Labor & Employment Law

Coburn Can?t Take the Heat, Tries to Deflect Blame for Killing Jobless Aid

By Tula Connell

Back home in Oklahoma, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn must really be feeling the heat from some of the millions of America’s jobless worked he shafted last week. Coburn, who blocked a short-term extension for unemployment insurance (UI), issued a press release making it look as though Senate Democrats blocked the extension and he was a helpless victim of the vote. He’s also sending out the same info to those who, like some AFL-CIO Now blog readers, sent him scathing letters for his mean-spirited move.

In short, Coburn’s spin is: Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

In fact, Coburn blocked the emergency UI extension bill, effectively killing it until after the Senate returns from break April 12. Some 200,000 jobless workers a week will now lose UI support because of Coburn. Worse, Coburn has said he would continue to block UI extension after the Senate returns.

Coburn also disingenuously states the best solution for jobless workers are jobs.

So why then did Coburn vote against the jobs package passed by the Senate earlier this month?

See, Senator, jobs are a great solution. The problem is, there are more than six U.S. workers for every one job. More than two in every five unemployed workers in this country have been unemployed for more than six months.  That means jobs need to be created. And because the private sector isn’t creating them, the federal government needs to step in.

Until there are enough jobs for workers without jobs, workers desperately need a helping hand like unemployment insurance and COBRA, to get by.

One that Coburn isn’t willing to give them.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 30, 2010 (boomark / email).