Bush signs bill extending unemployment insurance benefits

SJ Mercury News ^ | 1/8/03 | AP - Washington

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush signed legislation Wednesday extending unemployment benefits for 2.5 million victims of a weak economy, hours after passage by a GOP-controlled Congress that brushed aside Democratic protests that the measure didn't go far enough.

In a meeting with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders, Bush said the legislation ``will bring some comfort'' to unemployed workers.

[NormsRevenge]

Details of unemployment bill

President Bush signed legislation today extending the federal emergency unemployment program for an additional five months at a cost of $7.25 billion.

Here are some details and background:

--Most states offer 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. Jobless workers who depleted their state benefits last year got an extra 13 weeks of federal benefits that Congress approved.

--That program expired Dec. 28 because Congress couldn't agree to extend it.

--More than 750,000 people in the process of receiving those federal benefits got cut off Dec. 28, before they had received all 13 weeks. Those benefits will be restored.

--In the next few months, 1.6 million people will use up their state benefits. They now can qualify for the extra 13 weeks of federal benefits until June 1.

--About 1 million people have exhausted both state and federal benefits. They won't get any more aid.

--Bush had to sign the bill into law by Thursday to avoid delays in issuing benefit checks.

--Funding for the extension will come from the unemployment insurance trust fund, which has cash reserves of about $24 billion.

[A Citizen Reporter]

Gee, and I thought the newsies told me he was going to sign it tomorrow! Round one goes to the Republicans, and leaves the Dascle/Hilary obstructionists on the mat.

LET'S ROLL!!!

[Uncle Bill]

"The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite."
Thomas Jefferson

"Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated."
Thomas Jefferson

James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, elaborated upon this limitation in a letter to James Robertson:

"With respect to the two words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators. If the words obtained so readily a place in the "Articles of Confederation," and received so little notice in their admission into the present Constitution, and retained for so long a time a silent place in both, the fairest explanation is, that the words, in the alternative of meaning nothing or meaning everything, had the former meaning taken for granted."

"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions."
James Madison, "Letter to Edmund Pendleton,"
-- James Madison, January 21, 1792, in The Papers of James
Madison, vol. 14, Robert A Rutland et. al., ed
(Charlottesvile: University Press of Virginia,1984).

SOURCE

Hug your kids, the socialists are in charge

[RAT Patrol]

Well, that's more info than I've gotten elsewhere. Thanks. At least it is temporary.

[NormsRevenge]

Words that rhyme with newsies ;-)
br .... floozies .. boozies .. doozies .. uzis ..

The Vast Obstructionist Left Wing .. 2PAC Pelosi, Tiny Tommy and Hitlary ..The Latest Iteration of the 3 Stooges.. with Honorable Mentions to McDermott, Bonior,Hoyer,Spratt, Menendez .. aww hell, all the Usual demRatic suspects.

[TightSqueeze]

...the socialists are in charge.

Where the hell is my Vodka allowance then?

[NormsRevenge]

Temporary, correct.. Unless the Obstructionist Party decides to play every stall game in the book and does keep the necessary legislation from moving quickly thru Congre$$.

I was so hoping that Death TaXes and Capital Gains would get pushed thru as well this year, but I guess neXt year would be OK too.

The immediate proposed changes by President Bush should provide sufficient stimulus and impetus to the business community; ie, shareholders and corporations to get off their fiscally tight butts and start re-hiring workers. Or one would hope so.

[NormsRevenge]

Let me fill in a bit on that middle sentence.

I was so hoping that the elimination of Death TaXes would be accelerated and Capital Gains TaXes would either be outright eliminated or at reduced significantly this year, but I guess neXt year would be OK too.

[RAT Patrol]

--Funding for the extension will come from the unemployment insurance trust fund, which has cash reserves of about $24 billion. This is what I don't know. Where did that money come from? Do companies pay BOTH federal and state unemployment taxes?

I think it should be structured in a way that motivates the payee (the unemployed) to find a job FAST!

[Steven W.]

Bush called for final permanent repeal of Death tax in yesterday's speech.

[A Citizen Reporter]

"I think it should be structured in a way that motivates the payee (the unemployed) to find a job FAST!"

It's not for lack of trying. The President's plan does address this:

From whitehouse.gov:

"Create new Personal Re-employment Accounts The President's plan would create Personal Re-employment Accounts, a new, innovative approach to help unemployed Americans find a job.

These accounts would provide unemployed workers with up to $3,000 to use for job training, child care, transportation, moving costs, or other expenses associated with finding a new job. A person who gets a job within 13 weeks will be able to keep the leftover funds from their account as a re-employment bonus. This will help them when they are looking for work and give them an incentive to find work faster.

President Bush proposes giving states $3.6 billion to fund these accounts. The program would be administered through the One Stop Career Center system and would work through existing state unemployment systems to ensure speedy delivery of benefits.

Under the President's plan, these accounts would be available to at least 1.2 million Americans. Workers would receive these Personal Re-employment Accounts in addition to their regular unemployment benefits."

Now Hitlary and Daschle tried to obstruct the legislation that was passed and signed already, in an effort to extend unemployment benefits for the chronically unemployed.

[NormsRevenge]

I must have missed that chunk in the midst of all the information flying around. Great. Thanks.

[DannyTN]

"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions." James Madison, "Letter to Edmund Pendleton," I haven't figured out if Congress has found legitimate ways of using it's limited powers to force decisions on states, or if they are exceeding their authority, although I think it's the latter. And if they are exceeding their authority, is it because the Judicuary is unwilling to enforce the limitation, or is it because the state's have not filed sufficient protest with the Judicuary. It seems to me that anytime the Federal government uses conditional aid or matching funds to a state, and that condition is dependant on the state having decided something or placed some program in place that is not within the scope of the Federal limited powers, that such aid should be unconstitutional.

[afuturegovernor]

Today in addition to the usual Republican and Democratic telephone lines that C-Span uses for callers it had an "unemployed line" for people to call in on. Of course every single caller on the "unemployed line" did nothing but scream about the mean sprited nasty brutish Republicans that how care nothing about the little guy.

[Founding Father]

Congress has exceeded its' authority for exactly the reasons in Uncle Bill's post. Madison and Jefferson both took the position that when the national gov't did this, the next line of defense was for the states to ignore and refuse to comply with unconstitutional laws--see the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions which they wrote.

[DannyTN]

Uncle Bill isn't giving any examples of where the Feds are exceeding their limited authority.

The most common area I think they exceed their authority is when they tax the nation and then offer aid or matching funds contingent on the states compliance with Feds goals. The Feds use this approach when they don't have direct authority to mandate what they want.

Thus if the state simply refuses to comply, they lose out on the matching funds. The state would have to challenge the Feds right to discriminate the distribution of funds on the basis of a state's compliance with something over which the Fed gov't has no authority.

I think the Feds approach should be deemed unconstitutional, but I don't know if the states have sufficiently challenged it.