, as the Unemployed in his state are probably responsible for his margin of victory in his re-election.

http://worldnewsvine.com/2010/11/senator-harry-reid-working-to-help-the-unemployed-including-the-99ers

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http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/29/news/economy/unemployment_benefits_extension_senate_bill/index.htm?iid=RNM

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/30/presidential-panel-on-tax_n_790023.html

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