Editorial: Economy on mend, but help still needed

Friday, March 8, 2002 | 10:28 a.m.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress Thursday that the nation is recovering from the recession, his most optimistic comments in months about the state of the economy. We shouldn't get too excited by Greenspan's latest outlook, though, since he noted that the turnaround likely won't be as robust as those after previous recessions. And while the unemployment rate dropped by 0.1 percentage point in February to 5.5 percent, that still translates into nearly 7.9 million unemployed Americans.

Southern Nevadans have been hit particularly hard, with 15,000 laid off after Sept. 11 in the casino industry alone. The January unemployment figures for Nevada, the most recent available, showed that for the first time since the terrorist attacks, the unemployment rates dropped. But that can't obscure the reality that the Las Vegas metropolitan area's unemployment rate is 6.8 percent, a total of 55,900 people. Even if the pace picks up for businesses, that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be in a hiring mood right away. This is why it was encouraging that President Bush and Republican leaders in Congress finally agreed this week to Democratic-sponsored legislation that would extend jobless benefits by 13 weeks.

The reason why Congress couldn't wait any longer is that those people who were laid off shortly after Sept. 11 soon will be in danger of exhausting their 26 weeks of unemployment aid. Earlier in the week Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., noted that by next week 1.6 million Americans will no longer have jobless benefits.

Republicans had been blocking efforts to extend unemployment aid unless it was linked to tax breaks for businesses. But recently some congressional Republicans started to get nervous and they withdrew some of their more controversial tax reduction plans, including a repeal of the corporate minimum income tax. Elections, you see, aren't too far off and the GOP lawmakers were worried about being viewed as heartless if they continued their obstructionism, especially against the history that Congress since the 1960s has almost always extended unemployment benefits during a recession. While the Republicans' motive in the sudden reversal is less than pure, the bottom line is that ultimately the right thing is being done. Americans who are doing all that they can to find a job shouldn't be punished for economic circumstances beyond their control.