The Senate may be on the verge of passing an extension of unemployment insurance, which expired at the end of the year, but Speaker of the House John Boehner says the House will only pass an extension if it also includes a side of snake-oil.
“One month ago I personally told the White House that another extension of temporary emergency unemployment benefits should not only be paid for but include something to help put people back to work,” Boehner said in a statement released just minutes after the Senate moved forward an extension of the benefits.
“To date, the president has offered no such plan. If he does, I’ll be happy to discuss it, but right now the House is going to remain focused on growing the economy and giving America’s unemployed the independence that only comes from finding a good job.”
In case you weren’t able to parse this yourself, what John Boehner is trying to say is that there’s virtually no chance extended unemployment insurance will pass the House unless it’s accompanied by a tax-cut, or deregulation, or some other form of dishonest policy the likes of which Senator Marco Rubio will likely include in his poverty speech tomorrow.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed today that the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate be delayed by one year in exchange for extending unemployment insurance.
If you were to ask what the individual mandate has to do with unemployment insurance, the answer is I have no idea. Mitch McConnell probably has no idea either, but it seems like a good enough idea to him.