LuvBigRip
05-12-2004, 08:33 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate by a single vote rejected an election-year effort Tuesday to extend federal unemployment benefits.
Democrats tried to attach the benefit to a corporate tax bill. On a 59-40 vote in the GOP-controlled Senate, they fell just shy of the 60 votes needed to overcome objections that extending the benefits violated last year's budget agreement.
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was the only senator who missed the vote. He was campaigning in Kentucky.
The amendment would have offered emergency federal unemployment benefits for six months, temporarily giving 13 weeks of extra assistance to people who exhaust their state benefits - typically 26 weeks.
Campaigning in Florida, Kerry said he didn't come back to Washington for the vote because he understood that Senate Republicans would not let the measure pass.
"We were told that no matter what would happen they would change a vote in the Senate and they were not going to let it happen," Kerry said in an interview in Jacksonville with television stations WIXX and WTLV. "They don't want it to happen. It is very clear that even if they pass it in the Senate, they are not going to pass it in the House."
Campaign spokesman David Wade had said earlier in the day that Kerry "has fought again and again to extend unemployment benefits for workers left behind in the Bush economy. The reason we haven't succeeded is because George Bush opposes extending unemployment insurance and so do his allies in the Republican House of Representatives and 39 Republican senators."
Steve Schmidt, a Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman, responded: "Last month, John Kerry was pushing for the extension of unemployment benefits. Today he had the chance to actually vote on that question but was too busy playing politics when he would have made the difference in the Senate."
This is a man who wants you to vote for him, and yet he doesn't vote because he thinks his vote doesn't count??? How does he know that the Republicans wouldn't have passed the bill? So he doesn't even try??? That is crazy. What does this teach young voters?? Why bother?? I am no Kerry fan, but good grief, do your current job. . I don't care if you are Republican, Democrat or Independant VOTE!!!!! It really ticks me off when the men and women we get out and vote for, don't take the time to vote on measures that are presented to them. Especially the important things. Ok, I vented I feel better now
Democrats tried to attach the benefit to a corporate tax bill. On a 59-40 vote in the GOP-controlled Senate, they fell just shy of the 60 votes needed to overcome objections that extending the benefits violated last year's budget agreement.
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was the only senator who missed the vote. He was campaigning in Kentucky.
The amendment would have offered emergency federal unemployment benefits for six months, temporarily giving 13 weeks of extra assistance to people who exhaust their state benefits - typically 26 weeks.
Campaigning in Florida, Kerry said he didn't come back to Washington for the vote because he understood that Senate Republicans would not let the measure pass.
"We were told that no matter what would happen they would change a vote in the Senate and they were not going to let it happen," Kerry said in an interview in Jacksonville with television stations WIXX and WTLV. "They don't want it to happen. It is very clear that even if they pass it in the Senate, they are not going to pass it in the House."
Campaign spokesman David Wade had said earlier in the day that Kerry "has fought again and again to extend unemployment benefits for workers left behind in the Bush economy. The reason we haven't succeeded is because George Bush opposes extending unemployment insurance and so do his allies in the Republican House of Representatives and 39 Republican senators."
Steve Schmidt, a Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman, responded: "Last month, John Kerry was pushing for the extension of unemployment benefits. Today he had the chance to actually vote on that question but was too busy playing politics when he would have made the difference in the Senate."
This is a man who wants you to vote for him, and yet he doesn't vote because he thinks his vote doesn't count??? How does he know that the Republicans wouldn't have passed the bill? So he doesn't even try??? That is crazy. What does this teach young voters?? Why bother?? I am no Kerry fan, but good grief, do your current job. . I don't care if you are Republican, Democrat or Independant VOTE!!!!! It really ticks me off when the men and women we get out and vote for, don't take the time to vote on measures that are presented to them. Especially the important things. Ok, I vented I feel better now