Sullivan says he supports continued jobless benefit—but only for one week

Sen. Dan Sullivan signaled his opposition two months ago to the continuation of the COVID-19 $600-per-week unemployment benefit beyond its July 31 expiration.

He wanted the benefit to be reduced starting Aug. 1.

“As some of us have said before, we are afraid the unemployment insurance compensation included in the CARES Act has created a disincentive for many Americans furloughed or laid off workers from finding new jobs, especially those seasonal or temporary in nature,” Sullivan and eight other Republican senators wrote May 27 to President Trump.

On a June 4 town hall phone call with Alaskans, Sullivan repeated what had already become a standard GOP talking point: He said he wanted to extend benefits, but “do so in a way that doesn’t disincentivize individuals from going back to work.”

He said he did not want to “have this situation, which we have been hearing about—to be honest, quite a lot—that there’s a disincentive to go back to the job you may have had previously because of the levels of the CARES Act unemployment insurance. So that’s where all the action is right now. And the current program expires on July 31st.”

In late July, Sullivan repeated his desire for something less than $600 a week to avoid “disincentivizing people’s desire to want to go back to work.”

The Republican plan announced Monday called for cutting the extra benefit to $200 a week, ending the alleged disincentive.

But now Sullivan, who is running for re-election, is really angry that the $600-a-week disincentive disappeared on July 31.

He said Congress should have continued it for one more week before chopping hundreds of dollars. The extra week would have given Congress time to work out a new deal, he said.

In the oversimplified politics of this, Sullivan is attacking Democrats for blocking the GOP 7-day extension, while Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer is attacking the GOP over a stunt that was impossible to implement. The end of the program is a sure-fire way to speed negotiations.

What Sullivan didn’t say is that Republicans deserve much of the blame for not negotiating with Democrats in the Senate or taking up the House version of the bailout bill approved 10 weeks ago. He also failed to mention that about half of the GOP senators are opposed to any bailout money, according to what Sen. Mitch McConnell has told reporters.

As the Associated Press reported Saturday, “Republicans in the Senate had been fighting to trim back the $600 benefit, saying it must be slashed so that people don’t make more in unemployment than they would if they returned to work. But their resolve weakened as the benefit expired, and Trump abruptly undercut their position by signaling he wants to keep the full $600 for now.”

On Thursday, Sullivan spoke on the Senate floor, not about his opposition to the extra $600 per week, but about the injustice of ending it on July 31. Just one more week, he said.

“The Senate minority leader came down, and he blocked it. He blocked it.”

“If you’re not gonna be receiving a check next week, there is one person you can blame,” said Sullivan.

In fact, there are many people to blame, including Sullivan, the rest of the GOP senators and Trump.

“I am sure that the minority leader believes that the national media will not blame him. He is probably right, but it should. But it should,” said Sullivan, who has made his opposition to Schumer a central part of his campaign.

“If you are one of the millions of Americans who are worried about this issue because you are out of work, we just put forward a very simple compromise: As we continue to negotiate, we will continue the unemployment levels paid to Americans that were in the CARES Act for another week, at the levels that currently exist.”

“There are going to be a lot of people next week who are going to be hurting because of this, and I hope they accurately report why they are hurting, what just happened, and that is not the spirit of compromise that we are going to need to get through this pandemic.”

For his part, Schumer said, “The President seems to endorse a different policy every time he finds a microphone. The one thing we are sure he supports is spending taxpayer dollars on a new FBI building to boost the value of his hotel. Yesterday, we learned the President asked for nearly $400 million in renovations to the White House in the Republican COVID proposal. Seriously? The President proposes no help for Americans to stay in their houses but wants the taxpayers to fork over nearly $400 million to help him renovate the White House? Simply put, negotiations with the White House and Senate Republicans right now are like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall. We are trying to work with our counterparts, but it is immensely frustrating to deal with a negotiating partner who can’t say what they support on nearly any issue.”

Sullivan said he wanted $600 weekly benefit to be extended for 7 days and then reduced by hundreds of dollars. What he hasn’t told Alaskans is whether he supports the GOP plan to cut the benefit to $200 a week, which he probably does.

The only reporting on this in Alaska was Sullivan’s refusal to say anything to the Anchorage Daily News: “The office of Sen. Dan Sullivan said on Monday he is still reviewing the details of the newly introduced legislation.”

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