UPDATED 4-16-14
CALIFORNIA
LA Times - Congress, extend jobless benefits, again : “How's this for irony: Having allowed federal unemployment benefits to run out in December, some lawmakers are balking at a bill to renew them retroactively because it might be hard to figure out who should receive them."
KENTUCKY
Lexington Herald-Leader - Extend benefits for jobless in Ky.; U.S. House vote needed to aid laid-off miners : “Create jobs, by all means. But Congress should not jettison workers who have been unemployed for more than six months."
NEW HAMPSHIRE
The Nashua Telegraph - Jobless benefits bill may fall to old trick : “…extending jobless benefits may be sacrificed on the altar of the Keystone pipeline, but if it wasn’t that, it would have been something else."
Concord Monitor - For long-term unemployed, some progress : “Does putting cash in the hands of unemployed people create jobs? Actually, many economists, including those at the Congressional Budget Office, make a convincing argument that it does. Not only that, but it also helps put food on those people’s tables and keep a roof over their heads."
NEW JERSEY
Burlington County Times - Focus on extending benefits : “Republican leadership is opposed to any bill that doesn’t include private sector job-creation measures. Obviously, spurring job growth is important. But doing it at the expense of struggling American families is wrong."
New Jersey Star Ledger - Restoring unemployment benefits, with a push from NJ : “Allowing extended unemployment benefits to expire didn’t just hurt out-of-work Americans - it pulled the rug out from under the wider economic recovery."
The Record - Extending benefits : “…a basic, quality-of-life issue such as long-term unemployment should not be held hostage for political reasons."
NEW YORK
New York Times - Keeping Track: Unemployment Insurance and a Financial Tax : “As [House Republicans] have shown repeatedly, they would rather score political points than spend a dollar on those who need help the most."
Albany Times Union - Put the heat on Congress : “We don’t disagree that paying out unemployment benefits endlessly is not a viable long-term strategy. But ripping the safety net out from under millions of people is hardly a sound economic policy, attempts by conservatives in Congress to make it sound like one notwithstanding."
NORTH CAROLINA
Raleigh News & Observer - Extend US benefits to help NC jobless : “…the U.S. Senate has passed a measure that would extend federal benefits to about 2.8 million people nationwide, including North Carolinians if McCrory will go along with it. He’s not even taking a position, and his office says he won’t until the U.S. House passes the measure.
OHIO
The Canton Repository - Senate takes right approach on jobless bill : “The emergency federal benefits expired late in December for more than 2 million Americans, including 52,000 Ohioans, who have been unemployed for more than six months."
OREGON
The Register-Guard - The benefits roadblock : “House Speaker John Boehner says he will allow the bill to be considered only if it spurs job growth. It would create jobs by keeping money flowing into the economy at a time when payrolls are unusually low, but that’s not the point of the federal jobless benefits program. Its primary aim is to provide a safety net for long-term unemployed Americans, including more than 30,000 Oregonians. Job creation is a fine legislative goal, but it shouldn’t be linked to unemployment benefits any more than Obamacare, which Republicans earlier this year insisted Democrats would have to scale back in exchange for House passage of a benefits extension."
PENNSYLVANIA
Lehigh Express-Times - House should restore emergency jobless benefits : “For the unemployed, an extra $256 a week could mean the difference between scraping enough money together to pay the mortgage and filing for bankruptcy, between hope and despair."
Philadelphia Inquirer - Jobless being held hostage : “Boehner says the benefits must be paid for elsewhere in the budget, but the Senate bill does that. He says the extension should help create jobs, but it does that too, by providing income that allows landlords to get rent, and utilities and food stores to get paid. The benefits would add $408 million a week to the economy."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Heartless House: The GOP must compromise on jobless benefits : "Mr. Boehner has not offered a comprehensive alternative, but there is no need for House members to attach extraneous issues to legislation that is meant to help their constituents in need."
WASHINGTON
The Seattle Times - State’s congressional delegation should stop dragging feet on unemployment benefits : “‘We need to focus on long-term job growth, not an ineffective, short-term fix,’ [Rep. McMorris Rodgers] says. Wrong. We should focus on both. The hard times are not over; the jobs are not there yet."
WISCONSIN
The Journal Sentinel - Congress should restore jobless benefits : “If Boehner has a better idea to assist the long-term unemployed, he should put it on the table. Otherwise, he should allow the Senate bill to come to the floor." #
