Battle brews over benefits

Democrats are appealing to the masses with their tax proposals. Sen. John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts, for example, is calling for a payroll-tax holiday. He notes that nearly three-quarters of all taxpaying Americans pay more payroll tax than income tax.

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota suggests tax cuts aimed at the middle class, stating he would oppose cuts mainly for the wealthy and not helping the economy.

Bush has a new economic team - John Snow as Treasury Secretary and Steven Friedman as director of the National Economic Council. It will have an opportunity to show political pragmatism in negotiating with Congress over tax legislation, regulatory policies, corporate governance issues, and pension and shareholder protection.

In regard to jobless benefits, they will have to deal with William Thomas, the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. The California Republican is regarded by liberal critics as being too ideological - "out of the conservative mainstream," charges Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.

The House's refusal to vote on the Senate-passed jobless benefit bill "ignores the reality that long-term joblessness exists," says Maurice Emsellem, public policy director of the National Employment Law Project. "This is uncompassionate conservatism on the part of the House leadership."

The website of the Ways and Means Committee charges that the Democratic plan would deplete 59 percent of the federal unemployment trust funds in just six months, costing $17 billion.

To Mr. Emsellem, that charge is "absolutely ridiculous." The purpose of the $25 billion in the fund is to provide extended jobless benefits, he notes.

Further, the Senate-passed bipartisan bill, sponsored by Senator Clinton and Sen. Don Nickles (R) of Oklahoma, would cost only $5 billion. It would allow the jobless nationwide to apply for extensions through March 31.

The House measure would assist people only in Alaska, Washington, and Oregon, states with high unemployment levels, and only for five weeks.

To Mr. Eisenbrey, the House measure doesn't make sense. The long-term jobless are suffering financially "every bit as much" in a low-unemployment state as in a high-unemployment state.

The Ways and Means website refers to academic studies showing that longer jobless benefits lead to "more and longer unemployment," implying that some jobless people take work only when they run out of funds.

That may be true in some cases. But one goal of jobless benefits is to allow people more time to find the right job. And at this time, there are more than two jobless for every job vacancy.

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