This should annoy most everyone:
Since June 1, when federal unemployment benefits began to expire, an estimated 325,000 jobless workers have been cut off. That number will swell to 1.25 million by the end of the month unless Congress extends the benefits. The Senate, so far, has failed to act.
Some senators, including Democrats, have balked at an unrelated provision that would begin to close a tax loophole enjoyed by some of the richest Americans. You heard right. Desperately needed unemployment benefits have been held hostage to a tax break for the rich, and the Senate’s Democratic leadership has had to delay and finagle to get its own caucus in line.
State-provided unemployment benefits generally last for 26 weeks, and the federal government picks up the tab after that, provided Congress approves the extensions. There is no disagreement over the need: 46 percent of the nation’s 15 million jobless workers have been unemployed for more than six months — a higher level than at any time since the government began keeping track in 1948.
They were going to use the closure of a tax loophole enjoyed by hedge fund managers that treats all their income as a capital gain in order to pay for the extension some other more useful tax credits. Fund managers get to pay 15%, instead of the top rate of35%. So the unemployed don’t get benefits because hedge fund managers somehow deserve special treatment? Their sycophants in the Senate support this?
The Senate bill is also urgently needed because it includes a provision to provide $24 billion in emergency fiscal aid to states, which is vital to preventing further mass layoffs and damaging budget cuts on the state and local levels.
The right thing to do is obvious. The House and Senate should immediately extend unemployment benefits and aid to states and close the fund-managers’ tax loophole — completely.
That so many senators have balked is a bad sign for the economy and for the most vulnerable Americans. The fact that lawmakers are not willing to ask the nation’s wealthiest to pay their fair share of taxes also makes a mockery of all their talk about deficit reduction.
There’s absolutely no justification for the loophole in the first place.
