Page 172 - Extensions News Today

The national unemployment rate at 10%, millions of americans are depending on these government benefits to get by, but some point out that neverending extensions of unemployment benefits are a drain on the treasury and an addition to our ever-exploding deficits and disincentives for recipients to look for work. why search for a job when the government is cutting you a check every week? during this deep recession that weve had, congress has approved 73 weeks of additional unemployment benefits. t...

Tax cuts that cost more than a trillion dollars unpaid for? where was my friend and the republicans objective to that? >> reporter: democrats are also eager to point out senator bunning in the past has voted to extend expiring unemployment benefits without it being paid for and also at that point added to the deficit. so, anderson, you might ask, why the change? well, thats one of many questions that we wanted to ask senator bunning today if he would be willing to answer any. anderson? >> its in...

>> where was my friend from kentucky when we had two wars unpaid for during the bush administration? tax cuts that cost more than a trillion dollars unpaid for? where was my friend and the republicans objective to that? >> reporter: democrats are also eager to point out senator bunning in the past has voted to extend expiring unemployment benefits without it being paid for and also at that point added to the deficit. so, anderson, you might ask, why the change? well, thats one of many questions ...

To the deficit. so, anderson, you might ask, why the change? well, thats one of many questions that we wanted to ask senator bunning today if he would be willing to answer any. >> its interesting because he gave his reasons and you explained them very well. there are a lot of republicans who do support expanding these benefits. i mean, politically its a relatively popular move. is he the only one whos against this? >> reporter: hes the only one who has come out and formally opposed it. if not fo...

To end, as you said. senator bunning has been insisting democrats find a way to pay for the $10 billion in temporary extensions of unemployment benefit and other assistance. such as insurance benefits rather than adding it to the deficit. that led to the standoff but senator bunning suggested the dispute is about to come to an end. >> i decided that we ought to try our best to get a compromise and pay for it. that the other side would agree to. >> we believe there is an agreement in hand that wi...

Signaling and suggesting they may be open to a near term fix, but the longer term, since we had so many extensions already, they want to have a discussion about how they pay for it? it doesnt come for free. if its so important for people to get the checks, they want to know where are we going to get the money, and are we going to take it from someplace else? of course, nobody is going to give backup checks for that. this is lost time for those people who will not be able to get a federal check. ...

Make a point about how to fund benefits we extend, held up the extension of benefits town employed people, affecting almost a million people. we believe the senate will take it up and deal with it, overriding what bunting was doing, but our team is on the story. dana bash was following jim bunting, trying to get an answer from him. shes now in front of the cameras. tell us what happened. >> reporter: this is the story we have been telling about how one senator can really affect things here. this...

First, our top stories this morning. president obama signed a one-year extension of several extensions in the patriot act. it allows the government to monitor americans in the interest of national security. it would have expired today. a third suspect has been arrested in a house party massacre that left 15 people dead last month in juarez. and mexican authorities say the suspect failed a lie detector test in 2008. and the count now stands at

Were operating under for reconciliation. >> so youre saying you could add expansion of pell grants, extensions -- or expansions of child care help and school construction funds to the existing health reform bill? you could pass it all at once? >> yes, we can combine health care and education. thats what reconciliation would allow us to do now. after we pass that, we can come back for reconciliation and we can deal with infrastructure, we can deal with the transformation of our energy system, awa...

Reconciliation. >> so youre saying you could add expansion of pell grants, extensions -- or expansions of child care help and school construction funds to the existing health reform bill? you could pass it all at once? >> yes, we can combine health care and education. thats what reconciliation would allow us to do now. after we pass that, we can come back for reconciliation and we can deal with infrastructure, we can deal with the transformation of our energy system, away from fossil fuel energy...