By  CAP Action War Room

GOP Continues to Turn Its Back On The Unemployed

Efforts by the Senate to reach a compromise to extend unemployment insurance (UI) fell flat again today as Republicans voted against the 1.7 million Americans looking for work who have been cut off when the benefits lapsed in late December.

The bill, which fell a single vote short of the 60 needed to overcome a Republican filibuster, was a compromise on multiple accounts. First, it accommodated the Republican demand that it be reduced from a one-year to a three-month extension. Second, it was fully paid for–using an offset that Republicans have supported in the past and are currently considering in other legislation.

CREDIT: SENATE DEMOCRATS

Now, to be fair, some Republicans aren’t just refusing to compromise–they would never vote to extend unemployment insurance in the first place. Yesterday, for example, Rep. Jeff Sessions (R-TX) said that “it is immoral for this country to have as a policy extending long-term unemployments (sic).” Two months ago, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) stated that extending the benefits beyond the prescribed 26 weeks does a “disservice to these workers.” (We remind the Senator that they are not “workers,” they are looking for work–and that’s the whole point.)

Whether it’s a refusal to compromise no matter what the other side offers, or a misguided ideological opposition, these elected officials are hurting struggling families and the economy overall. The beneficiaries of extended unemployment insurance are not lazy; they are caught in an economy where there is only one job opening for every three job seekers. And they are contending with a job climate in which economists have shown that in the eyes of employers, being out of work for over nine months is the same as losing four years of job experience. State economies have lost an estimated $2.2 billion since the extension lapsed in late December.

BOTTOM LINE: Shame on Senate Republicans for once again refusing to extend unemployment insurance benefits. Not only are they denying a lifeline to millions of struggling families, they are hurting their own state economies to the tune of billions of dollars. That’s immoral–and irrational.

Would you joke about murdering your mother?

In front of a victim of gun violence?

In 2006, I was shot in the abdomen in my workplace — the Jewish Federation of Seattle — by a deeply troubled young man.

And I was lucky to have survived — one of my coworkers did not. Since that fateful day, I have fought through twenty surgeries, a coma, and months and months of PTSD therapy. But I will never be the same.

I don’t know if you had the chance to follow the hearing about gun safety in Olympia last Wedn‌esday — but I went to testify in favor of I-594. The hate and rancor directed towards me and other victims of gun violence by the gun lobby — not to mention by a few of our state senators — was deeply hurtful and appalling.

Brian Judy, a gun lobbyist, noted that I-594 wouldn’t have stopped Newtown’s Adam Lanza from taking his mother’s gun and then turning it on her. He even joked, “I think that [one] was the ‘murder your mom’ loophole.”

In their mocking, both he and state Senator Steve O’Ban chuckled.

Would you joke about someone murdering their mother and then killing twenty children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary?

Well, I wouldn’t. If you wouldn’t either, add your name to my petition demanding an explanation for their outrageous behavior from state Senate leadership.

Then there was Senator Roach, who has been told to seek counseling for threatening her employees and even brandishing a handgun at one. She did everything possible to degrade the testimony of myself and other survivors, and to question our motives. Why shouldn’t I want legislation that would prevent the kind of everyday gun violence that threatens our communities, even if I-594 would not have stopped the gunman who shot me?

I know at a personal and profound level the damage that gun violence does — and Republicans in the state Senate, as well as lobbyist Brian Judy, would prefer I stay silent.

Senator Roach went on, “it’s nice to have women testify, but I don’t give much to gender on these kinds of things and it’s easy to push forward the women, and the helpless, and victims, and this is how I feel … but I don’t agree with what is going on here.”

She did not like being face-to-face with the results of the irresponsible gun policies she fights so hard to uphold.

If you’re fed up with this kind of callous disregard towards victims of gun violence, add your name to my petition demanding an explanation from Senate leadership.

I’ll be delivering the signatures in person to the state Senate on Fr‌iday. Help me show them that they cannot get away with such offensive behavior.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Stumbo Sponsor of I-594 Jewish Federation Survivor