Ohio's Boehner offers deal on extending jobless benefits, but conditions apply

COLUMBUS, Ohio (CGE) - As advocates for extending unemployment benefits mount another coordinated run to convince Congressional members returning for a lame-duck session to give the nation's jobless another lifeline to keep the rent paid and food on the table as the holiday seasons approaches, Republicans who were invigorated by their sweeping wins two weeks ago but who won't be in control of the U.S. House of Representatives for another six weeks, may be willing to play ball before the witching hour of November 30th, but only on a field of their choice.

Can you spare more jobless benefits?

The argument being made by Democrats, progressives and allied forces like labor unions, who have repeatedly backed one extension of unemployment benefits after another, is that emergency benefits for workers who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks is not only the morally right thing to do but also the economically smart thing to do, notwithstanding its affect on the nation's rising level of debt.

"It is outrageously hypocritical that the same lawmakers who say we cannot afford to maintain UI [unemployment insurance] for the jobless in this horrible economy are demanding Congress extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich that will cost the nation more than $700 billion," reads a script supporters are being asked to deliver to Ohio senators Sherrod Brown and George Voinovich.

At stake is income for about two million unemployed workers, many of whom are among the so-called "99ers" who have been jobless for up to 99 weeks. Since Congress started federal extended benefits in July 2008, help for jobless workers has occurred seven times. Yet without another extension of income help now, jobless workers in most states would receive a maximum of 26 weeks of benefits through their regular state programs.

In Ohio, where the state unemployment program has gone dry trying to service the hundreds of thousands who have become jobless over the last four years, borrowing from Washington has created a payback liability of several billion dollars.

Ripple effect of jobless benefits

And in a Labor Dept. report scheduled for release this week, the Wall Street Journal reports that every dollar spent on unemployment insurance has the effect of $2 spent in the economy.

WSJ reporters Janet Hook and Sara Murray write that the report, commissioned by the Bush administration and conducted by research firm IMPAQ International and the Urban Institute think tank, shows an average of 1.6 million jobs were preserved each quarter because of unemployment insurance and 1.8 million job losses were averted in the depths of the current recession.

"When you give a dollar to the unemployed they're the most likely to spend it," Betsey Stevenson, the Labor Department's chief economist, told the reporters.

Last Wednesday, Working America, the community-organizing affiliate of the AFL-CIO, organized a protest at Ohio Cong. John Boehner's office in Troy, Ohio. The event featured stringing up a few hundred job applications and jobs petitions, according to The Huffington Post. "Boehner, don't do us wrong, stop stringing us along," the protesters, who were "greeted by a handful of Boehner fans," chanted.

Working America, which claims 50,000 unemployed members in Ohio, told HuffPost's Arthur Delaney that the protest focused on the impending Nov. 30 expiration of federally-funded extended jobless aid. If Congress fails to reauthorize the program, WA's regional director Dan Heck, using job figures from the National Employment Law Project, said "two million people will prematurely stop receiving checks by the end of the year.

Boehner's offer

In a statement to CGE from Boehner's Ohio press secretary, the soon-to-be speaker of the U.S. House said he's willing to deal with Democrats, but conditions apply.

“Boehner has supported extending unemployment benefits but has called on Democrats to offset the cost with spending cuts, which they have repeatedly refused to do," said Cory Fritz in an email lo CGE. "With lawmakers gathering for the so-called ‘lame duck’ session this week, Boehner is hopeful that Democrats and Republicans will return to Washington ready to act on behalf of the majority of Americans who are demanding that Congress help small businesses grow our economy and put people back to work by cutting government spending and freezing all current tax rates.”

During his time in Congress, Boehner, who won another two-year term two weeks ago and who leadership qualities will be challenged by how well he can harness the new Republicans who won office with the help of the so-called anger and rage of Tea Party supporters, has been both a rebel and a compromiser.

But with a short session before Congress again departs Washington for the Thanksgiving break, whether Boehner can deliver a meal everyone can partake with respect to reaching an accommodation on jobless worker benefits or whether the turkey everyone is looking forward to eating will look more like the Grinch that stole Thanksgiving has yet to be determined.

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