By CHAD SELWESKI
Chad.selweski@macombdaily.com; @cbsnewsman
The Capitol Hill battle over providing another extension of unemployment benefits has created a sharp divide between Macomb County’s two representatives, with Democrat Sander Levin arguing that the economy has not improved sufficiently to limit unemployment checks to 20 weeks and Republican Candice Miller insisting that a 99-week maximum is out of the question.
Following a hearing held by a Democratic House panel on the approaching Dec. 28 deadline to provide another extension, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said her Democratic colleagues will not approve any budget deal in the coming weeks that does not include a lengthy continuation of unemployment insurance.
If the federally funded extension expires, nearly 44,000 jobless workers in Michigan will immediately lose their benefits and an additional 86,500 unemployed people across the state will see their compensation terminated in the first six months of 2014. Most states finance 26 weeks of unemployment checks but Gov. Rick Snyder and the Republican-controlled Legislature lowered Michigan’s maximum to 20 weeks.
At Thursday’s Capitol Hill hearing, Levin called GOP foes of lasting benefits “cold-hearted” for passing judgment without talking with struggling jobless workers.
“… Finding work remains very difficult in an economy that still has 1.5 million fewer jobs than before the recession started six years ago. We have never had anything close to such a sustained jobs deficit after any recent downturn,” said Levin, a Royal Oak Democrat who represents most of Macomb County.
“It has been said that (the extension) was adopted ‘for extraordinary circumstances that are disappearing.’ No. These extraordinary circumstances continue …”
But Republicans balk at the cost and argue that another extension four years after the peak of the Great Recession creates a disincentive to work.
Miller, a Harrison Township Republican, said that a 99-week compensation system would go “way too far.” On Thursday morning she said that the Obama administration had extended no modest proposals.
“We have seen no proposal whatsoever from the president, so how much of a priority is this?” the congresswoman said. “At some point … the president has to become engaged.”
However, within the hour the White House stepped up with a plan to help long-term unemployed Americans, arguing that 1.3 million people will lose the assistance if it isn't renewed by the end of the month, slowing economic growth in the process.
The White House Council of Economic Advisers and the Labor Department concluded that if Congress allows benefits to expire in three weeks, 3.6 million people will lose access to benefits by the end of 2014.
Democrats say the program in place since 2008 that gives federally paid benefits to jobless people after their 26 weeks of state benefits run out must continue when the national unemployment rate stands at 7.0 percent. In Michigan, the jobless rate lingers at 9 percent.
The CEA report notes that Congress has renewed the benefits when unemployment has been lower than the current level.
The Congressional Budget Office concluded that the Democratic legislation would cost $25 billion but it would stimulate the economy and create 200,000 jobs.
More than 11 million Americans remain unemployed; of those, more than 4 million have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks.
The last big fight on Capitol Hill over unemployment insurance occurred two years ago, when the debate also centered on what amount of economic improvement constitutes the need to pull the plug on federal money for extended benefits.
In Michigan, current jobless workers have received unemployment checks for an average of 49 weeks. But since that last political battle in 2011, the number of state workers on the jobless rolls has declined by 50 percent.
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