Democrats launch effort to renew jobless benefits

“While our economy has made enormous progress, the severity of the recession continues to ripple throughout our nation and we must maintain this vital insurance for the long-term unemployed.”

Rep. Sander Levin (D., Mich.) to The Wall Street Journal

Con

“If the White House has a plan in mind we’ll take a look, but it would be better for the president to focus on helping the unemployed find jobs.”

— Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, to The Wall Street Journal

Democrats on Capitol Hill have launched a drive to renew jobless benefits nationwide for people out of work for more than six months.

Benefits for 1.3 million long-term unemployed people expire just three days after Christmas. Lawmakers say that unless there is a renewal, another 1.9 million people would miss out on the benefits in the first six months of next year.

“This is a human crisis for hundreds of thousands of people,” said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich.

At issue are federally paid benefits available to out-of-work people after state benefits — in most cases, lasting 26 weeks — run out. The additional federal benefits, typically provided during periods of high unemployment, have been in place since 2008, though fewer weeks of extended jobless benefits are available than in previous years.

It’s not clear whether the latest effort to extend the benefits will succeed as previous efforts have. Republicans are likely to insist that the $25 billion cost of extending the benefits be couples with cuts elsewhere in the budget.

Levin and other Democrats announced the latest drive at a news conference at the Capitol. They displayed charts highlighting the weakness of the ongoing economic recovery, in which many unemployed people are spending longer stretches without work or are leaving the workforce.

“They’re not looking for a handout. They believe in the dignity of work,” Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., said of the unemployed. “They’re looking for a lifeline.”

Levin and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., introduced the legislation on Wednesday but supporters are looking to budget negotiations between Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., as the best opportunity to advance the proposal.

Economists say continuing the benefits would also help prop up the economy because unemployed people generally spend their weekly benefits on necessities, rather than saving the money, and that cutting them off would mean less consumption.

The Congressional Budget Office, for instance, concluded in a report last year that a dollar’s worth of unemployment benefits has “one of the largest effects on employment per dollar of budgetary cost.”

Republicans, however, are skeptical, saying they think the money would be better spent promoting job growth,