The popular "Crew of 42" blog that covers the Congressional Black Caucus has reported that CBC leader, Representative Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO) said that the cost of H.R. 589, the unemployment extension so many millions of 99ers are desperate for is “cost prohibitive”.
The blog provides a detailed description of Rep. Cleavers exchange with President Obama reportedly detailed by Representative Cleaver:
“It was what I expected because my staff had done a lot of research on it. And we found that the cost of that program would be between $14 and 20 billion dollars which is cost prohibitive. So there was no point in the President saying, ‘yeah I support it…’ when I laid it out I said to him, ‘Mr. President, I’m going to raise this, and this is one of our issues because this is one of our issues — it’s an issue among our members…’ I ended it by saying, however, I understand that the cost is enormous. He (President Obama) said (to Rob Nabors sitting on the sofa) ‘Rob how much is it?’ And Rob said, ‘between 14 and 20 billion’ and I said, let’s move on. Because there was no point — that’s not going to happen”
With many Democrats in Congress purportedly willing to cut spending with the intent of making H.R. 589 deficit neutral Representative Cleavers comments and defeatist attitude strike some as bizarre or worse. “I feel that the CBC made promises to the 99ers that they couldn't keep and should have been more assertive when presenting the bill to Obama. I am discouraged and do not feel that any extension will be passed. If the CBC could not get Obama to support us, how can we expect Boehner and Cantor to support it?” said former 99er and continuing advocate for the benefit expired unemployed, Rochelle Hurwitz Sevier.
Ms. Sevier brings up a valid point, with Representatives Bobby Scott and Barbara Lee set to meet with the Republican leadership in the coming days doesn’t Representative Cleavers lackluster advocacy for this bill throttle any chance of bi-partisan support or was this just another political game played at the expense of people running out of air?
99ers are exhausted, their energies overdrawn by the battle to merely survive. “Cost prohibitive” is a term that slashes at the soul of someone comprised of breath, blood, and bone who is withering away. Is their existence “cost prohibitive”? Are the dues they have paid trying to get someplace in this country now deemed worthless? The promises of a limitless sky they made to their children now hollow?
How can it be “cost prohibitive” to pour $1.61 into this limping economy for every dollar you give to the unemployed? How can it be “cost prohibitive” to help stave the tide of foreclosures, keep hunger at bay, and slow the slide toward homelessness?
We have not just a human responsibility but a vested economic interest in the eased struggle of 99ers, a group of passionate, displaced workers who number in the millions and need this economy as much as this economy needs them.
J.D. Galvin, a 99er explains his re-adusted American dream, “Will I ever be back to where I was in my former financial bracket? Nope. Will I find something in my job market? Nope. There is not anything that would give me a positive outlook in that area. Right now, I can only hope that I get a job that will pay enough to pay rent some place and feed both my wife and I. All of that seems pretty much impossible though.”
And yet as days pass for Mr. Galvin, and people like him disappear to the streets of obscurity and the circle of poverty, rendered irretrievable and inescapable while our poorly labeled “leaders” offer only vague words and empty promises that are worthless to a 99er. Filling not one plate, and covering not one cold body because the thirst of this existence is only satiated by true action, by the help 99ers deserve and the jobs 99ers want.
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