Leading Charge to Cut Unemployment Benefits in Half

From the Michigan Democratic Party:

LANSING – The U.S. House of Representatives is set to cut unemployment benefits in half and Michigan GOP Congressman Dave Camp is the mastermind.

H.R. 3630 eliminates more than one year (53 weeks) of unemployment insurance eligibility – leaving just 46 weeks for unemployed workers to collect benefits.

“We’re in the middle of the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression and Dave Camp seems to think it’s a good idea to cut benefits when people need them the most,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer said. “These workers are unemployed through no fault of their own and are searching for jobs to support their families. We can’t take away their safety net. This cut would severely worsen our economy and put millions of families at risk of losing their homes and not being able to put food on the table. That’s unacceptable.”

“We need to be doing everything possible to put people back to work and provide assistance to them while the unemployed are looking for work,” added Brewer. “Republicans don’t seem to be concerned with helping the unemployed or with improving our economy. The only thing they care about is defeating President Obama next year. Congressman Camp and his Republican colleagues should be ashamed of themselves.”

Amash, Benishek, Walberg and Michigan Republicans Pushing Extreme Budget Proposal

by John Tramontana

Some Michigan Congressional Republicans are proposing a budget much more extreme than Congressman Paul Ryan’s proposal that was announced last week. The Republican Study Committee (RSC) plans to cut $9.1 trillion from the budget – attacking Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and children’s nutrition programs.

Congressmen Justin Amash, Dan Benishek, Dave Camp, Bill Huizenga, and Tim Walberg are members of the RSC.

According to The Hill, the plan would raise the age of Social Security eligibility to age 70, privatize Medicare, reduce Supplemental Security Income, and reduce child nutrition spending.

“These are programs that are keeping many of our seniors, kids, and low-wage workers above the poverty line,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer said. “These GOP Members of Congress would rather give tax breaks to oil companies, drug companies, insurance companies, big banks, and the wealthiest 1% of the population and force our kids, seniors, and low-wage workers to pay for it. That’s wrong.”

Key House Republican Vows To Block Middle Class Tax Cuts If Rich Aren’t Given Their Fair Share

By Alex Seitz-Wald One of the key votes that will take place during the lame duck congressional session that began yesterday is what to do with the Bush tax cuts. President Obama and congressional Democrats want to extend the cuts for just middle class families, noting that extending the cuts for the richest two percent of Americans will add $830 billion to deficit over the next ten years. Republicans demand an extension of all the cuts, but have so far failed to put forward any convincing (or truthful) arguments explaining why giving the wealthiest Americans another tax break is the best use of almost a trillion dollars while the nation faces painful cuts to valuable government programs. Today, a compromise emerged, which would split the issue into two votes — one for extending the tax cuts for the middle class, and another for the rich. But as soon as the potential deal was floated by White House allies, a leading Republicans shot it down. Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), who plays a key role in GOP tax policy as the ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee, which handles taxes, “said the GOP will block any proposal that extends tax cuts for the middle class for a longer period than those for the wealthy.” If Democrats insist on a longer period for the middle class cuts, “I think this issue will end up getting kicked into next year,” Camp said: In a speech to the Tax Council, a business group, Mr. Camp called that plan “a terrible idea and a total nonstarter. We would be foolish to fall for it,” he said. Appearing on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s radio show today, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) struck a similar tone, saying, “There’s only one thing that’s acceptable and that’s to not raise taxes on anyone.” “We’re not going to go along with…splitting it into two different sets of Americans”: As New York Times columnist Frank Rich pointed out Sunday, “It’s the very top earners, not your garden variety, entrepreneurial multimillionaires, who will be by far the biggest beneficiaries” of an extension on the cuts for rich. Thankfully, congressional Republicans have signaled they will not rest until those “very top earners” get their cut — even it means going home without a vote and letting the tax bill go up for middle class families come January 1.