Mary Beth Schneider, writing for the Indianapolis Star, reports on a political game of chicken in the House that stalled passage of a bill to do something about the state’s empty unemployment benefits fund. The solution lies in increasing the inputs and/or decreasing the outputs — i.e. making businesses pay more, making unemployed take less, or some combination thereof. None of that is very popular. Democrats weren’t willing to pass the bill on their own without significant Republican support as cover. They didn’t want to get hammered for raising taxes or cutting benefits. House Republicans were unwilling to go along or unwilling to go along in sufficient numbers.
Given the divided control of House and Senate, a bipartisan solution would be necessary in any case. The Governor is apparently not providing much in the way of leadership on this issue. So now it will be up to the Senate to take charge. Everyone knows something needs to get done. Currently the fund is operating on a federal loan. Governing is hard.
This piece of legislation illustrates the sharp divide between the Senate/Republicans and House/Democrats —a divide that borders on stupid since much is not just a matter of philosophical difference but appears to be gamesmanship. Unemployment fund is in very very dire straits–and should not be a state general fund concern. Who else besides employeers and employees should be paying into the fund??????
Round 1 of this year’s circus is over, Round 2 starts Monday, and Round 3 will be a soap opera when compromising of the two groups bills seek to come to a consensus. Then Round 4 will be to watch the governor handles signing or refusing to sign.
Whatever the differences between House Democrats and Senate Republicans are, I would say the divide between House Republicans and House Democrats is even wider and stupider.
Senate Republicans have to act more reasonably than their brethren in the House because they control the Senate. Senate Democrats don’t get the chance to act as petulantly as House Republicans because Senate Democrats are so far in the minority as to be nearly irrelevant. Occasionally, they can probably tip the balance between competing Republican factions in the Senate.
Senate Republicans will probably come up with a solution that is more or less reasonable, even if disagreeable to the House Democrats. I don’t think House Republicans got that far — and politically, they probably had little incentive to play nice in any case.
They have jobs and health insurance, so what’s the rush? This can always wait until later. Meanwhile, let’s worry about nutrition labels in restaurants.