Posted on 01/03/2014 6:19:57 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
President Obama on Tuesday will meet with Americans who lost unemployment benefits at the start of the year, as the White House ramps up pressure on Republicans to extend the federal aid for three months.
Labor Secretary Thomas Perez announced the White House gathering during a conference call with reporters, the latest attempt by the Obama administration to highlight the 1.3 million Americans no longer receiving federal unemployment insurance.
“This was not only the right thing to do; it was the smart thing to do,” Perez said of the economic repercussions of halting the jobless benefits.
“These programs don’t get in the way of people looking for work. They assist people looking for work," Perez added.
The Obama administration estimates that failing to extend unemployment beyond 26 weeks — the limit during good economic times — would cost the U.S. economy roughly 240,000 jobs.
However, some Republicans argue that such benefits keep Americans perpetually unemployed and limit their motivation to return to the workforce.
A bipartisan bill sponsored by Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., would extend the unemployment benefits for three months and is expected to receive a Senate vote next week, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Obama has called on both chambers to pass the legislation as a short-term fix. GOP lawmakers, particularly in the House, are unlikely to support the bill unless the costs are offset somewhere else.
The labor secretary in the conference call Friday was noncommittal on where Obama stood on offsetting the billions of dollars in benefits.
The average monthly stipend for families is $1,166.
The White House is clearly using the issue as part of an increasingly progressive pitch to argue that Republicans are out of touch with Americans struggling to find work during a down economy.
“Too many people,” Perez said, “are working hard and falling further behind.”
President Obama on Tuesday will meet with Americans who lost unemployment benefits at the start of the year,
Why? To apologize to then for having ransacked our economy? To apologize that his healthcare law is driving employment down? To apologize for either not having any idea what to do to increase jobs in the US or that he just doesn’t give a rats ass about it?
fixed it.
It’s all about dependency.
And meanwhile the merchants can’t fill vacant jobs because “ nobody wants to work anymore”. Wonder why, what with apparently perpetual federal dole checks?
Looks like yet another one of those situations where Obama acts like the compassionate outsider, completely separate from and therefore in no way responsible for the obamanation of desolation.
What a piece of work. Satan spawned this destructive POS and exclaimed, "Good enough for government work."
In the News/Activism forum, on a thread titled Obama to meet with those who lost unemployment benefits, mosesdapoet wrote:
Isn’t Obama on vacation ? Where will he meet with these shills I doubt it’s in Hawaii. Or will they be gathered in some big hall and he address them via a jumbo screen from the vacation home beach. Now that would be Orwellian appropriate.
That might just happen if globull warming holds up and DC gets snowed in .....pray for globull warming in DC
How about instead of berating the repubs about some arbitrary extension of “jobless benefits”, you unshackle businesses from all the draconian taxes and regulatory red-tape so they get back to actually creating JOB benefits. How about that????????????????????????????????
I’d like Obama to begin collecting unemployment benefits.
The ones on vacation in Hawaii?
They are unemployed. They are not working hard. Unless they are working hard to find a new job. In which case they are not succeeding.
And if they really want to get a job, why would they stop looking when unemployment stops? Why would they not work HARDER when they have less money coming in?
You’d think that someone who was unemployed for 99 weeks would, you know, be too busy looking for a job to be able to run out and see the President.
Mark
It must be truly wonderful for you to live in a world that is so black and white. While your statement is true for some, it is outlandish to tar everyone with your brush. For people to work there must be jobs! I don't know where you have been for the last few years but here just isn't a surplus of those.
Obama’s 2014 slogan, “Unemployment , it’s the new work “
bttt
We have plenty:
http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=&l=76208
what a job this guy has..
Why not try to create some opportunities for the unemployed, it is not meant to be a permanent pay check..
look for work, quit asking for a hand out FREEBIE..BY THE WAY WHAT IS HIS JOB DESCRIPTION???. SURELY NOT GOLF, PARTY, VACATION ALL THE TIME...
If he was against not extending the unemployment benefits why did he sign on to the Bi-Partisan budget then?
Obama is such a liar. People need to wise up to this flim flam man.
I “tarred” no one. I was a career counselor half my adult life and I could find you or anyone else a decent job if you’d follow my instructions. I’m 53, btw, so you’re not telling me about anything I haven’t already experienced.
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