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November 16, 2002

House GOP to Unemployed- Drop Dead

Having passed a miniscule 5-week extension of unemployment benefits, the House GOP has said that if the Senate passed a more generous bill, they won't consider it.

a spokesman for Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois said the House had no intention of considering the Senate unemployment plan. "We're done, we're closed up," said the spokesman, John Feehery. "Why don't they do ours?"

Three Republican senators — Gordon H. Smith of Oregon, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Peter G. Fitzgerald of Illinois — joined Democrats to push for added unemployment benefits. They argued that the House version was too stingy, given the economy's continuing struggles. They said their plan would cover two million people nationwide through March while the House approach would take in only 800,000 through January.

If the House and the Senate cannot agree, then extended benefits — those beyond the standard 26 weeks — will expire for thousands on Dec. 28. "It would be unconscionable," Mr. Specter said, "for the Congress to adjourn without taking care of so many people who are unemployed with the economic downturn that has resulted from Sept. 11."

If progressives want an issue to pound mercilessly, it is this one. Rather than negotiate a compromise with moderate Republicans in the Senate, the House GOP prefers to leave millions of people with no income on January 1st.

If progressives and Democrats don't pound the hell out of the GOP on this issue, it just shows they deserved to lose on November 5.

Posted by Nathan at November 16, 2002 04:37 AM

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