"With the financial regulatory reform legislation headed to a conference committee, both the Senate and the House of Representatives will be turning their attention to a variety of bills, including one that extends several tax breaks and social safety net provisions. However, members of both parties are already approaching the bill with consternation, as they are wary of anything that seems remotely associated with government spending.

"Among its important provisions, the bill would extend the enhanced unemployment insurance system that passed as part of last year’s economic recovery act. It provides up to 53 weeks of benefits, with an additional 13 to 20 weeks in states hardest hit by the Great Recession. However, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), appeared on CNBC this morning to say that Congress should stop extending benefits “right now” because “at some point you’ve got to acknowledge that we’re not Europe”:

"For one thing, Gregg really has no idea what the package does (which doesn’t stop him from going on cable news to complain about it). It doesn’t extend benefits for anyone past 99 weeks (for which some people in the hardest hit states are eligible). No one is proposing 150 or 120 weeks, as Gregg implied.

"What the bill does do is ensure that people who are currently unemployed and would be eligible for extended benefits don’t suddenly have those benefits pulled out from under them. It will also ensure that people who recently lost their jobs or who lose their jobs in the coming months can qualify for the full extent of the unemployment insurance program."   

As Digby notes: "Yeah, these tens of millions of our fellow citizens are just a bunch of lazy asses who are living it up on 300 a week. There's plenty of jobs, these people just refuse to work because they like all this cushy free money.

"And yet politicians are buying this nonsense that there are plenty of jobs but people just won't work? That's completely ridiculous.

"I guess living in your car and digging in trash cans is the new safety net. Plus it's so much better than working."

Also in the mix are big corporations aka Congress' controllers who are totally against helping those they helped "unemploy."

Another posting from Pat Garofalo at Wonk Room:

"This week, the House of Representatives is trying to pull together a package extending several popular tax breaks as well as important social safety net provisions like unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for laid-off workers. The bill costs about $200 billion, but is partially offset by a few tax changes, including the closing of a loophole that allow corporations to claim U.S. tax credits on profits earned overseas.

"These unjustified tax breaks have been on the radar of Congress’ tax writers for the last few years, but so far they’ve remained in the tax code due to the pressure of big corporations, which obviously want to preserve their ability to exploit the tax code’s quirks. This time, even though the bill before Congress extends some of their favored tax provisions, like the Research and Development tax credit, the Big Business lobby is at it again, fighting to preserve its ability to use tax loopholes, at the expense of its own tax credits and the extension of unemployment benefits

"The choice here for Congress is pretty stark. On one side, there’s the need to extend unemployment insurance for workers at a time when long-term unemployment is at record highs and the labor market is still incredibly weak, while at the same time extending tax breaks that help companies innovate and create jobs. On the other side, there’s the ability for multinational corporations to claim U.S. credits on profits that they don’t earn here or pay domestic taxes on.

"AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says congressional candidates can “back up their rhetoric with action,” by pledging their support for the bill. For both members of Congress and those who hope to be elected:

" 'If you’re not for this bill, you’re not for jobs. Period.'

"The jobs bill also will start the process of making Wall Street finally pay to restore the millions of jobs the Big Banks and financial institutions destroyed with their reckless and risky practices. It closes a tax loophole that allows rich Wall Street hedge fund managers to pay lower tax rates on their income than ordinary wage earners. It also closes a similar loophole on corporations that ship jobs overseas.

"Critics of the bill say the nation’s budget deficit does not allow spending to create jobs. Says Trumka:

" 'The people who are always saying “No” to jobs because of the deficit are often the same people who voted to squander our hard-earned budget surpluses so they could shower undeserved tax breaks on rich people during the Bush years. Apparently, spending money on rich people is perfectly okay, but investing in jobs for working class Americans sets off alarm bells.' "

It appears that many elected denizens of Capitol Hill (like Gregg and Dahlkemper who have jobs with six figure salaries and great benefits courtesy of taxpayers) would rather blame the struggling jobless and ignore the unemployment disaster that the have's and have more's have wreaked on regular Americans in this country and consign to the dust bin of history these tens of millions of jobless who are victims of the rewarded-by-the-government gazillionaire perpetrators of this massive long term unemployment.