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 Federal unemployment benefits will officially expire for 1.3
million out-of-work Americans on Saturday. With Congress in recess,
no last-minute fix is possible.
Democrats have spent much of the holiday week criticizing
Republicans for resisting an extension of the emergency jobless aid
program, which began in 2008 under President George W. Bush and has
been extended every year since then.
The federal benefits kick in once people exhaust their state jobless
benefits, which end in many states after 26 weeks.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to make an extension of
the benefits the top issue in his chamber when Congress returns on
January 6.
The issue is part of an economic agenda aimed at winning support
from middle-class Americans. Along with the push for an extension of
unemployment insurance, Democrats will also push for an increase in
the minimum wage.
The renewal of unemployment benefits is expected to face opposition
in the Republican-led House of Representatives, but Democrats said
this week they are increasingly optimistic about gaining political
traction for the issue.
Democrats have been highlighting the personal stories of out-of-work
Americans about to be bumped off the unemployment rolls.
PLIGHT OF MOTHERS
An ad running on cable television by the liberal group Americans
United for Change accuses Republicans of putting the interests of
the wealthy above those of ordinary Americans and spoiling Christmas
for the unemployed.
Earlier this week, House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy
Pelosi, a Democrat, held a conference call with reporters to
highlight the plight of unemployed mothers.
The White House is also hammering the message.
"As the president has repeatedly made clear, it defies economic
sense, precedent and our values to allow 1.3 million Americans
fighting to find jobs to see their unemployment insurance abruptly
cut off — especially in the middle of the holiday season," Gene
Sperling, director of the White House National Economic Council,
said in a statement.
Obama, who is spending the holidays in Hawaii with his family, on
Friday telephoned Democratic Senator Jack Reed and Republican
Senator Dean Heller, the sponsors of a measure that would
temporarily extend the federal unemployment benefits.
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Congressional Democrats, on the defensive over the botched rollout
of Obama's signature healthcare law, view a focus on economic issues
as a chance to improve their prospects in the midterm congressional
elections in November.
Reviving a strategy that helped Obama win re-election in 2012,
Democrats plan to use Republican resistance to renewing unemployment
benefits and raising the minimum wage to portray them as insensitive
to the struggles of middle- and lower-income Americans.
CLOCK TICKING
"The clock is ticking, not only for 1.3 million Americans who have
been looking for work for longer than six months, but tens of
thousands more who each week will lose their unemployment insurance
if House Republican leaders don't agree to put an extension up for a
vote," said Representative Sander Levin, ranking Democrat on the
House Ways and Means Committee.
Democrats have seized on a comment earlier this month from
Republican Senator Rand Paul that extending the unemployment
benefits would be a "disservice" to those out of work by giving them
less of an incentive to rejoin the workforce more quickly.
Republicans have argued that the federal unemployment benefits were
always meant to be temporary and that the program would add to the
deficit unless offset by reductions in spending elsewhere in the
budget.
"We're not going to convince (Republicans) substantively that it's
the right thing to do. We have to put political pressure on them,"
said Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change.
The proposal by Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, and Heller, a Nevada
Republican, would extend the federal unemployment benefits for three
months.
(Reporting by Caren Bohan; editing by Fred Barbash, Andrew Hay and
Jan Paschal)
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