Gridlocked Senate fails again to pass unemployment extension

WASHINGTON– On Wednesday night, a bare-bones measure to keep federally funded unemployment insurance checks headed to the long-term unemployed failed in the Senate. Moderate Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine had signed on to vote for cloture on the $34 billion bill. But without Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), who passed away earlier in the week, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) — the majority leader who hails from the state with the worst unemployment rate in the country — once again found himself stuck at 59 votes. By the time Byrd’s replacement is in place, in mid-July, two million Americans will have lost their benefits, and the bill extending them will have languished for some 11 weeks.

Reid searching for one more vote to advance unemployment extension bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is telling reporters today that he has won the votes of two Republicans for his extension of federal unemployment insurance benefits. He says he is one vote away from having 60 senators to vote…

Recovery-busting unemployment and foreclosure crises roil on

The Washington Independent’s Annie Lowery today drills into the deep end of the linked unemployment and foreclosure crises, contrasting a story of impending family homelessness and the so far mostly failed efforts in Washington to boost the national economy…

Unemployment rate drops to 9.7%, GOP leaders unmoved

The economy added 431,000 jobs last month, dropping the national unemployment rate from 9.9 percent to 9.7 percent, the Department of Labor Statistics announced this morning.

But Republicans, who a month ago were saying that they’d recognize progress…

Schwarzenegger calls out GOP stimulus hypocrisy

Here’s a profound idea from California GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who went after congressional Republicans yesterday for criticizing the Democrats’ stimulus bill one moment, then taking credit for the money the legislation is providing their districts the next.

Study: Millions to lose unemployment benefits

For millions of unemployed workers, the recession is poised to go from bad to worse. More than 3.2 million laid-off Americans will prematurely exhaust their unemployment insurance in the first quarter of next year unless Congress intervenes, an advocacy group warned Monday.

Jobless benefits extension muddled by lawmaker wrangling

Mike Lillis at the Washington Independent sends the following dispatch from the frontlines in the partisan war to extend benefits to the vast ranks of the unemployed.

“To hear the Democrats tell the tale,” he writes,…

Republicans ratchet up concern they’ll be stiff-armed in health-reform debate

After three weeks of stalling over controversial amendments to legislation extending unemployment benefits, Senate GOP leaders are floating a new message as they criticize the way Democrats have managed the process: they’re trying to paint the unemployment insurance…