Unemployment Insurance Deal May Be Near
"Senators Closing In on Deal to Extend Unemployment Insurance" reports National Journal: "...a group of Republican lawmakers and the Democratic leadership [are] both signaling an agreement could be close. In a sign that a deal may be at hand, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called off a late vote Monday on a year-long Democratic-backed extension ..."
Parties still don't agree on how long to extend aid. Politico: "A pair of Republican lawmakers, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Dean Heller of Nevada, are pitching the latest iteration of a benefit extension that they hope can win support from both parties. Their proposal would extend aid for three months, eliminate a reduced cost-of-living adjustment for military retirees included in last month’s budget and allow each party to vote on 10 amendments — five from each party ... A Democratic aide familiar with the negotiations indicated that Democrats won’t go for the GOP proposal, because it pays for a three-month benefit extension with blunt budget cuts over the next 10 years, including a heavy hit to the Unemployment Trust Fund. The proposal would shield Medicare providers and defense from further cuts."
Dem Sen. Mark Pryor floats community service requirement. Roll Call: "The Pryor amendment would require individuals to perform public service each week in order to maintain their unemployment benefits, with several exceptions including those for illnesses and the need to care for children."
"GOP constituents also depend on jobless aid" reminds AP: "When federal emergency unemployment benefits expired last month, the effects ran deep in a Colorado county marked by two exit ramps off Interstate 25 — one leading to the conservative religious group Focus on the Family, the other to the Fort Carson Army post. Hardly a liberal bastion, El Paso County has the largest number of people in the state who lost unemployment benefits, and many aren't happy about it. Plenty of Republicans, too, depend on jobless aid that Republicans in Congress are hesitant to prolong."
"2.3 Million Children Live With Unemployed Parents Who Were Just Cut Off From Benefits" reports ThinkProgress.
Women's Economic Trials Spotlighted
President to meet today with Maria Shriver to discuss "Shriver Report" on women's economic struggles: " President Barack Obama will on Tuesday discuss a topic he is familiar with from his childhood – American women living in economic insecurity and trying to be breadwinners and caregivers at the same time ... Obama on Tuesday will meet with Maria Shriver, who is reporting on some 42 million women who she says live 'one single incident – a doctor's bill, a late paycheck, or a broken-down car – away from economic ruin.'"
1 in 3 women either in poverty or "on the brink." Time: "1 in 3 American women, 42 million women, plus 28 million children, either live in poverty or are right on the brink of it. (The report defines the “brink of poverty” as making $47,000 a year for a family of four.) Nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women, and these workers often get zero paid sick days."
Higher education may not be closing the wage gap. MSNBC: "After decades of movement toward parity, the average female-to-male earnings ratio has flatlined at a rate of 77 cents to the dollar. It remains virtually unchanged since 2001. But a deeper look into the data reveals that women of all education levels – even women who hold bachelor’s and master’s degrees—are plagued by a persistent wage gap. According to a study by the American Association of University Women, women who are one year out of college earn 7% less than their male counterparts, even when they earned the same degree, at the same kind of school, and are doing the same job for the same number of hours per week."
Paid sick leave law in CT "did not affect business operations" according to CEPR study. PandoDaily's David Sirota: "These findings, of course, run counter to the political narratives that typically arise around proposals to mandate paid, sick, and maternity leave ... campaigns typically claim that the mandates will raise costs, hurt business, depress the economy, decrease jobs, and subsequently harm the very workers the mandates aim to help ... not only is the United States the only industrialized country without such mandates at the national level, 10 legislatures have passed corporate-backed laws banning local communities in their states from passing local mandates, should they so choose to try."
"Seven Nobel Laureates Endorse Increase in U.S. Minimum Wage" reports Bloomberg: "In a letter released today, the group called for the hourly minimum wage to reach $10.10 by 2016 from its current $7.25, and then be indexed for inflation thereafter. They said 'the weight' of economic research shows higher pay doesn’t lead to fewer jobs."
Unions Gear Up To Stop Fast-Track
CWA President Larry Cohen slams fast-track bill: "The labor section is a total hoax, committing to follow international standards when national standards conform. For the U.S. this is meaningless, as our Senate has failed to ratify any of the U.N. conventions on labor. Incredible, but those needed two-thirds vote, as provided in Article II of the Constitution. But fast track is specifically designed to circumvent Article II for multi-lateral trade deals of much greater significance than the U.N. conventions safeguarding labor rights. Why? Two reasons: the National Security Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce."
As does United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard: "NAFTA's backers promised it would create American jobs, just as promoters of the Korean and Chinese trade arrangements said they would and advocates of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal contend it will. They were -- and still are -- brutally wrong. NAFTA, the Korean deal and China's entry into the World Trade Organization killed American jobs. They lowered wages. They diminished what America cherishes: opportunity. They contributed to the very ill that President Obama is crusading against: income inequality. There is no evidence the TPP would be any different. American workers need a new trade philosophy, one that protects them and puts people first, not corporations."
Youth Obamacare Signups On Track
Demographics of early Obamacare signups parallel Massachusetts experience. TNR's Jonathan Cohn: "According to a recent study by theKaiser Family Foundation, about 40 percent of the population that could enroll in Obamacare exchange plans are between the ages of 18 and 34. But, according to the government’s new data, only 24 percent of the people signing up for coverage are in that age range ... But is that really a big deal? In Massachusetts, according to analysis from MIT economist (and Obamacare architect) Jonathan Gruber, younger people tended to sign up later ..."
Health more important than age anyway, notes Dean Baker: "... age skewing really doesn't matter much for the success of the program ... The real issue is the risk of a skewing by health condition. If healthy older people sign up it actually benefits the plan far more than if the 'young invincibles' sign up since the older people will pay three times as much for their insurance and basically get nothing back from the program."
Bipartisan Spending Bill Unveiled
Compromises galore in omnibus spending bill. AP: "Democrats pleased with new money to educate preschoolers and build high-priority highway projects are likely to make up the difference even as Republican social conservatives fret about losing familiar battles over abortion policy ... Conservatives face a vote to finance implementation of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and Wall Street regulations, both enacted in 2010 over solid Republican opposition. A conservative-backed initiative to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions was dumped overboard and social conservatives failed to win new restrictions on abortion. Democrats must accept new money for abstinence education programs they often ridicule, and conservatives can take heart that overall spending for daily agency operations has been cut by $79 billion, or 7 percent, from the high-water mark established by Democrats in 2010. That cut increases to $165 billion, or 13 percent, when cuts in war funding and disaster spending are accounted for. Money for Obama's high-speed rail program would be cut off, and rules restricting the sale of less efficient incandescent light bulbs would be blocked."
