Democrats attack McDonnell, GOP on rejecting unemployment funds
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
On Thursday Gov. Tim Kaine visited The Starting Place, a resource center for families with children from birth to five years old, in Liberty Fair Mall, a Martinsville, Va., community coalition run by 16 organizations that receives state funding.
The three Democratic rivals for governor wasted little time yesterday in attacking GOP candidate Bob McDonnell and other Republicans for opposing a plan to boost unemployment benefits in Virginia with $125.5 million in federal stimulus money.
"Bob McDonnell and his Republican allies still don't get that Virginians are hurting," said state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds of Bath County, who voted for the plan at the General Assembly session Wednesday.
Deeds and fellow Democratic hopefuls Terry McAuliffe and former Del. Brian J. Moran of Alexandria supported the unemployment package.
"Yesterday, Virginia Republicans, led by Bob McDonnell, turned their backs on Virginia families and communities facing record unemployment rates and unprecedented economic challenges," McAuliffe said.
Moran said: "It's deeply disappointing that Bob McDonnell and House Republicans have blocked this lifeline for working families."
But a spokesman for McDonnell, echoing GOP legislators who rejected the unemployment money Wednesday, said: "This one-time federal funding will run out, and taxpayers and business owners will have to cover it."
"Bob knows people are hurting, but he wants to ensure we don't end up passing policies that would slow down the economic recovery that will eventually occur," said McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin.
McDonnell is not likely to get the vote of C. David Harrington, a treasury analyst at LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. in Glen Allen, who is losing his job. LandAmerica is one of several corporations in the Richmond area that have filed for bankruptcy.
"Outrage is too mild to express how many Virginians feel about the House blocking the proposal to boost jobless pay," Harrington wrote in an e-mail message. "As someone who becomes unemployed in three more business days, I plan to become politically active," he added.
Elizabeth Villwock of Scottsville, who joined McAuliffe on a conference call yesterday, said unemployment benefits are "what's keeping us afloat."
Villwock, who recently was laid off after 21 years in sales with a Charlottesville retailer of high-end European linens, described GOP resistance as "hurtful."
About 300,000 Virginians are unemployed.
On almost a straight party-line vote Wednesday, the House of Delegates voted 53-46 to reject the $125.5 million in federal funding. All 19 Republicans in the Virginia Senate and 52 of 54 who voted in the House opposed the package, which had been recommended by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.
A livid Kaine said afterward that the vote was "completely unfathomable."
Republicans said they feared the state would be stuck with higher unemployment insurance bills once the federal money runs out. They also opposed strings attached to the package -- unemployment benefits would be extended for the first time to part-time workers and to laid-off workers training for new jobs.
Lobbyists for business groups were pleased with the vote.
"We felt like this was going to be an unfunded mandate at the end of the stimulus money," said George C. Peyton, vice president of government relations for the Virginia Retail Federation, which represents about 3,000 small, independent Virginia-based retailers.
"If these benefits were extended to them, it would put a tremendous burden on the unemployment insurance pool."
Political commentator Robert D. Holsworth said the Republicans may have handed Democrats a potent political issue that could hurt GOP candidates, including McDonnell, this fall. All 100 House seats are up for election.
"It puts pressure on McDonnell to come up with a big idea, such as tax cuts," Holsworth said.
Republicans could benefit by winning financial support for their fall campaigns from the business community, Holsworth added, but "how that plays with the public is a different matter."
After the vote Wednesday, House Republicans sent out a list of 38 groups that urged a "no" vote on expanding the benefits, including several chambers of commerce, general contractors groups, home-builders organizations and others.
Democratic General Assembly challengers were quick to attack GOP incumbents.
Democrat Tom Shields, who is challenging Republican Del. John M. O'Bannon III in the 73rd District, had a news release ready Wednesday night criticizing O'Bannon.
"People that are good, hardworking people, the talents we've built in the region here, how can you not want to help these people, get them back on their feet and help their family's income?" Shields said.
O'Bannon responded that the Republicans voted to spend $62 million in stimulus money to extend benefits for those Virginians currently eligible for unemployment. The strings attached to the package would have increased the per-employee cost for Virginia's businesses, he said.
Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or
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Staff writers Jeff E. Schapiro and Olympia Meola contributed to this report.
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Reader Reactions
hahaha:
You don’t think I’m a liar, but you call me a dolt!?
