Update 5: Senate makes a deal, UE extension for all for 14 weeks; UE extension held up: Senate debates how many workers should be eligible; Schumer says UE extension vote to come this week; WSJ: WH & Congress negotiating to extend portions of stimulus, including unemployment extension and Employer subsidies of COBRA coverage…

10/23 See Update https://moderateinthemiddle.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/unemployment-update-senate-cloture-vote-on-unemployment-extension-next-tuesday/

Update 6: WSJ covers the Senate proposal:

Senate Democrats on Thursday introduced legislation that would extend by 14 weeks unemployment insurance benefits for jobless Americans in all 50 states.

It would offer an additional six weeks of federal assistance for unemployed people in the hardest-hit states with unemployment rates above 8.5% over a three month period….

Update 5: Okay the Senate has cut a deal to extend UE for everyone not just states over 8.5% UE rate, for 14 weeks, but when will they pass the bill and git r done?. Also, still on the table:

Senate Democrats reached a deal Thursday to extend the benefits an additional 14 weeks in every state. Both proposals are paid for by extending a federal unemployment tax.

Also on the table: extending subsidies for laid-off workers to help them keep the health insurance their former employers provided, known as COBRA. The current program, which covers workers laid off through the end of the year, costs nearly $25 billion.

Congressional leaders haven’t settled on the length of an extension, or how to pay for it.

They are trying to buy off Seniors with a check by increasing..SS PAYROLL TAXES!!!!!

Several bills would issue extra payments to the more than 50 million Social Security recipients, to make up for the lack of a cost-of-living increase next year. One bill would set the one-time payments at $250, matching the amount paid to Social Security recipients and railroad retirees as part of the stimulus package enacted in February.

The payments would cost about $14 billion and would be paid for by applying the Social Security payroll tax to incomes between $250,000 and $359,000 in 2010. Currently, payroll taxes apply only to the first $106,800 of a worker’s income.

Now the Senate is holding up the UE extension arguing over how many people to cover. What new madness is this! But they are fine pushing through a bazillion dollar health care bill? And now they worry about cost on UE extensions??

Man let’s just bark at the moon, it’s probably as effective as calling these whackadoodles on the Hill but here is the linky to look up your Senator if you need a UE extension, call them..

*Ozzy courtesy of jman19428

Update 4: Buried in a piece on how poor TOTUS cant expand jobs because of that dratted deficit(but he still wont stop spending on health care etc!) is this gem that gives some insight into the holdup of the UE extension, it is an argument over how many people to include in the extension:

…One step that enjoys strong support is extending jobless benefits for those who may have already exhausted them.Lawmakers hope to resolve a logjam on that legislation this week as the Senate seeks to settle a dispute over how many workers should be eligible. The House has already passed a narrower version of the legislation that applies only to people living in states with unemployment above 8.5 percent…

More on the holdup in the Senate from the Michigan Messenger:

A bill to extend unemployment benefits by an additional 13 weeks in states with the highest unemployment, which has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives, has hit a snag in the Senate as legislators from states with lower unemployment complain that the bill does not provide national coverage.

The original hope among Democratic leaders was to get quick approval of a proposal giving four extra weeks of benefits to the jobless in all 50 states and 17 weeks to workers in those 27 states where the unemployment rate is 8.5 percent or above.

But that drew opposition from lawmakers from the 23 states who wouldn’t qualify for the greater benefit.

“Unemployed workers face equally severe challenges no matter what state they live in, and they should be given the support they need,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., in urging passage of legislation extending benefits in all 50 states.

Shaheen on Wednesday wrote a letter to Senate leaders, signed by 15 other Democrats and two independents who usually vote with Democrats, saying it was unfair that hundreds of thousands of workers in states with lower rates of unemployment would be excluded under the House plan….

Update 3: Roubini agrees with MiM, UE will stay over 10% for an extended period (MiM’s view on this is based on PIMCO’s GDP projections and on Team TOTUS failure to stimulate job creation. Since TOTUS peeps are now reduced to mumbling about tax cuts to Administration mouthpiece John Harwood (see below) maybe they are feeling the mid term election pressure with this UE rate and perhaps they will do some good things and perhaps we can turn it around (three ‘perhaps’ too many for my comfort). If they would only stop spending and raising taxes and fees and over-regulating everything that breathes, including us!

Update: 10/5 The Note:

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos: “Two leading Senators showed a brief moment of bipartisanship this morning. Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican John Cornyn both told me they agree the Senate should pass an extension of unemployment benefits, COBRA, and the $8,000 tax credit for first time homebuyers. Schumer said the Senate would act this week on unemployment benefits.”

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan doesn’t want a second stimulus: “I think the focus has got to be on trying to get the economy going. But also have to be careful in trying to do too much would be counterproductive,” he told Stephanopoulos on “This Week.”

Making your own bright spots: “Publicly, White House aides and Congressional leaders have responded with incessant attempts to highlight benefits from the $787 billion economic stimulus package they enacted earlier this year,” John Harwood writes in The New York Times. “Privately, Mr. Obama’s economic advisers are sifting options for a new package of tax cuts and other job creation measures to be unveiled in next year’s State of the Union address — or earlier if pressure for action becomes irresistible.”

They must be feeling the heat if someone FINALLY suggested TAX CUTS!!

Well we knew this was coming, they BURNED 787 Billion in stimulus one, a total frakkin WASTE. Now that NO JOBS are in the offing they need Plan B. To ease the pain they will extend UE and COBRA subsidies and Food Stamps, but this still does not CREATE JOBS.

MEMO TO CONGRESS: JUST STOP MUCKING AROUND IN THE ECONOMY AND WE WILL RIGHT THIS SHIP OURSELVES! Here’s a tip, stop all the tax hike talk and stop the out of control spending, turn on the damned water to the farmers in Cali and let the smelt go, COMMON SENSE. And most importantly do not stuff this extension of safety net bennies with ANY MORE CRXP

WSJ:

White House officials and Democratic leaders in Congress are negotiating an extension of key elements of the stimulus bill in light of the continuing deterioration of the job market, an administration official said Friday.Obama administration economists would like to see unemployment insurance extended beyond the Dec. 31 expiration date. They also want to maintain a stimulus program that offers tax credits to pay 65% of the cost of maintaining health insurance policies under the existing Cobra program. Cobra allows laid-off workers to purchase the health plans they had through their previous employer, but the cost is often prohibitive for the unemployed.

The White House is also likely to seek an extension of food stamp increases that were included in the stimulus plan.

These moves would require fresh legislation. That would likely reopen a debate about the fast-rising federal deficit and the effectiveness of the administration’s $787 billion stimulus package.

The discussions were prompted by Friday’s gloomy jobs report….