Obama Turns Up the Heat and Pressures Boehner to Restore Unemployment Benefits

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On New Year’s Day, the White House released a statement saying in no uncertain terms that the President will push for extended benefits to be reinstated for the 1.3 million people who were cutoff last week. Essentially, President Obama is placing pressure on Congressional Republicans to act, and act fast, to restore unemployment insurance to the jobless who have been out of work for a long time and rely on the money to live. Below is the full statement made by Gene B. Sperling, Director of the National Economic Council:

This New Year’s Day, there is likely less joy and more fear and distress in the homes of 1.3 million Americans who this week have seen their unemployment insurance suddenly cut off – a vital lifeline that these Americans depend on as they fight to find a job. There would be no better New Year’s resolution for Congress to make today than to commit to making the first new legislation for the new year the restoration of emergency unemployment insurance for those who have this week just been cut off.

Failing to extend emergency unemployment insurance through 2014 will negatively impact 14 million Americans – the 4.9 million workers who will see unemployment insurance cut off and the approximately 9 million additional family members they are supporting. But if Congress does the right thing and acts to extend emergency unemployment benefits through 2014, it is estimated to lead to 200,000 jobs and a fifth of a point of additional economic growth. This emergency unemployment insurance is temporary and by design will taper off as the unemployment falls around the nation.

The claims by some that those experiencing long-term unemployment are solely at fault are belied by the countless accounts of the names, faces and stories of responsible Americans among those 1.3 million who have worked hard their whole lives and are fighting to find a new job to support their families. Because these workers are only eligible for this emergency assistance if they are actively looking for work, extension will help encourage many of the long-term unemployed to keep at it even if they are getting discouraged.

We as Americans can choose to have each other’s backs when we face serious spells of long-term unemployment. In more than 50 years, we have never cut off emergency unemployment insurance when the rate of long-term unemployment was even above 50% of its current level, even though none of those recessions were nearly as deep as the one we are now recovering from. Serious studies make clear that those who are long-term unemployed face serious barriers to getting new jobs than can lead to lasting damage to their economic future. At a time when we as a nation should be moving forward in our efforts to help those who are long-term unemployed find new jobs, we should not take a harsh step backwards by abruptly cutting off their unemployment insurance.

The President strongly supports Majority Leader Harry Reid’s commitment to bring the bipartisan Reed-Heller bill for a vote the very first day the Senate returns on January 6th. By temporarily extending emergency unemployment insurance for three months, this bipartisan bill will provide benefits for over 2 million Americans when they need it most, and we urge every member of Congress to support this vitally important bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will bring this up for a vote as soon as Congress comes back into session on January 6th. It is expected to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate.There will be at least a handful of Republicans that vote for it as well. It all depends on whether or not Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) will bring this up for a vote or not. Obviously, all the Democrats in the House will vote for this. You also have to feel that there are a number of non-Tea Party members of the Republican caucus that don’t want to explain to their constituents why they let some of them suffer needlessly.

It will be very interesting to see how Boehner reacts to this. It is quite possible that Reid is going to get this over to the House by Monday evening. Will Boehner refuse to bring this up for a vote because he doesn’t have the ‘majority of the majority’ on his side? Will he cower, once again, to the Tea Party and show that Ted Cruz is the true leader of the House Republicans? Or will he realize that refusing extended benefits to over a million Americans who are already struggling mightily is extremely bad PR for the Republican Party and just bring it up for a vote, Tea Party be damned? It remains to be seen, but the ball is definitely in Boehner’s court.

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Justin Baragona

Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site's (@PoliticusSports).

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