Posted on 01/04/2014 9:56:05 AM PST by Steelfish
JAKE MILLER CBS NEWS January 4, 2014
Obama: Unemployment Benefits' Expiration "Just Plain Cruel"
President Obama scolded congressional Republicans on Saturday for abandoning job-seeking Americans by allowing unemployment insurance to expire on Dec. 28, saying the restoration of those benefits should be lawmakers’ “first order of business” when they return from their holiday break.
“Just a few days after Christmas, more than one million of our fellow Americans lost a vital economic lifeline – the temporary insurance that helps folks make ends meet while they look for a job,” he said in his weekly address. “And for many of their constituents who are unemployed through no fault of their own, that decision will leave them with no income at all.
“And denying families that security is just plain cruel,” he added. “We’re a better country than that. We don’t abandon our fellow Americans when times get tough – we keep the faith with them until they start that new job.”
How will Americans losing their unemployment benefits affect the economy? The federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program was expanded in 2008 to provide extra income to the long-term unemployed who exhausted their 26 weeks of state benefits. For much of the recession, the government not only offered extended benefits beyond those 26 weeks but also introduced the EUC program to offer up to 99 weeks of combined state and federal assistance in many states.
Already, 1.3 million people saw their benefits expire on Dec. 28. If Congress doesn’t restore the program, an additional 1.9 million Americans will lose benefits in the first six months of 2014.
In his address, the president also warned that the economy as a whole – not just Americans searching for employment – will feel the sting of the lapse in unemployment benefits.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
What was that ambassador's name again?
Pass a bill extending unemployment, but tying it to job creating measures so we don’t have to keep doing this. Make the Democrats oppose it.
LuciferCare is as cruel as you can get.
A new problem has arisen because of the democrats: immigrants, legal and illegal have taken all of the fall back jobs. And in most cases are the hiring manager. As such they only hire their own kind. Every fall back job location is extremely monolithic. I am not big on extended benefits and I am pissed about this latest development.
This is just another version of “the frog and the scorpion”.
The Budget bill was written primarily by a Republican and a Democrat, passed by the House(majority Republican) and the Senate (majority Democrat), and signed by the President(Democrat). By definition, it was bi-partisan. Then Obama critizes the Republicans for a feature of the bill.
Definition of Bipartisanship: When you pass a bill, anything “bad” about the bill is the fault of the Republicans, and anything “worthy” in the bill should be credited to Democrats.
Comprehensive Immigration Reform anyone?
Putting 20 trillion dollars on the backs of our children is just plain cruel.
Making our children slaves to communist chinese is beneath contempt.
Where to the hell are the republican who should be on every talk show rebutting these declarations of obama. They are silent. The damn country is being lost before our eyes and no one will stand up for the Constitution.
Very well said!
Where are OUR representatives?
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