1.3m losing unemployment benefits Saturday

Boston Globe ^ | 12/28/2013 | Annie Lowrey

[SeekAndFind]

WASHINGTON — An emergency federal program that acts as a lifeline for 1.3 million jobless workers will end Saturday, drastically curtailing government support for the long-term unemployed and setting the stage for a major political fight in the new year.

The program, in place since the recession started in 2008, provides up to 47 weeks of supplemental unemployment insurance payments to jobless people looking for work. Its expiration is expected to have far-reaching ramifications for the economy, cutting job growth by about 300,000 positions next year and pushing hundreds of thousands of households below the poverty line.

An extension of the unemployment program did not make it into the two-year budget deal that was passed just before Congress left on its winter recess. When the federal program expires, just 1 in 4 unemployed Americans will receive jobless benefits — the smallest proportion in half a century.

[SkyDancer]

Well there goes the economy according to Pelosi. She says that unemployment money stimulates the economy.

[Pan_Yan]

An extension of the unemployment program did not make it into the two-year budget deal that was passed just before Congress left on its winter recess.

It tried really, really hard but just barely missed the cutoff. Idiot journalist enablers.

[tet68]

One can only note that they aren’t losing unemployment
benefits, they are losing EXTENDED unemployment benefits.
That is benefits BEYOND what they would normally receive.

[Steve_Seattle]

"I’m trying to figure out how this will “cut job growth”."

I see you had the same thought as I did (post #19). On the surface, it just sounds like a lie. The purpose? Maybe to make it seem like those who support the cuts are opposing honest work.

[faithhopecharity]

maybe the merchants who have been having trouble finding employees will not be able to fill some of their vacancies...

[factoryrat]

The welfare rolls just grew by 1.3 million. The government will just try to sweep these people under the rug, out of sight, out of mind. In the mean time, the economy in china is going like crazy, with all of the work we exported to them. Make companies and shareholders pay through the ass on capital gains and stock earnings and dividends. You want to gamble? Pay up, or leave, and if your sorry ass sides with the chinese, then you lose your US citizenship, and you can suck up to your communist chinese masters.

[adorno]

provides up to 47 weeks of supplemental unemployment insurance payments to jobless people looking for work. Its expiration is expected to have far-reaching ramifications for the economy, cutting job growth by about 300,000 positions next year and pushing hundreds of thousands of households below the poverty line.

Ths Boston Globe's reporting makes it sound as if it's the government's responsibility to make sure that unemployment benefits keep people "above the poverty line".

Fact is that, if people were already depending on unemployment benefits in order to "make a living", then they were already below the poverty line. Getting a handout doesn't change the economic status of a person or family.

So, how long does the Boston Globe believe that people continue getting unemployment benefits? If the benefit keeps getting extended, then it's for certain that many or most of those people, will not be going out to seek work, and might stay on the dole indefinitely. Eventually, people have to start being responsible for themselves.

[vette6387]

Or Binder & Binder! “You have too much to worry about (like what size big screen TV to buy or what kind of beer to get), let us rip the government off for you!” And of course extract our “fee” for doing so.

[Iron Munro]

Obama won the presidential election and democrats control the senate and most of the judiciary.

Talk to them about it.

[saganite]

Heartless republican bastids.

[SkyDancer]

But it still is ending though, isn’t it?

[Logical me]

pushing hundreds of thousands of households below the poverty line.

Voted for King Obama put these hundreds of thousands below the poverty line years ago. There are some who are really in need, the rest gamed the system.

[Gen.Blather]

“And they need more....”

I was on that unemployment. The entire industry I worked in for 30 years has been killed by Obama. I’ve applied for jobs world wide. I’ve had a few interviews, but I’m 59 and up against men much younger. (I cut 20 years out of my resume to get those interviews.)

Now, do I really, really need the money? Thanks to Obama the cost of groceries and fuel has gone through the roof. The money I’ve saved was mostly destroyed by what he did to the economy and the stock market. (I was heavily invested in coal, for one thing.)

I see no prospect for continued employment while Obama and the Democrats are in charge. I’ve applied for much lower end jobs and haven’t gotten so much as a phone interview, probably, with two degrees, because I’m grossly over qualified. I even dumbed down the resume, but when they ask for my previous titles that probably kills it.

I did manage to get ten months running a US Navy project that was under investigation for fraud and abuse. No company employee wanted to get within touching distance. I not only completed the contract, I also built a successful case to prove their innocence. But the rest of their business was in near collapse due to what Obama is doing to the military.

In one way, I’m pleased that Congress has done this. In another way I’m upset that Congress didn’t fix any of the underlying economy that created the unemployment; sequestration and Obamacare.

[elpadre]

How do we square the fact that we have high unemployment on the one hand, and the pro-amnesty crowd crying to certify illegal aliens in the country because their labor is crucially needed. I’m just an ol’ country boy so explain it to me in easy to understand words.

[Starstruck]

The good news is these millions will be taken off the official government unemployment numbers thereby pushing the unemployment rate down and allowing our dear leader to tout that the economy is improving, just look at the unemployment rate.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Well there goes the economy according to Pelosi. She says that unemployment money stimulates the economy."

So that's the alleged link between unemployment benefits and job growth? That one is messing with my brain. If unemployment benefits allow people to buy things they otherwise wouldn't buy, this allows employers to hire more people? Just how many unemployed people does Pelosi think we need in order to grow the economy?

[Slump Tester]

It just occurred to me what a small # are losing unemployment benefits, compared to how many have already lost their health insurance.

[UCANSEE2]

Blame the people responsible - Obama and the democraps.

Can't. Obama and the democraps made it against the law.

[I want the USA back]

The media are already blaming it on Republicans.

[sphinx]

So that's the alleged link between unemployment benefits and job growth? That one is messing with my brain.

Well, in fairness, we should remember that Nancy Pelosi actually says that food stamps are the best economic stimulus, but unemployment is up there as well. You must bear in mind the synergy at work: food stamps plus unemployment is a powerful combination, and then throw in Sec. 8 and Medicaid and you have all the ingredients for a full Detroit-sized boom.