#UnemploymentBenefits
Pres OBAMA is now pushing CONGRESS to Extend UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS after he already signed the Federal Budget Bill.
Why didn't his Administration push for Congress to Extend UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS before he signed the 2014 Budget legislation??
And where are the JOBS??
Answer:
IT'S NOT ABOUT THE PEOPLE, IT'S JUST MORE PARTISAN POLITICS.
ARTICLE: "White House Unemployment Benefits Push Kicks Into High Gear"
President Barack Obama returns from his Hawaii holiday toting a familiar message — blame the Republicans — as the White House and its allies launch a fresh weeklong effort to spotlight Congress’s failure to renew long-term unemployment benefits.
The push kicks into high gear Tuesday, as the president hosts a group of unemployed Americans at the White House.
That event — which comes as Democrats ramp up what they hope is a midterm-friendly focus on income inequality — will be followed by daily White House efforts to keep the story in the news, a White House official said. Obama’s political arm, Organizing for Action, has also planned events in 30 cities Tuesday to pressure Republicans, according to people familiar with the plans.
Labor and progressive groups are organizing phone calls to the Capitol and holding a Wednesday rally there featuring unemployed workers and supportive Democratic members of Congress. And on Thursday, Americans United for Change will begin airing TV ads to make the case that the GOP alone is responsible for the cancelled unemployment benefits.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has said he would consider any unemployment benefit extension only if it is paid for, a position Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck reiterated Sunday.
But National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling said in an interview airing Sunday on “Meet the Press” that precedent from the George W. Bush years dictates unemployment benefits be extended without being paid for.
“Fourteen of the last 17 times that emergency unemployment’s been extended there have been no strings attached,” Sperling said. “All five times that President Bush extended unemployment benefits there were no pay-fors.”
And a White House official said there’s no need to offset spending in the three-month extension Senate Democrats and Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) have proposed.
“There is no reason why we should have to offset emergency UI because it brings back more money into the economy than it spends, and Congress has passed bipartisan emergency extensions in the past without strings attached,” the White House official said.
Democrats think the issue is high political ground for them — an area far more advantageous than Obamacare and its tortured roll-out.
It comes as the White House is preparing a season of events focusing on income inequality and a minimum wage hike that has no hope of passing the House.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was characteristically blunt in a call with reporters Sunday: He’s looking to close the book on health care as a political albatross for Democrats and, with the midterm elections looming, move the discussion to friendlier issues like the unemployment benefits extension and increasing the minimum wage.
“If Republicans block this renewal, I think that it will have an effect and hurt their chances in the 2014 elections,” Schumer said. “For the first five years of President Obama’s term, the two biggest issues were the deficit and Obamacare, but not anymore.”
Schumer added: “Our politics are changing and the issues which have dominated our politics in the past, they’re not unimportant, but these types of issues will supersede them.”
And Sperling, during his “Meet the Press” appearance, echoed Obama’s open invitation to Republicans to join his efforts to push his broader agenda.
“It’s time for Republicans to work with the president on the bipartisan opportunities we have for job creation in housing finance reform, in immigration, on manufacturing,” he said.
Though Obama returned Sunday from two quiet weeks in Hawaii, the White House has done what it can to keep unemployment insurance in the news ahead of his arrival. Sperling issued a New Year’s Day statement saying extending unemployment benefits through the end of 2014 would “lead to 200,000 jobs.” Labor Secretary Tom Perez held a conference call with reporters Friday and will take a public role in pushing for the extension this week.
Obama’s event Tuesday was planned before Christmas, a White House official said, and another is in the works a few weeks from now to spotlight the economic impact of the long-term unemployed.
The official maintained that the White House does not view the unemployment benefit extension as a political issue, but rather is worried about a negative economic impact.
Obama, in his weekly radio address, put the onus on the GOP to back the three-month extension the Senate will vote on Monday.
“Instead of punishing families who can least afford it, Republicans should make it their New Year’s resolution to do the right thing, and restore this vital economic security for their constituents right now,” Obama said.
The Saturday radio address marked the second time Obama in a month used the venue to blast Republicans for resisting the unemployment benefits extension.
“That economic lifeline is in jeopardy,” he said in his Dec. 7 address. “All because Republicans in this Congress — which is on track to be the most unproductive in history — have so far refused to extend it.”
Yet there is a question among some progressive groups of how long the White House will push for unemployment insurance if no deal with Republicans is reached soon.
Progressive groups say that while they will be pressuring Republicans to pass the unemployment insurance extension, they will also be applying more subtle pressure on the White House and leading Democrats to stay focused on unemployment until legislation passes.
“What we fear is people are getting used to the idea that unemployment is running out and people will move onto other issues,” said the AFL-CIO’s Bill Samuel. “Unless certain elected officials continue to talk about it, it will be hard to keep it in the news.
Individual unemployed workers try, but they can’t do it themselves.”
Source: Politico
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