Senator Snowe Writes Letter to Harry Reid About Standalone Bill

Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) wrote a letter to Harry Reid urging him to not give up on the unemployed and to pass a standalone bill to extend benefits. This has been viewed as disingenuous by Democrats since a standalone bill was already introduced on June 22 by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and killed in committee by Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Minority Leader. Snowe surely knew this fact, and her letter is widely being viewed as a cynical PR attempt to blunt the force of public criticism of Republicans for killing H.R. 4213.

Whether McConnell will now recant and allow cloture on the standalone bill remains to be seen.

Americans Angry About Senate's Refusal to Extend Benefits

Based on comments at the non-partisan opencongress.org site, Americans are angry at the Senate's rejection of H.R. 4213. The overwhelming majority of comments on the subject support the measure.

Really, they have a point. Republicans have no problem writing a nearly $1 trillion check to the Department of Defense every year. They had no problem (by and large) with bailing out reckless bankers. Now they hem and haw over $30 billion for the unemployed. It makes them look extremely hypocritical, not to mention mean and nasty.

Speaking of mean, nasty Republicans...

Chris Christie Wants to Make it Harder to Collect Unemployment in New Jersey

Governor Christie has vetoed a measure to prop up the state's bankrupt unemployment insurance program on grounds that it does not go far enough. Raising taxes on businesses to help keep the program afloat will hurt business and job creation in the state, according to Christie. (At least there is some logic to this position, however flawed -- businesses are not going to not hire based on paying an extra couple of hundred dollars a year for each employee. If they need people to do work, they'll find that pittance. The problem is, they don't need people to do work right now.)

Additionally, Christie wants language included that would make it impossible for people fired for misconduct to collect benefits. This actually does make some sense. In neighboring New York, being fired for grounds disqualifies a worker from collecting.

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That's the way it was today, June 28, 2010, on the unemployment beat. (I love typing that.)