Today's Unemployment Insurance News

by: Hopeful

Mon Mar 01, 2010 at 07:40:16 PM EST

With 27 states having borrowed about $30 billion from the feds to pay their unemployment claims, it is "just not possible" to cover all of the costs "in this budget climate," Menendez said following a meeting of New Jersey's congressional delegation with Gov. Chris Christie today. Menendez said he would work to delay New Jersey's interest payments, or perhaps forgive them entirely, to provide some degree of federal help.

It's too bad Christie contributed to this climate with his attacks on the stimulus, but after all, it worked out for him.

Meanwhile, Senators Lautenberg and Menendez are outraged that Republican SenatorJim Bunning continues to block unemployement insurance.

"At the stroke of midnight, more than one million jobless Americans lost critical benefits they rely on to help pay for housing, feed their families and afford health care," said Sen. Lautenberg.   "Blocking unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits is proof positive that Republicans care more about scoring political points than helping working families survive these tough economic times.  Families are struggling every day to make ends meet, and I will work to end this Republican filibuster as soon as possible."

I agree with 100% with Lautenberg, but as we asked before, what's he going to doabout it? If this is so critical, why was it left for the last weekend? Why did the Senate go into recess instead of working through the cloture delay all weekend? When will Democrats pledge to reform the rules against these endless filibuster delays, and why not threaten the Republican-created idea of the nuclear constitutional option? Why isn't the President on network TV denouncing this? (Okay, network TV is talking about Bunning.)

In the "surprising side effects category," it turns out that Bunning has also stopped the "Medicare fix" meaning that doctors get an immediate 21% reduction in their fees for seeing Medicare patients. These are the cuts that Republicans like Frank LoBiondo made law but now posture against. In addition, thousands of people have been thrown out of work by Bunning. It's pathetic, and while Republicans are responsible, Democrats are their enablers.