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Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
10:53am
Wed Aug 11, 2010
133 comments

Establishing The Fifth Tier

During their brief stay in Washington, U.S. House Democrats introduced legislation to create a fifth tier of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. Like a similar bill in the Senate, it would extend the maximum number of weeks of federal and state benefits available by 20 weeks in states with unemployment rates over 10 percent. (Illinois would qualify.)

The odds of passage are long. After all, no Republicans in the U.S. Senate backed the latest unemployment insurance bill, which was less expansive than this attempt. Undoubtedly, the Democratic leadership would have to carve out spending on other worthy programs to ensure the extension is deficit-neutral. But so long as the number of jobless workers far outweighs the number of job openings, it's a bill progressives ought rally behind.

Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
9:01am
Wed Aug 11, 2010

Mark Kirk's CBO Lies

Add another flip-flop to U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk's resume. One day after telling reporters that he would likely support a federal state aid bill, he turned tail and voted against it on the House floor yesterday.

The justification Kirk gave in a written statement was that "the Congressional Budget Office state[s] the bill added $12 billion to the federal deficit." That's just a bold-faced lie. While the second page of the CBO's score (PDF) does include one line that says the net increase in the "On-Budget Deficit" will be $12.6 billion, a footnote clearly states that the final figure "excludes savings in Titles II and III that would result from changes to programs and rescissions of funds previously designated as emergency, which total about $14 billion over the 2010-2020 period." In other words, the CBO is extremely clear that the bill will lower the deficit by $1.3 billion over 10 years.

Shame on Kirk for lying to voters. And shame on the Tribune and WBEZ for framing this CBO interpretation as a political dispute between Republicans and Democrats. The budget report is available for everyone to see. All the reporters had to do to was open it up and verify that Kirk is being misleading. Take a page out of Abdon Pallasch's book and call a spade a spade, please.

Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
10:28am
Tue Aug 10, 2010

Teacher Aid Is Not A Bailout

U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk has warmed to a $26.1 billion emergency state aid package, but not everyone in Illinois' Republican congressional delegation is so keen on the legislation. A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock told The Southern yesterday that the freshman lawmaker will vote against the plan, calling it a "state bailout legislation." Since TARP passed, Republicans have described basically every  Democratic initiative with which they don't agree as a "bailout." Providing schools with money to keep teachers on staff, when the major reason they are facing budget problems is because of an epic financial collapse totally beyond their control, clearly doesn't fit any normal definition of that word. The term is now essentially useless.

The good news is that Schock's vote shouldn't have much of an impact. Although House liberals could not reinsert useful food stamp funding into the package, the House is still expected to approve the legislation later today. Illinois will net nearly $1 billion as a result.

Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
4:05pm
Mon Aug 9, 2010

Defunding Health Care Reform

If Republican U.S. Senatorial candidate Mark Kirk and his Republican colleagues are serious about repealing health care reform, they might have to shut down the government entirely to do it. The American Spectator's Philip Klein outlines one potential approach gaining steam among GOPers, which would center around stripping funding for key provisions during the appropriations process, in his latest piece for the magazine.

Without control of at least one chamber, Republicans wouldn't be able to pull this strategy off. They also run the political risk, by cutting out any funding for a bill that does promise near-universal health insurance coverage, of appearing callous. Still, this scenario is far more realistic than Kirk's "repeal-and-replace" gambit. And if Republicans cloak the defunding amendments in abortion language, they could have an ally in U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski. It's something to keep an eye on as the Fall rolls around.