December Unemployment Numbers Not Good | NYT: Reid’s Uncompromising Power Play In Senate . . .

Today in Washington, D.C. - Jan. 10, 2014
The Senate is not in session today and will reconvene at 2 PM on Monday. At 5:30, the Senate will vote on confirmation of Robert Wilkins to be a judge on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Wilkins is the 3^rd of three judges Democrats are using to pack the DC Circuit Court and Reid used the nuclear option to ensure his confirmation. Senators will then vote on cutting off debate on S. 1845, the unemployment insurance bill.

Yesterday, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) forced a vote to attempt to break the blockade on amendments enforced by Harry Reid. But Democrats voted down the attempt, 54-42.

Reid then moved another judicial nominee via the nuclear option, Robert Wilkins, another of the nominees Democrats are using to pack the DC Circuit Court. The Democrat majority voted 53-41 to proceed to the motion to reconsider cloture on Wilkins, 54-40 to approve the motion to reconsider, and then 55-38 ton invoke cloture on the nomination and cut off debate, using the nuclear option precedent.

The House reconvened at 9 AM.  They passed H.R. 3811 (291 - 122) — "To require notification of individuals of breaches of personally identifiable information through Exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." And then recessed at 12:58 until Monday, Jan 13th at Noon.

Yesterday, the House passed H.R. 2279 (225-188) — "To amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act relating to review of regulations under such Act and to amend the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 relating to financial responsibility for classes of facilities."

The BLS Employment Report for December 2013 reported that the unemployment rate declined from 7.0 percent to 6.7 percent in December, while total nonfarm payroll employment edged up (+74,000). The number of unemployed persons declined by 490,000 to 10.4 million in December. "Wall Street strategists and economists pointed out that this was well below the consensus prediction of 197,000" which is still a drip in the overall bucket. Business Insider also noted the following responses" "Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs: Even taking into account the effects of weather, Hatzius calls the report "still a fairly sizable disappointment," and the report is "definitely weaker beyond that factor," according to Bloomberg. . . . David Ader, head of government bond strategy at CRT Capital: "A weak gain of course, with the oddity of the drop in the unemployment rate a function of a drop in labor participation, so people leaving labor force, and so not a strong sign."

While many people blamed the weather for the drop, folks there is always weather and that does not explain 10.4 million people being out of work. The facts show that the Obama administration may be supportive of extending unemployment benefits but it is not filled with employment friendly policies or decisions makers. Consider the Obama administrations delays of the Keystone XL Pipelines where the "State Department estimated that 42,000 jobs would result from the construction of the pipeline."

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) reponded to the Department of Labor’s unemployment report for December 2013: “Every American has a right to ask the question ‘Where are the jobs?’ Today’s disappointing report shows, once again, that the president’s policies are failing too many Americans, many of whom have simply stopped looking for work. There are more families living in poverty today than there were before the president took office, and instead of making it easier to find a good-paying job, Washington has been more focused on making it less difficult to live without one. The top priority of middle-class families who are struggling in this economy, and the top priority of the people’s House, is creating new jobs. That’s why we have passed dozens of pro-growth jobs bills that would help improve job training, expand energy and infrastructure development, promote education and innovation, and protect small businesses from ObamaCare. The longer Senate Democrats stall these bills, the longer Americans will be waiting to find the new job they need and deserve.”

Speaking on behalf of Millennial (ages 19-29 years old), Evan Feinberg, President of Generation Opportunity, issued the following statement: "The unacceptably high youth unemployment rate is troubling because we are the most creative, innovative generation in American history. We are developing new technologies, saving lives, and making this country better. The only thing holding us back is the constraint of government. The real shame is there are easy policy solutions that would free our generation to realize our potential. We need to stop spending our economy into a tailspin and eliminate red-tape and other barriers to work." In addition, Generation Opportunity noted, "The declining labor force participation rate has created an additional 1.880 million young adults that are not counted as “unemployed” by the U.S. Department of Labor because they are not in the labor force, meaning that those young people have given up looking for work due to the lack of jobs."

The effective December 2013 unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds, adjusted for labor force participation by including those who have given up looking for work, is 15.9 percent. Unemployment rates for 18-29 year olds by various classifications are African-Americans 24.2%, Hispanics 16.8% and Women 13.7%.

Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens responded to December's job numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: "Another half a million people dropped out of the American labor force in December. You can ignore every other statistic and spin coming out of this Administration about the job market, this is the only data point that matters. That is a half million more dreams shattered as Americans give up on traditional, legal paths to economic success and wealth.

"Since Obama became president, the number of people who are considered to be in the civilian job eligible population has increased by just shy of eleven million people, but the number of people who have entered the work force has only increased by about 730 thousand people. Quite simply our nation cannot survive when fewer than sixty six out a thousand working aged people are entering the workforce. Of those sixty six who want a job, about five of them are unemployed. That is Obama's economic legacy."

