GOP Blocks Unemployment Extension - "No deficit"

Republicans insist on using Stimulus Package money

In a hassle over how to pay for it, Congress refused to
extend unemployment benefits for 1.3 million laid-off
workers before they adjourned for a week-long 4th of July
vacation.

Economists estimate that the total figure of unemployed when
added to the 1.3 million who lost their compensation in May
when it ran out will soon balloon to more than 3 million
workers with no income by the end of this month.

The House of Representatives passed the extension 270-153.
When the bill reached the Senate floor, Republicans bowed up
and refused to give their approval after an extended wrangle
over where the money should come from.

They want to use unspent funds from the economic bailout
proposed by President Obama, a move that would not add any
more to the budget deficit.

Democrats refuse to give their assent to that. They say the
money is needed for jobs programs.

Republicans argued bitterly. They say the stimulus package
includes many pet projects of the Democratic Party that
could be cut to pay for the unemployment measure, which, if
approved, would extend unemployment benefits up to 99 weeks.

If the measure had passed, it would have cost $33.9 billion
in borrowed funds, a figure to be added to the budget
deficit.

The result: Wise heads say the measure might have a better
chance after the Governor of West Virginia appoints a
replacement for Senator Robert C. Byrd, who died earlier
this week after the longest term of any other member of the
Senate in history.

Typical comments from both sides of the aisle went like
this.

"Americans are not receiving their unemployment checks
because Democrats refuse to pay for these benefits at a time
of record federal deficits," said Representative Dave Camp
of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means
Committee.

Representative Sander Levin, (D-Mich.) "It is hard to
understand how anybody can come to this floor and say, for
1.7 million people and their famiies, this is not an
emergency. There is no excuse for voting no."