Time is running out

With the midterm elections now over, two important issues are hanging over the “lame duck” Democratic Congress that, after Jan.1, will be replaced by a new one with a Republican majority in the House.

First, if Congress does not move quickly to renew it, an emergency extension of federal unemployment insurance will expire on Nov. 30. If this is allowed to happen, reports the National Employment Law Project, 2 million workers will lose their federal benefits in December alone.

Of those, NELP explains in a media release, “387,000 are workers who were recently laid off and are now receiving the six months (26 weeks) of regular state benefits. After exhausting state benefits, these workers would be left to fend for themselves in a job market with just one job opening for every five unemployed workers and an unemployment rate that has exceeded 9 percent for 17 months in a row — with no federal unemployment assistance whatsoever.” (Oct. 22) It’s not clear at this point if an extension beyond 26 weeks will even be brought to a vote before the deadline.

Even more stressed are the “99ers,” those who have exhausted all benefits after being unemployed for more than 99 weeks. A bill to extend their checks for an extra 20 weeks, called Tier V, is even less likely to get passed.

Second, the Bush tax cuts, which apply to the wealthiest 2 percent of people in the U.S., are scheduled to expire on Dec. 31. The Congressional Research Service estimates that permanently extending these tax cuts would mean a loss of $5 trillion in revenue in just the next 10 years. (Oct. 27) $5 trillion come to five times a million multiplied by another million! And that’s just a small percentage of the wealth going into the pockets of the rich. That money — which the richest 2 percent can surely do without — could provide some of the funding to extend the desperately needed unemployment benefits.

If the Democrats want to show they’re really for the working people, as they claim in each election season, they will fight like hell to extend the federal unemployment insurance and also restore taxes on the rich while they still have a majority in both houses of Congress.

Instead, they’re looking for ways to compromise with the Republicans, who are unrelenting in their desire to roll back any political and economic gains the working class has made. President Barack Obama has suggested a one- or two-year extension on the tax cuts. Meanwhile, pundits are suggesting that the Democrats will in fact allow the tax cuts to dominate this lame duck session of Congress until the unemployment benefits run out in the next few weeks. The emboldened Republicans have attempted to put the ball in the Democrats’ court, suggesting that they might be willing to extend unemployment benefits if Congress also cuts $5 billion to $6 billion from the budget. This would essentially mean more cuts in social services — the Republicans aren’t talking about cutting the military budget! And cuts in government services mean more workers laid off while those needing help suffer.

Workers shouldn’t hold their breath waiting for the Democratic Party to step up to the plate to defend them. The Democrats talk like they’re for the workers, but they’ll never fight for us. The ruling Democrats may be interested in getting the workers’ votes, but when it comes down to it, they’re most concerned with their own class interests — interests that are in direct conflict with ours. In the end, they’ll throw their hands in the air, suggesting that they couldn’t prevent the inevitable and that therefore, incredibly, workers should vote for them next time around.

Anyone can see that the days of the bosses giving up a few crumbs are over, but the Democrats don’t do anything but retreat and retreat before the bosses’ offensive. It is up to the organizations of the workers and their communities to organize and fight for an unemployment extension and taxes on the rich, not on the workers and poor.