John Boehner and House Republicans skipped town for Memorial Day vacation while still refusing to vote on the Senate passed unemployment benefits extension.
Roll Call reported, “House Republican leaders have no plans to take up the Senate-passed unemployment benefits extension and only a handful of them are calling for restoring the benefits. Obama has yet to make a personal appeal to Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, and apparently uninterested in the type of hardball horse-trading (video) it would likely take to resurrect the issue.”
Chief Democratic budget negotiator Sen. Patty Murray made a big mistake when she didn’t insist on the unemployment benefits extension being included in the deal. She thought that the extension could be negotiated separately, and it was in the Senate. President Obama and many congressional Democrats wanted the extension included because they didn’t trust the Republican controlled House.
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Democrats were right. Boehner has repeatedly refused to bring the unemployment benefits extension to the floor for a vote in the House. It has now been five months since the benefits expired for the long-term unemployed, and there is no sign that Speaker Boehner has any intention of ever allowing a vote on the bill.
Boehner and his House colleagues think it is good politics to push millions of unemployed Americans deeper into poverty. When Boehner is playing golf and enjoying his holiday, millions of Americans are struggling to survive. House Republicans aren’t going to extend unemployment benefits, and they deserve to be called for every moment that they skip town while they are needlessly harming millions of hard working men and women.
Enjoy your vacation Republicans, with any luck, you too will soon join the ranks of the unemployed.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
