Unemployment Extension Crisis Continues

June 12, 2008 - The House of Representatives made their cases on why or why not unemployment benefits should be extended. 

It was a grueling battle between both parties with the ending result; 225 Democrats agreed to extend unemployment benefits for 308 million Americans, who lost their jobs at no fault of their own. Forty-nine Republicans voted for the extension out of 202 Republicans that didn't.

"Extending unemployment for an extra 13 weeks would prevent people from looking for work says," Rep. Ron Lewis, R-Kentucky and Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Illinois, who were among the majority that opposed the bill and felt that building pipelines for oil drilling would be a quicker way to create economic growth. The two representatives agreed that oil drilling is a huge factor and complained that senator Obama speaks nothing of oil drilling.

Rep. Jim Dermott, D-Washington, fired back sharply at his Republican colleagues stating, "We're here to talk about extending unemployment benefits, not oil and trade policy."

President Bush was ready to veto the unemployment bill as soon as it passed, but the bill was rejected the first day due to Republicans that didn't vote. However, the very next day democrats appealed and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi laid to rest the entire process with her final statement, "America has lost 325,000 jobs, 49,000 in the month of May alone. It's not fair that Republicans are making unemployed American citizens look like charity cases. This extension will stimulate the economy. When a person works, they pay into unemployment insurance, like a trust fund for a rainy day. The rainy day is here!"

The House passes the unemployment benefit extension; Democrats 274 - Republicans 137.

2008 LA