Harkin upset about jobless benefit delays

With 10,000 Iowans set to lose their unemployment benefits this month, Sen. Tom Harkin Dec. 2 called it a “moral outrage” that Republicans are blocking a temporary extension of benefits for the jobless until tax cuts for the wealthiest American are extended permanently.

“Nothing is more urgent” than extending those benefits, Harkin said this morning. “This is unconscionable, especially during the Christmas season. Many of these people have lost their jobs, their homes, their savings. Now they are going to lose their last lifeline” – an average of $290 a week in unemployment benefits.

“Have they lost all sense of fairness, of decency and justice?” he asked, referring to the Senate Republican leadership, which has indicated it will block any action until the Bush tax cuts are made permanent.

“Well, I am outraged,” Harkin said. “These warped priorities in Washington offend our most basic sense of right and wrong. I intend to do everything in my power to pass the reauthorization of unemployment benefits before we break for Christmas even if that means we have to be here Christmas Eve and, heh, Christmas Day.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley worries that's Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's plan – to hold senators in Washington until Christmas.

“With the possibility of the biggest tax increase in history and the detriment that will do to the economy because you shouldn't increase taxes on anybody during a recession, (Republicans) figure we ought to do everything connected with taxes, unemployment compensation and the deficit that we can before we do anything else,” Grassley said.

Reid knows he doesn't have the votes to pass the DREAM Act for educating the children of illegal immigrants, changing the military's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy – “at least not at this point,” Grassley said.

“It's pretty clear he's just wasting time. Reid knows that if he puts off the tax cut extension until Christmas Eve, we'll be forced to do what he wants,” Grassley said.

Grassley wants to extend unemployment benefits, but without increasing the deficit. He would tap unspent stimulus funds to pay for the extension.

Harkin scoffed at that.

“It's interesting that Sen. Grassley wants to take money out of stimulus funds to pay for unemployment benefits, but increase the deficit just to give tax breaks wealthiest Americans,” he said. “I'd like to ask my friend and colleague is that his sense of fairness?”

Extending the Bush tax cuts for those making less than $200,000 a year will cost $1.3 trillion. Extending the cuts to those who make more will cost another $700 billion.

The temporary extension of unemployment benefits would cost $56 billion.

Harkin agrees with Grassley extending the ethanol tax credit is “vitally important.” Not only does it reduce dependence on foreign oil, but it saves consumers money.

He joined Grassley and other Midwestern senators in a letter to Reid urging him to bring the tax credits to the floor for a vote.

“We're going to dig in our heels and fight hard” for the extension, Harkin said.