Of course soup line existed, but that’s my point…they didn’t go away. Unemployment was in the high teens when FDR took office and it was still in the high teens ten years later. So, empirical evidence seems to indicate that massive government spending did not work. It may have helped some, but hurt more than it helped because it sapped capital from the private sector and retarded the real sources of job and wealth creation.
I march to the beat of my own drum. If someone else happens to be playing the same tune, then fine with me. My ideology is not based on party affiliation. A whole lot of us objected to the Bush spending spree. You want to know where we were? We were at home during the last election and did not support those, Republican or Democrat, who engaged in such wasteful spending.
It’s an article about Unemployment Insurance. Extending benefits for a while won’t doom the state.
———————————-
I don’t think its intelligent or prudent for the US to be spending this kind of money, but I will acknowledge that the level of economic precariousness that we face may be beyond my understanding. Leaders from both parties, independent experts, and other world leaders are all warning about a potential total collapse of the global (particularly the US) economy.
Bush threw a gazillion at it and Obama threw a gazillion more. I have no faith or expecation that Pelosi and Reid will reign in spending and I think it is wrong, but your suggestion that Obama is quadrupling spending is misleading and deceitful.
He didnt cause the global economic panic—he is merely paying the ransom. I am sure many feel that we should let the whole house of cards fall. I don’t pretend to know the extent of that possibility, but gun sales aren’t through the roof due to uncontrolled crime.
hahaha - You hated it when the neo-cons spent so much money, why, all of the sudden, is it o.k. for Obama and the democrats to do it?
I didn’t like it when Bush did it and I don’t like it now that Obama has quadrupled the spending. It was wrong in both instances, why is it more defensible, in your mind, when Obama, Reid and Pelosi do it versus the neo-cons?
Are you towing the party line here or what?
I’m not suggesting that you are a liar. I’m only pointing out that you are a beating someone else’s drum.
Are you suggesting that Hoovervilles and soup lines didn’t exist? Or that those Federal jobs didnt provide a decent livelihood for those that would or could work? Or that the interstate system wasn’t actually built?
Are you suggesting that Republicans spend less or don’t have massive budget deficits? Where were you when the neocons controlled both houses of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the White House? They destroyed records for dollars spent, borrowed, and wasted.
But NOW you dolts come out of the woodwork to spew this same echo chamber crap that you pick up from the librul media and try to pawn it off as some kind of educated information.
I am no fan of big government, but I won’t deny that broken things tend to not fix themselves. You can assign whatever credit and blame you want to the situation then or now, but if you don’t have a job, can’t get a job, and don’t have any money—as a citizen I would prefer you turn to the state rather than crime.
Okay, hahaha. So, prove me a liar.
What was the unemployment rate in 1939 and what, exactly, did FDR and his programs do to improve the economic situation in that decade?
The undeniable fact is that spending your way to prosperity does not work . . . not now, not ever. It did not work in Japan, has not worked in Europe, and will not work in the U.S.
Simplfy the scenario and drill-down to your own personal situation. If you were in debt, would spending more (of what you don’t have) improve your economic situation? The answer is definitely, No. Concerning the government, the numbers are much, much bigger, but the principle is exactly the same. We cannot recklessly spend into oblivion without consequence. Unfortunately, it will take paying $1000 for a loaf of bread before people with your mindset finally figure out what we are trying to explain.
LS Wonder… you failed US History in high school, didn’t you.
The New Deal did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for the economy. It produced a lot of government infrastructure but created few permanent jobs or wealth. People hired to build things like roads and buildings had a job for the duration of the project, but often after the job was done they wound up on government assistance again. As a result, GDP was actually less at the start of 1940 than it was at the beginning of 1934. America had no choice but to get into the war to get factories operating again and people back to work making wartime materials.
...may have…whatever that means.
Hope….whatever that means.
Change….whatever that means.
It certainly didn’t mean what most of Obama’s supporters thought it was going to mean. They’ve elected a man president who has obviously confused the terms “justice” and “revenge”.
...according to the latest GOP talking points.
But just state it as in fact, may have…whatever that means.
LSWonder,
Sorry to disappoint, but the New Deal did not improve the economy and, in fact, may have prolonged the misery. Unemployment was still in the 18%-20% range as late as 1939—well after Europe had begun to recover. The US economy did not improve until the end of WWII.
If you insist, I’ll refine my earlier comments. Our children will pay for the unemployment benefits for the states who accept it, while not receiving any for Virginia. If this is the Republican plan, please send more or your private money to aide the other 49 states.
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