Harry Reid Calls GOP Unemployment Reform 'The Wrong Side Of Ridiculous'

WASHINGTON -- The top Democrat in Congress on Tuesday mocked a Republican bill that would slash extended unemployment benefits and allow states to drug test the jobless.

"I think what they have in the proposed bill is the wrong side of ridiculous," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said during a press conference at the Capitol. "They cut out a couple score of weeks. And listen to this one: As I read the bill, as my staff reads the bill, they require drug testing for people who are drawing unemployment compensation... So there are reforms necessary, but not this."

Republicans in the House of Representatives have proposed shortening the maximum duration of jobless aid from 99 to 59 weeks, and allowing states to cut benefits further. The bill would also allow states to require claimants to pass a drug test, though states could decide for themselves whether they wanted to do so.

The measure is part of a broader legislative package that includes, among other things, reauthorization of an expiring payroll tax cut, a "doc fix" measure to prevent a 27 percent reduction in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients, and a measure pushing the Obama administration to approve the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Reid previously said the House GOP bill didn't stand a chance in the Senate, calling the pipeline provision "ideological candy-coating." Turns out the unemployment reforms -- which have received much less attention than the pipeline -- are not much less contentious for Reid.

Republicans have not offered any rationale for the drug testing component of their legislation, except to say that anonymous businesses in their districts complain of job applicants testing positive for illegal substances. On Tuesday morning, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) ignored questions from HuffPost on the provision. Instead, Boehner spoke vaguely about the need for unemployment reform.

"While we want to help those who are truly in need, the program has become somewhat unwieldy," Boehner said, responding to a separate question. "When you talk to as many employers as I have over the course of this year, you begin to understand what those problems are. And a lot of these reforms being put in place in this deal have been discussed on a bipartisan basis. I think it's an important part of trying to help those who need help that are unemployed and to do it in a fiscally responsible manner."

Comments

[WeThePeople22]

03:33 PM on 01/12/2012

You have to love the way they are trying to spin the unemployment numbers for the 2012 election.
Nobody with any sense is buying it.

[Janet Kelly]

02:51 PM on 12/16/2011

Drug testing is a very expensive process. Who is going to pay for that?

[Redhead]

12:27 PM on 12/14/2011

Now the Congressional Repubs want to drug test out-of-work moms and dads. The most vulnerable now would have an invasion of their personal liberties to comply. What about drug testing the movers and shakers on Wall Street, who caused this mess.

[Byron Renty]

10:22 AM on 12/14/2011

Drug testing will cost billions of dollars and may have many false positives, which will unfairly keep people suffering from their benefits! Also this oil shale pipeline has the potential to pollute the groundwater with leaks in a pipeline that will span thousands of miles and frakking will definitely poison the groundwater! What next GOP? Rolling back child labor laws? Oh, yeah, Newt!

[KnoxScott]

09:44 AM on 12/14/2011

I work for my check and take tests..Why should they take one?

[pmoschetta]

10:09 AM on 12/14/2011

The unemployed didn't ask to lose their jobs, Knox and would much rather be earning a living.
I guess the only way people like you would ever understand is if you lost your job, due to no fault of your own

[KnoxScott]

10:15 AM on 12/14/2011

I would take the test...

[jazzman]

08:36 AM on 12/14/2011

The headline should read, "Reid calls the GOP Unemployment Proposal 'The Wrong Side of Ridiculous' 5 minutes before caving to every part of it."

[SirCoolBreeze]

10:05 AM on 12/14/2011

The bill will never be voted on.

Side note: Old timer, the only cure for your Obama Derangement Syndrome is REELECTION.
Your relief is coming soon. .. D'oh!

[ohiotechie]

08:13 AM on 12/14/2011

On some level I'm not against drug testing as a concept - the biggest issue I see here is that won't this cost MORE money and wasn't this a suggestion from the people who keep jumping up and down saying we need to spend LESS money?

How many more weeks of coverage could we provide for what the testing regime will cost? How many more roads or schools could be rebuilt with that money? How bankrupt and befit of ideas does the GOP have to be to suggest this?

[pmoschetta]

10:10 AM on 12/14/2011

It is estimated that $1.9 million would be spent on drug testing

Who will pay for that, Boehner? Raise taxes on the poor?

[ohiotechie]

10:46 AM on 12/14/2011

Not a big fan of your avatar (I know they're pathetic but still gotta root for my Brownies) but love your micro-bio!

