Nearly 43 Million Americans Have Filed For Unemployment, But McConnell and Senate Republicans Oppose Extending Enhanced Unemployment Benefits

DSCC spokesperson Stewart Boss issued the following statement on new unemployment numbers released today from the U.S. Department of Labor:

“With nearly 43 million Americans filing for unemployment in recent months, Majority Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans are failing the country by claiming there’s no ‘urgency’ for further action to address this economic and public health crisis. Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs and employer-provided health coverage, but McConnell and vulnerable Republicans are pushing to gut enhanced unemployment benefits, they have no plan to help make it less difficult for millions of uninsured Americans to get health insurance, and they are plowing forward with a dangerous lawsuit to tear down the entire health care law. Senate Republicans are playing partisan political games to undermine health care access and attack unemployment benefits in the middle of this pandemic, and voters won’t forget their out-of-touch priorities in November.”

A new report from POLITICO finds that Senate Republicans are refusing to extend enhanced unemployment benefits that expire at the end of July and have been an essential lifeline for families struggling with losing their jobs and income. The effort to block expanded UI benefits from continuing is part of “Republicans’ decadeslong efforts to shrink government” — although many GOP senators who voted against those benefits have also been “bragging” about them to constituents. Even endangered Senators Susan Collins and Cory Gardner, who voted for the benefits previously, are now siding with Mitch McConnell against renewing the program.

As millions have lost their employer-sponsored health insurance during this public health crisis, Republicans have also made it harder for out-of-work Americans to get health care by refusing to hold the Trump administration responsible for its unpopular decision to keep special enrollment closed, moved forward with their lawsuit to tear down the entire health care law that provides protections for pre-existing conditions and expanded Medicaid, and praised President Trump’s dangerously insufficient pandemic response. 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

POLITICO: Republicans face looming unemployment dilemma

GOP senators oppose the extra benefits, but letting them expire could be politically perilous.

By BURGESS EVERETT

June 4, 2020

Key Points:

• Forty million Americans are unemployed and extra unemployment benefits expire at the end of next month. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are grappling with deep ideological divisions over what to do with the popular program in the middle of a pandemic and an election year.

• Most Republicans have roundly rejected the House Democrats’ approach of extending a $600 weekly boost to unemployment checks though January 2021, and some say the enhanced benefits may need to end altogether.

• Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said “it might” need to go back to the normal state unemployment benefits, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said the additional funds were a “terrible idea [that] never should have passed in the first place.”

• Fights over unemployment benefits amid a recession have long been politically charged, pitting the need to aid a reeling population against Republicans’ decadeslong efforts to shrink government.

• Particularly if Senate Republicans want to hold onto their majority in November, they risk being seen as giving short shrift to so many jobless Americans three months before the election.

• But no Senate Republicans interviewed for this story — even the two who supported the $600-a-week benefit in March — said they support simply renewing it again.

• Some economists argue that an extra $600 per week is an efficient economic stimulus, since the money is likely to be quickly spent and pumped back into the economy. And there is little debate among Senate or House Democrats about extending the program.

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