WASHINGTON — Newly empowered Republicans want spending cuts of $5 billion to $6 billion a month as a condition for extending emergency unemployment benefits that are scheduled to expire next month for millions of Americans.
Up to 2 million people could lose the benefits, which average $310 a week nationwide, during the holiday season if the still Democratic-controlled Congress doesn’t act in the postelection lame-duck session. The expiration could affect as many as 5 million by the end of February.
With new employment figures Friday showing 14 million Americans still out of work last month and an unemployment rate stuck at 9.6 percent, President Barack Obama renewed his call for another extension “to help those hardest hit by the downturn while generating more demand in the economy.”
But there is no way that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP senators would support an extension unless it is accompanied by equivalent spending cuts, said McConnell spokesman Don Stewart.
Democrats argue that the extended benefits should be paid for with deficit spending because it injects money into the economy. Jobless people immediately spend the cash, they say. But Republicans say the government had to borrow 37 cents of every dollar it spent last year, and it is time to draw the line.
The topic is sure to come up at a Nov. 18 meeting among Obama and leaders of both parties in Congress — their first since the midterm elections.
