Unemployment extension put on hold

An attempt to pass a bill to extend unemployment benefits to avoid having hundreds of thousands of American lose those benefits was thwarted on Thursday and Friday when Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Kent.) was the sole voice refusing to pass the bill by unanimous consent. But Mike Lillis, the congressional correspondent for our sister site the Washington Independent, points out that this is actually part of a larger Republican strategy that has been going on for the past several months — and has worked very well for them.

Bunning says that he wants the $10 billion cost to be paid for with cuts elsewhere, and, despite his past support for much larger unfunded bills, we’ll take him at his word. But there’s another good reason that Republicans want to prolong the debate over the unemployment benefits bill: Namely, it keeps all other Democratic priorities off the Senate floor.

If that sounds familiar it’s because GOP leaders used the same tactic in October, when they spent weeks delaying a UI extension that eventually passed 98 to 0. Now, like then, they know that the unemployment extension will pass. Now, like then, they know that most (if not all) of their caucus will vote for it. By why would they want the process to move quickly when it would simply allow Democrats to tackle more items on their legislative wish-list before the elections? The longer the Senate is forced to debate must-pass bills like unemployment benefits, the shorter a window Democrats will have to move things like health care reform, financial reform, climate legislation, etc. (The backlog is enormous: There are nearly 300 bills idling in the Senate that House Democrats have already passed this Congress. Few are supported by the Republicans.)

The reason Republicans have chosen this route is simple: It’s worked.

The delay on UI last year kept health care reform off the floor, ultimately forcing a Christmas Eve vote that pushed the House/Senate health reform negotiations into January. Then Scott Brown happened. Then health reform sputtered.

What makes all even weirder is the fact that this bill, like the last unemployment extension, will pass by a very wide margin and strong bipartisan support.