Obama calls on GOP to end political wrangling and to help pass jobless benefits extension

Obama calls on GOP to end political wrangling and to help pass jobless benefits extension
Copyright: Reuters 2010
12:19 p.m. CDT, July 19, 2010
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-obama-unemployment,0,3509381.story


(Reuters) - President Barack Obama accused his Republican opponents Monday of playing election-year politics by refusing to join with Democrats in approving an extension of U.S. jobless benefits.

Obama, under pressure to reduce the 9.5 percent U.S. jobless rate, sought to direct some of Americans' frustration over the sputtering economy toward the Republicans, who are hoping for big gains in Nov. 2 congressional elections.

In Rose Garden remarks, Obama said Republicans have opposed a $34 billion extension of benefits for the unemployed in this instance but had voted for such an extension when Republican President George W. Bush had asked for them.

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Republicans say they would support the benefits but want them to be paid for with spending cuts instead of simply using borrowed money that adds to the ballooning U.S. national debt.

"It's time to stop holding workers laid off in this recession hostage to Washington politics. It's time to do what's right, not for the next election, but for the middle class," Obama said with three unemployed workers joining him on steps of the Rose Garden.

Democrats hold a 58-41 advantage over Republicans in the Senate, but need 60 votes to overcome parliamentary blocking maneuvers. Their 59th will come on Tuesday when West Virginia Democrat Carte Goodwin is sworn in to fill the vacancy left by the death of Senator Robert Byrd.

The benefits package should pass Tuesday or Wednesday because Democrats are expected to get favorable votes from two Maine Republicans, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, while losing Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson.

Senate Republicans have argued that the $34 billion cost of extending benefits through November could be covered by cutting other programs.

"If we can't pay for a program like extension of unemployment insurance that … every member of the Senate wants to extend, then what are we going to pay for?" Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on CNN Sunday.

Obama said the Republican argument ran hollow "after years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit."

"Times are hard right now, we are moving in the right direction, I know it's getting close to an election, but there are times where you put elections aside. This is one of those times," he said.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 36 Senate seats are up for grabs in November, and most political experts believe it is possible Republicans could win the House and challenge Democratic control of the Senate.

A poll conducted for Third Way, a moderate think tank, suggested that Republicans have been successful at shedding the economic image of deficit spending left over from the Bush years.

It said two-thirds of Americans now see congressional Republicans and their economic ideas as new and completely separate from those of the former president.

"If in November, voters continue to believe that Republican ideas are new and different from President Bush, the poll shows they could win control of Congress. But the poll also showed a glimmer of light for Democrats, indicating that if they can tie their opponents to Bush's economic ideas, they can win," Third Way said.