Gregg Rosen's email to Mrgolf

Last night I sent Gregg Rosen (co-founder of A99U) an email asking him if he thought Rep. Lee was using the right strategy in getting help for the 99ers. Gregg was nice enough to reply. Here is his email to me which he gave me permission to share.

Good Evening Bill,

Given that H.R.589 began taking shape only two weeks into the new congress, both sides of the aisle were so polarized (not to say bipartisanship ever runs rampant in Washington), that finding a Republican to break from party lines so early in the game would have been a true challenge. Are there Republicans who have voted to extend UI? Yes. Are there Republicans who represent districts with high unemployment? Yes. Are there Republicans who believe extending UI is an economically sound decision? Yes. As is evident by a number of Republicans breaking rank on Thursday’s budget vote, the climate is now a bit more conducive to gaining support from those on the right.

While the phrase, “create jobs” was the battle cry of the republican party during the election cycle, it is quite obvious that their hyper focus on the deficit and spending erased any traces of the aforementioned campaign promise. Cutting spending in one area and simply moving it to another would be a tough sell at this time. I would also suggest one must keep in mind that both parties are so intertwined with their “pet projects”, and an unwavering loyalty to what their respective committees have produced, while not impossible, reaching a consensus on what to take from where is a major challenge.

If H.R.589 is designated as an emergency spending measure, no one has to take from any existing program. The cost of the bill would be offset and the end result, as is common knowledge among economists as well the CBO, is that the dollars invested in extending UI would bring about a positive return ranging between $1.61 to $2.30 with respect to the impact it would have on consumer spending (which accounts for 70% of all economic activity). Final outcome…The bill will more than pay for itself, stimulate economic growth over the 14 week period it is in place, create jobs at an accelerated pace and all without the painstaking task of searching for funding.

In conclusion, I suggest two key factors must be considered and have been considered by Rep. Lee and Rep. Scott:

1) H.R.589 meets all of the historical criteria and precedents that should allow this bill to fall under the heading of emergency spending.
2) How many government programs bring with the level of return UI offers?

Regardless of the mainstream media bubble that has been created with respect to our Nation’s “solid” recovery, macroeconomic indicators which have been growing at an anemic pace at best, are now in some key areas, beginning to move in the opposite direction. As was stated by both Rep. Lee and Rep. Scott, Speaker Boehner & Rep. Cantor did not deny the protracted unemployment problem, as well its devastating effect on the population. The Republican leadership could have easily taken a hard stand with respect to UI, just as they have with many of the other entitlement programs of late. I would certainly not proclaim victory at this time, but this is a major step forward.

Please feel free to reprint my reply, with the exception of the section that I have italicized.

Regards,
Gregg S. Rosen, CPNLP
President/Co-Founder
The American 99ers Union

stilllooking wrote:Thanks for sharing this info.

It was very nice of Gregg to respond to my email

Thank you for sharing this.

JaneWI wrote:Thank you for sharing this.

x2

Thanks for sharing this Mr golf

I really appreciate all the work that Gregg Has put in helping the 99ers

Many thanks to Mr. Rosen for the email reply and to mrgolf for asking for an update.

A big thank you to Gregg and Bill.

My sentiments exactly! Thanks to you both and EVERYONE who is fighting for HR 589. I'm seeing more & more posts on websites from those exhausting HR 4213 and they are scare. 99ers with no survival link for 2 years? MY MY MY!!

Does anyone have accurate numbers of how many 99ers there are ? I heard 4 million? But I need to find the real numbers

doreenb wrote:Does anyone have accurate numbers of how many 99ers there are ? I heard 4 million? But I need to find the real numbers

Art Delaney in a HuffPost article last summer talked about how determining the number of Exhaustees (of whom 99ers are a subgroup) is impossible. That is because even if each state's Labor Dept reported how many people have exhausted UI benefits (which when added together would result in the total number) it's impossible to know how many would qualify for additional weeks of benefits if Congress passed a bill. A number of them have found f/t work, become disabled, retired, died, etc.

An economist named 'Mish' determined in Sept. 2010 that there were 7 million who had exhausted. Also last fall 2 other reports came out--NELP est. that 3.9 million would exhaust by the end of 2010 & the WH est. that a further 4 million would exhaust by the end of 2011. This spring the Congressional Research Service est only 1.9 million '99ers'--counting only those who completed 99 weeks & not the other Exhaustees from states getting fewer weeks. Again.....regardless of what number is looked at.....all of these people wouldn't necessarily qualify for more weeks due to having found jobs etc.

When a bill passes each state will send letters to those who exhausted in their state notifying them that they might qualify for the additional weeks & to apply. After the states finish giving out the extra weeks.....only then will the US really know how many exhaustees there were who qualified. This has been the case for all the other UI extensions. The government never knows for sure & only *estimates* the number of those who'd be helped.

Using current estimates of how many might qualify for additional weeks.....the WH recently discussed that the cost of the current bill HR589 is between $14-20 billion.