Over time, the unprecedented harm being done to the institution and tradition of the Senate under Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is becoming more and more apparent. Following his use of the nuclear option, breaking the Senate rules to change them in order to shut out the minority party, and his constant blockade on amendments to legislation, even The New York Times has noticed what’s happening. It reports today, “With his strong-armed change to the filibuster rule and an iron-fisted control of the Senate floor, Senator Harry Reid has engaged in the greatest consolidation of congressional power since Newt Gingrich ruled the House, unleashing a bitterness that may derail efforts to extend unemployment insurance. Mr. Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, on Thursday dismissed all proposed Republican amendments to the unemployment extension, even those drafted by Republicans who had handed Democrats a victory on Tuesday by voting to take up the bill. . . . A Republican effort to try to reopen the amendment process failed on a party-line vote, 42 to 54, setting up a showdown next week that is likely to end in the bill’s demise, Democrats conceded. . . . To Republicans, it was only the latest — and one of the boldest — slaps in the face. . . . Mr. Reid’s brutish style matters beyond the marbled chamber of the Senate. Senate legislation has increasingly turned into a battle over amendments and Mr. Reid’s uncompromising control over the process. The six Republicans who voted to take up the unemployment bill on Tuesday expected at least to be allowed votes on their amendments to shape the legislation. Instead, Mr. Reid dismissed all Republican proposals as unacceptable and then proposed his own new unemployment deal.”

Reid has even been shutting out Democrats from amending bills, the NYT notes. “The unemployment bill is only the most recent example of legislation that has become stuck in a procedural quagmire, affecting senators in both parties. A long-awaited showdown between two Democratic senators, Kirsten E. Gillibrand of New York and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, over the military’s approach to sexual assault fizzled late last year when they were denied any votes on an annual military policy bill that usually is shaped over weeks on the Senate floor. A bipartisan bill on Iran sanctions has yet to receive floor consideration. And Democrats, eager to replace a tax on medical devices that helps pay for the Affordable Care Act, have been denied a vote.”

Things have gotten so out of hand that only four Republican amendments have received votes since July of last year. During the same time span in the House of Representatives, where the rules are designed to let the majority control the floor, minority Democrats have gotten votes on 71 of their amendments.

The Times continues, “The bitterness burst into the open on Wednesday afternoon. With virtually all of his Republican colleagues watching, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, took to the Senate floor to deliver a nearly hour long lament about the destruction that Mr. Reid has wrought, describing the Senate as a post-apocalyptic wasteland ruled by a dictatorial autocrat despised by allies and foes alike. He compared Mr. Reid’s leadership to the famously strong-armed style of Lyndon B. Johnson when he was Senate majority leader in the 1950s, not a compliment in Mr. McConnell’s account.”

In her Wall Street Journal column, Kimberley Strassel puts a finer point on things: “The popular judgment that Washington's dysfunction is the result of ‘partisanship’ misses a crucial point. Washington is currently gridlocked because of the particular partisanship of one man: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. . . . It's often said the 113th Congress is on track to become the ‘least productive’ in history—but that tagline obscures crucial details. The Republican House in fact passed more than 200 bills in 2013. . . . [N]early a dozen were bipartisan pieces of legislation that drew more than 250 Republicans and Democrats to tackle pressing issues — jobs bills, protections against cyberattack, patent reform, prioritizing funding for pediatric research, and streamlining regulations for pipelines. These laws all went to die in Mr. Reid's Senate graveyard. . . . This is the norm in Mr. Reid's Senate, and for years he has been vocally and cleverly blaming the chamber's uselessness on Republican filibusters.”

“This is a joke,” Strassel explains, “as evidenced by recent history. . . . [The Senate] didn't suddenly break overnight. What did happen is the Senate Democrats' filibuster-proof majority in the first years of the Obama administration—when Mr. Reid got a taste for unfettered power—and then the GOP takeover of the House in 2011. That is when the Senate broke, as it was the point at which Mr. Reid chose to subvert its entire glorious history to two of his own partisan aims: Protecting his majority and acting as gatekeeper for the White House. Determined to protect his vulnerable members from tough votes, the majority leader has unilaterally killed the right to offer amendments. Since July, Republicans have been allowed to offer . . . four. Determined to shield the administration from legislation the president opposes, Mr. Reid has unilaterally killed committee work, since it might produce bipartisan bills. Similarly, he's refused to take up bills that have bipartisan support like approving the Keystone XL Pipeline, repealing ObamaCare's medical-device tax, and passing new Iran sanctions.”

Strassel adds, “Here's how the Senate ‘works’ these days. Mr. Reid writes the legislation himself, thereby shutting Republicans out of the committee drafting. Then he outlaws amendments. So yes, there are filibusters. They have become the GOP's only means of protesting Mr. Reid's total control over what is meant to be a democratic body. It isn't that the Senate can't work; it's that Sen. Reid won't let it. Pushed over the brink by Mr. Reid's November power play—scrapping the filibuster for Obama nominees—Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell began 2014 with a rip-roaring Senate-floor speech. On Wednesday he set the record straight on the Reid tactics that have created Senate dysfunction.”

In that speech, Leader McConnell pointed out, “The big problem has never been the rules. Senators from both parties have revered and defended the rules during our nation’s darkest hours. The real problem is an attitude that views the Senate as an assembly line for one party's partisan legislative agenda, rather than as a place to build consensus to solve national problems. . . . As I see it, a major turning point came during the final years of the Bush administration, when the Democrat Majority held vote after vote on bills they knew wouldn’t pass. . . . [O]ver the past several years the Senate seems more like a campaign studio than a serious legislative body. . . . And when the Majority Leader decided a few weeks back to defy bipartisan opposition by changing the rules that govern this place with a simple majority vote, he broke something.”

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Tags: DOL, BLS, Labor Department, unemployment report, December 2013, U.S. Senate, Harry Reid, dictator To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!