Associated Press: ‘Republicans kill Senate jobless aid measure’
June 24th, 2010
Associated Press: ‘Republicans kill Senate jobless aid measure’
Haven’t Senate Republicans Cost Enough Americans Their Jobs Already?
GOP Unanimously Blocks Jobs Bill Again, Leaving Millions of Struggling Americans Without Unemployment Benefits and Threatening the Jobs of Hundreds of Thousands More
Washington D.C.– Americans United for Change Executive Director Tom McMahon issued the following statement blasting Senate Republicans’ job-killing, economy-crippling obstructionism of the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act tonight:
“Haven’t Republicans in Congress cost enough Americans their jobs already? Apparently it wasn’t enough for the GOP to enable the failed economic policies of the Bush era that led to the meltdown on Wall Street and left 8 million without jobs. It wasn’t enough for the GOP to repeatedly stand in the way of this President’s efforts to bring the economy back from the brink of depression, including the Recovery Act, which has since created or saved nearly 3 million jobs. Now they’re standing shoulder-to-shoulder against a jobs bill that, if not quickly passed, will leave millions of hurting Americans without unemployment benefits and force states across America to make extremely tough budget cuts that will cost as many as 900,000 public- and private-sector jobs – jobs held by nurses, firefighters, cops and teachers.
“The Republicans’ stated reason for their opposition makes no Earthly sense at all. Their insistence on a jobs bill that doesn’t increase the deficit in the short-term comes not only at the expense of hundreds of thousands of jobs but also long-term deficit reduction because fewer jobs mean less tax revenue and more people seeking out public assistance. The real reason behind blocking the jobs bill today no doubt stems from the Republicans’ cynical belief that their electoral prospects improve if America’s economy fails.
“It makes absolutely no sense for the American people, in either the near or long term, to force the state government to make difficult, job-cutting decisions to fill in the huge budget gaps widened further by cutting off additional Medicaid assistance. They should listen to the chorus of economists who stress that the unemployment benefits are among the most stimulative investments that can be made in a tough economy because laid off workers are more likely to spend the money quickly, giving the economy a shot in the arm.
“Interestingly, the same Republicans who are drawing this illogical line in the sand on the short-term deficit had no problem coming up with the money to bail out the Wall Street banks. They had no problems throwing the President Bush’s prescription drug program or the war in Iraq on the nation’s credit card.
“No one is buying the Republicans’ bogus rhetoric behind saying NO to helping Americans who need help the most. They don’t have to take our word for it. But they would be well advised to listen to the cops, nurses, teachers, firefighters and social workers that they will no doubt be hearing from tomorrow after threatening to put them in the unemployment lines. They may want to listen to the millions of unemployed Americans that now have to worry about where the grocery money is going to come from for their families as they continue to look for work. Are the phones working in their offices?