Posted on 04/04/2010 6:10:27 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
On March 26, the U.S. Senate left Washington, D.C. without extending federal unemployment benefits. While the Senators are safe in the comfort of their homes surrounded by family and friends, hundreds of thousands of Americans will spend Easter wondering how they will feed their families, pay their bills and keep their homes.
According to Indiana's Department of Workforce Development, on April 4th, federal unemployment monies expire. If your initial state benefits end in the period between April 4th and the next federal extension, you will stop receiving unemployment benefits.
If your are on one of the 4 federal tiers of benefits and it ends during this period, your benefits will stop. The estimate is that the Senate's failure to extend benefits will impact about 200,000 Americans.
How did this happen?
1. Pres. Obama and the U.S. Congress failed to make unemployment a priority issue. There is no political benefit to focusing needed attention on unemployment. Politicians do not talk about "unemployment." Instead, they talk about "jobs." Unemployment is the pink elephant in the middle of the room ignored by elected leaders. No politician wants to remind his or her constituents that 15 million Americans are unemployed and that over 50% of state benefit plans are bankrupt. It is time to remind them by going to http://www.senate.gov and letting your view be known.
2. Pres. Obama and Congressional democrats made passage of the health care bill a false emergency. The fact is that health care reform is one of the many issues facing Americans. However, the Pres. and Congress had four years to fashion and pass reform that was meaningful and supported by the people. The Senate's failure to extend benefits will hurt American families starting tomorrow. The health care bill was given priority over the view of a majority of Americans. CBS News, not exactly a bastion of conservatism, reported on Friday "the poll, conducted March 29 through April 1, found that so far the president's efforts to build up support for the bill appear to be ineffective. Fifty-three percent of Americans say they disapprove of the new reforms, including 39 percent who say they disapprove strongly. In the days before the bill passed the House, 37 percent said they approved and 48 percent disapproved."
3. Opposition to unemployment benefits is growing on claim that benefits stops Americans from looking for jobs. This claim distracts people from the reality that there is only one (1) job available for every (5) unemployed Americans. Accordingly, even if every open job was filled by a unemployed person, four (4) of those unemployed people would still be out of a job. To stop unemployment benefits due to the alleged misdeeds of a few, will pull the safety net from hundreds of thousands of Americans doing everything they can to find a job.
The real solution is for the unemployed is to join together and speak with one powerful voice loud enough to make politicians stand up and notice. It starts with every unemployed person writing, emailing and calling their political leaders until they get the job done.
I thought they signed something after that Republican holdout. So the Dem’s are holding it up now?
The federal oligarchy wants to emphasize just how important the oligarchs are to the survival of those having tough times ... and the federal oligarchs engineered the tough times! ... And still no one is building good working guillotines
Who needs that when you have perfectly working guns and rope?
It’s not looking like it. Many, many stories on the same subject...on an Easter Sunday evening...when no one is paying attention, mind you!
I’m certain Congress will rectify this oversite as soon as they get back from their Champagne Brunch. ;)
Being self-employed and screwed out of any benefit when my work disappeared — I don’t give a s!!t.
Stop paying folks not working with my tax money.
Priceless! If the dems ignore the problem, it will go away! (Tax cuts, Mr. Obama, not handouts)
Will Michele “change the conversation” to “EAT CAKE”?
Until every job on moster.com is filled, there should be no unemployment benefits. That’ll puts 200,000 people back to work by Friday.
Ignomineous death is the only suitable end for the media scum who have transmogrified themselves into the fifth column enemy of we the people. As for politicians, pitchforks and torches are too good for the demoncrat scum.
Um, typing too fast for my old brain ... make that ‘ignominious’
The argument that unemployment benefits is causing people to not look for a job is complete bullcrap.
Have any of you ever been to a job fair lately? Hundreds and hundreds are turning in applications. There just arnt enough jobs.
And a lot of those jobs on Monster are autoposts. Meaning the companies are simply taking applications and arnt really hiring.
There are very few social programs that do a lick of good.
But cutting off unemployment insurance at a time when there are five or six jobless people for every position is downright vicious.
Surely this must be a deliberate ploy by the Left, which believes that the GOP will play its usual role as punching bag.
The government caused the problem by interfering with the free market by forcing banks to make subprime loans to the undeserving poor
By so doing, they cast millions of honest working Americans into the hell of unemployment.
Damn Congress! Damn the Left! Damn the Big Media! Damn this evil man in the White House!
“oversight”
Everyone’s a critic. Even me, LOL!
“”””Being self-employed and screwed out of any benefit when my work disappeared I dont give a s!!t.
Stop paying folks not working with my tax money.””””””
You know dat. I’ve been an employer for 30 years. That means I have had to pay in to the unemployment fund on my salary for 30 years. It also means that since I am the owner I have ALWAYS been ineligible to collect benefits.
There is no reason that unemployment benefits hae to go on for two years. As an employer I pay 11% of wages into the fund. That is money out of my pocket. The 11% rate will surely increase now that the fund is bankrupt.
But I can just raise my prices to offset the cost, right? /s
The whole thesis is we should continue unemployment benefits indefinetly. I disagree with that. They have been extended time and time again already.
I screwed up spelling in my post, too.
I don’t think our fingers can keep up with our RAGE these days, LOL! :)
You gotta start typing with two fingers again, that’ll correct most of the spelling problems! ;^)
And the media say, with a straight face, that they're not biased?
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