U.S. Senate to Take Up Unemployment Benefits

Tonight the U.S. Senate plans to take up legislation to extend emergency jobless benefits for those who’ve been out of work six months or longer. Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan says that money helps pay for expenses related to finding a job, like transportation and a phone.

Democrats who want emergency unemployment benefits extended have a tightrope to walk, of sorts. They need to show why these benefits are needed for individuals without putting too much emphasis on an economy still struggling to recover in an election year under a Democratic president.

Pocan says the economy has been “difficult” and Democratic efforts to extend jobless benefits — preventing cuts to food stamps or raising the minimum wage — have met resistance.

“It seems like in Washington instead of a ‘War on Poverty’ these days, we have a War on the ‘War on Poverty,’” Pocan says. “There’s really a war on the poor.”

Last month, nearly 24,000 Wisconsin residents lost their benefits and an additional 1,600 in the Badger State will lose unemployment each week if Congress doesn’t extend them.

Danielle MacDonald has been without a job since last October when she was laid off by a medical device maker in Monona. She hasn’t found a job to replace the one she had. MacDonald has a mortgage and a baby on the way. Her partner expects to be laid off soon from the same employer: Becton, Dickinson and Company.

“It’s just pretty much backing me up in a corner and adding stress on top of stress,” MacDonald says.

Republicans have called for the cost of extending jobless benefits to be offset with spending cuts. Pocan says unemployment benefits were extended five times under former President George Bush with no strings attached.