Some Notes on Unemployment Insurance

While Congressional Democrats are calling for an emergency extension of federal unemployment benefits, Republicans have a different idea. And unless enough public pressure mounts, Republicans may win this issue.

During this week’s State of the Union address President Obama said, “This Congress needs to restore the unemployment insurance you just let expire for 1.6 million people.” Democrats cheered and applauded this remark but Republicans sat on their hands and remained silent.

The program that Republicans killed at the end of 2013 calls for workers who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks to collect up to 47 weeks of extended benefits. Because of the refusal by Republicans to renew this program, only one quarter of all unemployed in the U.S. are now collecting any benefits at all.

Republican Senator Rand Paul explained the reasons behind the GOP’s refusal to extend benefits. “I do support unemployment benefits for the 26 weeks they’re paid for,” Paul told the New York Times. “If you extend it beyond that, you do a disservice to these workers. When you allow people to be on unemployment insurance for 99 weeks, you’re causing them to become part of this perpetual unemployed group in our economy.”

Paul’s remarks are the same thing as saying everyone on unemployment is lazy and doesn’t want to find work. It’s remarkable, considering that Paul made those remarks on the same day that more than 3,000 people lined up to apply for jobs at a Target store opening in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In the last year we have read more than a few times about thousands lining up for minimum wage jobs at retail outlets that are opening. Not too long ago McDonalds reported that it had hired 62,000 people for minimum wage, part-time jobs — out of more than 938,000 people who applied. And the Internet is littered with stories about hard working men and women who have been unable to find new employment six months, a year and even more than two years after losing their previous jobs.

Indeed, an overwhelming percentage of the unemployed in the U.S are people who have worked their whole lives! They are not lazy moochers looking for a handout, as Senator Rand Paul suggests. They are people who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty, people who don’t mind wiping sweat from their brows, people who have families to feed.

If ever there was a good yardstick to measure the fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans it is the current situation involving unemployment. Democrats want to provide a lifeline to millions by extending benefits, Republicans want to do nothing. Democrats realize that unemployment benefits keep families above the poverty level, keep many small businesses in operation and contribute to economic growth. Republicans only want to hear about more tax cuts. These are the differences between the two parties that union members hope to show voters heading to the ballot box later this year, when a full one-third of the U.S. Senate and the entire House of Representatives are up for election.