Special Session Friday for Federal Emergency Unemployment Insurance Benefits

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I would like to think that I shamed Governor Brewer into calling a special session yesterday, but she is shameless and she doesn't care what anyone says here. Gov. Brewer opinion on emergency unemployment insurance benefits:

Just call the special session, governor, and keep them in session until you get what you want. That's called leadership. You are telegraphing that your only true intention here is to be able to say "oh well, I tried, but the big bad legislature just wouldn't go along. So sorry (not really)."

This analysis likely remains true. If the Tea-Publican legislature fails to pass this one word amendment to Arizona's unemployment insurance statutes, the governor will simply say "oh well, I tried, but the big bad legislature just wouldn't go along. So sorry (not really)." Like I said, she is shameless.

Governor Brewer calls special session to seek jobless benefits extension:

Ignoring objections from within her own party, Gov. Jan Brewer late Wednesday called lawmakers back to the Capitol in a bid to force them to extend jobless benefits for thousands of long-term unemployed.

"It will bring in $3.5 million a week into the economy for a while, and lift everybody's boat,'' Brewer told Capitol Media Services of the plan she wants enacted. "The bottom line is, these people that are out of work need money to put food on the table and to pay their mortgage, their rent.''

The governor said the issue affects close to 45,000 Arizonans. That includes nearly 15,000 who already are have been out of work more than 79 weeks and are collecting federally funded "extended benefits,'' and another 30,000 who are unemployed and whose payments will end at 79 weeks without the change in the law if they don't get work by the end of the year.

The governor's call for lawmakers to come to Phoenix on Friday is politically risky, with no guarantee of success. Many members of the governor's own Republican Party are balking, even though the cash for the benefits would come entirely from the federal government.

* * *

[Brewer] said Arizona's economy, with its 9.3 percent jobless rate, needs the stimulation the federal dollars can provide.

Anyway, Brewer said, Arizona legislators need to recognize that if they turn away the federal money it will go to other states where lawmakers already have made the necessary changes in the law to keep extended benefits for residents of their states.

"So, you know, what are we going to do: cut off our nose to spite our face?'' she asked.

"We need to go in, and we need to go in quickly,'' the governor said. And she took a slap at those who are balking.

"This is where we need leadership,'' she said. "We need people willing to do what's right for Arizona at these terrible economic times.''

Time is running out: Without legislative action, this coming week will be the last week of eligibility for extended benefits.

* * *

What is at issue is an additional 20 weeks of benefits, also paid from federal funds, which are available for people in states where the current jobless rate is at least 10 percent higher than either of the last two years.

A decline in the state's jobless rate in April means Arizonans will no longer qualify.

Federal law, however, allows each state to alter the formula to allow it to compare the current jobless rate with any of the last three years. That one-word change would keep the benefits flowing.

* * *

And, in a last-minute bid for GOP votes, she did agree to one more compromise: repeal a law which would otherwise mean an automatic hike in state unemployment insurance premiums when the federal jobless tax rate drops at the end of this month. That, too, is part of the agenda for Friday's session.

Brewer needs strong Republican support to get the extension: It takes a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate to make the change effective immediately to keep the checks flowing.

So what are the Tea-Publican objections to helping their fellow man during tough economic times?

Senate Majority Whip Steve Pierce, R-Prescott, said he and many Republicans believe, as a matter of principle, that providing benefits for nearly two years is wrong. Steve-O didn't have any problem voting for a corporate welfare bailout bill earlier this year (and he's asking for more corporate tax cuts now). Maybe the unemployed should incorporate and hire a lobbyist to call this corporate welfare instead of unemployment benefits, then Tea-Publicans will say "Well of course! I'll vote for that."

Sen. Frank Antenori, R-Tucson, said "We're not taking federal money, we're taking Chinese money,''  with that nation financing much of the United States deficit spending. "We're broke as a country, we're broke as a state, and we're spending money we don't have.''

Let's review Frank, Republicans in Congress financed the Bush tax cuts for corporations and the über-rich to the tune of some $2.5 trillion of borrowed money, got us into two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the tune of $1.5 trillion of borrowed money (est. at $3 trillion eventually), and financed the government subsidy to "Big Pharma" known as the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Benefit (according to the most recent estimate from early 2007) expected to cost $964 billion over 10 years, also on borrowed money.

And then Republicans created the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression with the Bush Great Recession. They bailed out their friends, the banksters of Wall Street, but told the rest of us "too bad for you."

And this dillhole Frank Antenori has the gall to claim to be concerned about a measly $70 million in unemployment benefits? ($3.5 million per week x 20 weeks). Why is this SOB still in office?

This special session is a litmus test for Arizona voters. Any member of the legislature who votes against a one word amendment to permit unemployed Arizonans to receive an additional 20 weeks of federal emergency unemployment insurance in this economy should have a recall filed against them the very next day. Just do it! They gotta go.