Sen. McCaskill voices opposition to extending unemployment benefits

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who is a top target for Republicans in 2012, voiced her opposition to extending unemployment benefits.

"I'm not for extending the unemployment benefits any further," McCaskill said in an interview Tuesday with Missouri television station KMOV.

She added that she was for extending payroll tax cuts.

"I'm always for tax cuts for working folks because I think that helps our consuming economy," McCaskill said.

In a followup statement on Wednesday, McCaskill's office said her words were taken out of context and that McCaskill does support extended unemployment benefits extension just not an expansion of the benefits beyond 99 weeks.

"Claire continues to fully support unemployment benefits for people who have lost their jobs by no fault of their own as a result of the struggling economy," McCaskill communications director Trevor Kincaid said. "This includes up to 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. Unfortunately, expanding benefits beyond 99 weeks -- as some suggest -- is unaffordable and unrealistic because of staunch opposition in the House."

Video of McCaskill's remarks, which appears on KMOV's web site, features clips of an interview McCaskill gave to one of the station's reporters.

The freshman senator is facing one of the most competitive Senate races of the 2012 election cycle. Missouri, which is also a presidential battleground state, has been leaning more red, and Republicans are looking for a pickup after holding on to then-Sen. Kit Bond's (R-Mo.) seat in 2010, when he retired. President Obama lost Missouri by a little more than 3,000 votes in 2008.

McCaskill's comments come as Obama floats temporarily extending the payroll tax holiday and also extending unemployment insurance to help put more money in consumers' hands and stimulate demand.

Fellow conservative Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.) are also GOP targets. Republicans need a net gain of four seats, if Obama wins reelection, to retake control of the Senate.

But first, McCaskill needs a GOP opponent. Rep. Todd Akin and former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman are battling it out for the Republican nomination.

In a statement, the Missouri Republican Party called McCaskill's statement "shameless." The Missouri GOP pointed to a speech McCaskill made in 2010 during the last unemployment extension debates in which she said that extending the benefits would help stimulate the economy.

"Claire McCaskill is absolutely shameless. Just like she is desperately trying to trick Missourians into forgetting her liberal record on the stimulus boondoggle, the massively unpopular Obamacare bill, and her rubberstamping of trillions more in debt, McCaskill is now furiously backtracking on her previous support for extending unemployment benefits," Missouri Republican Party executive director Lloyd Smith said Wednesday. 

— This story was last updated at 1:46 p.m.

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