Unemployment Extension 2014: President Obama ‘Needs To Be More Engaged,’ Claims Dean Heller

The 2014 unemployment extension has been introduced in both the House and the Senate but some people are criticizing President Obama for not being engaged with Congress during the legislation process.

In a related report by The Inquisitr, when a lady picked up food stamps and welfare while driving a Mercedes Benz, political pundits were quick to criticize the woman for not selling her fancy car when times were the hardest and the money was needed the most. An investigation in Texas claims that welfare and food stamps fraud is wasting millions of dollars each year because are using the money during vacations in Florida and Hawaii.

Now Democratic Senator Jack Reed and Republican Senator Dean Heller have been working together to push through the Senate’s unemployment extension bill while another House version also enjoys bipartisan support. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trying to attach the Senate version of the bill to the $4.3 billion emergency spending bill. But Reid says it is not certain that the unemployment extension could be attached to the supplemental:

“Well, there’s a chance. I would hope so, he deserves that. [Reed] and Heller deserve that. We are losing some of our enthusiasm when the Republicans simply, other than Dean Heller, just turn a blind eye to these people who are suffering.”

Unfortunately, the 2014 unemployment extension bill missed the chance to be attached to a job training overhaul bill that recently passed in both the House and the Senate. But besides finding another bill to be attached to, the 2014 EUC faces several major challenges.

The newly elected Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy continues John Boehner’s claim that the bill will need unspecified job creation measures in order to pass. The new version of the EUC does include an attempt at helping job creation by including additional help for the long term unemployed, but so far some politicians seem to believe even more measures are needed.

The other aspect that continues to be debated is the unemployment extension cost. The original version of the EUC that expired on June 1, 2014 included retroactive unemployment benefits and would have cost around $26 billion according to the Congressional Budget Office. The new version gives only five months of extra unemployment insurance and is expected to cost around $10 billion. Critics contend the method of paying for the bill, which is comprised of taxes that would affect businesses, is mostly a gimmick.

Besides the House leadership, another obstacle for the 2014 unemployment insurance extension is claimed to be President Obama. Mr. Heller has claimed that a simple phone call from the President to the House would “go a long way” toward creating action in the House. Heller believes that Obama “needs to be more engaged” in the actual process inside Congress instead of limiting himself to political speeches. For example, several weeks ago President Obama spoke on the topic of the 2014 unemployment extension while making a campaign-like speech in Minneapolis:

“[Republicans have] said no to extending unemployment insurance for more than three million Americans who are out there looking every single day for a new job, despite the fact that we know it would be good not just for those families who are working hard to try to get back on their feet, but for the economy as a whole. Rather than invest in working families getting ahead, they actually voted to give another massive tax cut to the wealthiest Americans.”

What do you think needs to changed in the 2014 unemployment extension in order to have the EUC pass both the House and Senate? Do you have any idea for spurring job creation?