:-)

[spud3]

07:33 AM on 12/14/2011

scary reid belongs in a science fiction movie

[PoundOFun]

05:28 PM on 12/14/2011

Yeah and we can call it Ried my lips....no new Texans!!

[Gonzo333]

07:25 AM on 12/14/2011

Let's start the testing with government employees like congress. And also do alcohol and nicotine testing. I mean if they work for us they shouldn't be be using nicotine, the most additive substance known to man. I believe that shows a lack of moral character. And I'm really glad that the Wreckpublicans are all about getting government out of people's lives and creating jobs. Look at all of the hard work that they have done creating jobs and giving women freedom and enforcing free speech for everyone.

[TheHeartland]

06:08 AM on 12/14/2011

They're always carping about less government intrusion in peoples lives. No consistency to the rhetoric.

[Me Now]

05:17 AM on 12/14/2011

Seriously, WTF is wrong with the GOP? People are suffering and all they do is continually come up with this kind of asinine nonsense. name ON THING the GOP has done to create any jobs??? F ing nothing!

[pmoschetta]

08:34 AM on 12/14/2011

Rick Scott, republican governor of Florida already tried the "drug test those who draw welfare" and discovered it to be unconstitutional
And last I heard, Florida was a state. So Congress if states are told to drug test their unemployed, isn't that just spitting into the wind?

[PoundOFun]

05:31 PM on 12/14/2011

The last thing this congress wants to do is discuss jobs. They do this because they're convinced the majority of americans are mindless clueless idiots who will follow this lot off a cliff if it meant destroying Obama. I hope to God they're wrong...because this country can not endure 4 more years of this do nothing congress, its unbearable as it is....we must learn, there are consequences when we fail to vote responsibly.

[DEBORAH WOOD-CASTANEDA]

12:13 AM on 12/14/2011

I say let's drug test Congress before they get their next paycheck.

[hetrose]

12:19 AM on 12/14/2011

I think psychiatric evaluations would be more to the point.

[DEBORAH WOOD-CASTANEDA]

05:34 AM on 12/14/2011

Good point.

[REMEMBER2050]

06:47 AM on 12/14/2011

Let's just institute the whole thing the same way the GOP wants to install the pipeline.

Hey, no need for any bullchit psychiatric review! Just throw on those straightjackets!! You'd be doing me a personal favor, however, if you would put muzzles on the Goopers.

[SirCoolBreeze]

10:07 AM on 12/14/2011

Drug test Congress before they drug test you.

(smirks)

[guveqzero]

12:03 AM on 12/14/2011

Drug test the congress, judges,and the president. Then, go after the rest. I say anyone that flunks gets to stop paying taxes as well.

[pmoschetta]

10:11 AM on 12/14/2011

I would rather give Boehner a sobriety test daily. No one drinks more bourbon than he does

[Stuzzadelic]

11:42 PM on 12/13/2011

Stigmatize and de_monize the opposition. Good work GOP.

[Robin Terrace]

11:34 PM on 12/13/2011

There needs to be an investigation of republicans assets and how many of them have invested in drug testing companies. I smell a rat.

[Texan POd]

11:56 PM on 12/13/2011

Remind me again why Obama gave Big Pharma a pass on Obamacare again?

You know, the part where the Government "negotiates" prices with everyone, EXECPT BIG PHARMA, when it come to Medicare. Doctors, Hospitals and on and on....

[miketothad]

12:09 AM on 12/14/2011

That was Medicare Part D and the doughnut hole.
You can thank Bush for that, if it's still open.
Get your gossip straight.

[RLaitres]

05:16 AM on 12/14/2011

Actually, that was a Republican demand, and with the help of some Democrats with big pharmaceutical companies in their districts, without which there would have been no bill at all. And, while the latter may have pleased some, those of us who are possessed with a personal and social conscience disagree.

[Texan POd]

12:43 AM on 12/14/2011

OR perhaps the Obama Administration....

A memo obtained by the Huffington Post confirms that the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby secretly agreed to precisely the sort of wide-ranging deal that both parties have been denying over the past week.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/13/internal-memo-confirms-bi_n_258285.html

[RLaitres]

05:21 AM on 12/14/2011

This is nothing new. It has been known for well over a year. And, we can go back even further to find something of a like nature, something which could easily be remedied. That would be to change the law such that instead of prohibiting the practice of shopping for the best price in any government program, it should be changed to mandate the exact opposite. Ask who is against doing that. What you will find are our so-called corporatists, primarily on the Republican side.