Schumer is optimistic about the bill passing on Monday. Schumer: Paul 'insulting' on jobs

Sen. Rand Paul’s position on unemployment is “insulting” to American workers, Sen. Chuck Schumer said on Sunday afternoon after appearing with Paul on ABC’s“This Week.”

On the Sunday morning show, Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said that while he’s not against unemployment insurance as a concept, he said long-term benefits can eventually provide “some disincentive to work.”


“Many of our Republican colleagues say: ‘Oh, unemployment benefits keep people from work.’ That is insulting,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a Senate Democratic conference call ahead of a Monday vote on a proposal to extend expired benefits. Paul “said it’s bad for American workers. That is insulting to American workers because they want to work.”

( Also on POLITICO: Reid hopeful on unemployment benefits extension)

Schumer and and fellow Democratic Sens. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Sherrod Brown of Ohio told reporters they are optimistic they will be able to scrounge up five GOP senators to break a filibuster of their bill on Monday, which would offer three more months of unemployment benefits to the estimated 1.3 million Americans who were knocked off the benefit rolls in late December.

Thus far, Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) has co-sponsored Reed’s three-month extension, and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has indicated she supports the bill, leaving plenty of work for Democrats in the next 24 hours to persuade Republicans from states with high levels of unemployment to back the legislation.

That task got a bit more difficult on Sunday afternoon as deal-making Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) joined a growing group of Republicans from states with high unemployment who appear likely to vote against the bill Monday.

“I will not vote to bring this legislation to the floor unless senators have an opportunity to debate and vote on the many good ideas for helping unemployed Americans find a job,” Alexander said in a statement to POLITICO.

( Also on POLITICO: Sperling pleads for benefits extension)

As a condition to supporting the bill, most Republicans prefer to find a way to pay for its $6.5 billion price tag, which Senate Democrats are open to doing as part of a larger restructuring of the unemployment program. But Democrats believe an immediate pay-for is unnecessary due to the emergency nature of the extension they are pushing, though Schumer said he would be open to killing some corporate tax breaks to companies that outsource jobs.

If Democrats fail to rally 60 votes Monday to extend benefits, don’t expect them to abandon Reed’s bill anytime soon.

“If we can’t pass it Monday night, we come back and keep trying. More and more attention will be paid to this,” Brown said.