Free Republic

When trying to convince dubious students of the benefits of social security when they are all too familiar with the costs, professors might well ask the question: “Who are you going to believe, me or your paycheck?” “Social Security is safe and can still pay the vast majority of promised benefits if nothing changes between now and 2037, and even then benefits’ cuts would range from 21 percent to 24 percent if reform is not undertaken,” University of Massachusetts economist Christian Weller writes in a report released by the Center for American Progress (CAP). “But Congress can take prudent policy...

Federal workers are preparing for a two-year freeze in pay, but they can also expect some positive changes to their sick leave policy in the new year. Starting Jan. 3, federal workers may swap up to 26 weeks of sick leave for unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act to care for family members sick with serious communicable diseases, including the flu. They may also use the benefit to care for an ill or injured family member serving in the military. In both cases, workers could receive up to 30 days of advanced sick leave if necessary, the...

Lima - Remittance flow sent by overseas Peruvians to their relatives in Peru reached US$ 635 million in the third quarter this year, Central Reserve Bank of Peru (BCR) reported Monday. This figure is the highest of this year representing a 3.9 percent growth over the same period in 2009. So far this year, remittances have reached US$1.83 billion. During the third quarter, remittances channeled through banks jumped 8.1 percent from US$266 million in the same third quarter 2009 to US$288 million in the same period this year.

1The notion that federal workers consistently earn higher salaries than comparable private-sector workers has become an accepted truth. Conservative think tanks, including the Cato Institute, make much of data that does not offer fair comparisons of similar public-sector and private-sector jobs or account for how experience and education affect pay. A pediatrician with a small practice in Des Moines and a doctor at the National Institutes of Health who is leading a team of 50 researchers trying to cure cancer both provide health care, for example, but we shouldn't expect that they be paid the same.

**SNIP** At the very top, the single most effective thing that they studied that Washington can do to reduce unemployment—the very top? Increasing aid to the unemployed. Why is that the most effective thing Washington can do? Because people who are unemployed are broke. So, if the government gives them money, they will turn around and spend it. They‘ve got to. They will spend that money instead of saving it, because they cannot afford to save it. And spending that money increases consumer demand, which is good for companies that supply that demand, which means those companies get more busy...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Divisions remain within President Barack Obama's deficit commission on politically explosive budget cuts and slashes in Social Security benefits, even as the panel's co-chairmen go public with a revised plan to tame the runaway national debt. The new plan by co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, to be unveiled Wednesday, faces an uphill slog.

Many federal workers would still get pay raises the next two years despite the limited salary freeze President Obama proposed this week for 2.2 million government employees. The president's proposal, if approved by Congress, would stop across-the-board pay hikes set for January 2011 and January 2012. But many federal workers will receive other pay hikes — longevity increases (called steps), promotions in grade, bonuses, overtime and other cash payments.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Unemployed Americans have collected $319 billion in jobless benefits over the past three years due to the federal government's unprecedented response to the Great Recession, according to a CNNMoney analysis of federal records. The cost of such benefits will be central to the heated debate in Congress in coming weeks over whether to extend this safety net for the fifth time this year. Lawmakers must act by Nov. 30 or two million people will start losing extended benefits next month.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Unemployment benefits for more than 100,000 people in both Kentucky and Indiana could run out in a matter of days if Congress doesn't act. Many people are filing for benefits, others are looking for jobs, but with the threat of benefits running out, tempers are flaring. In the time that a WLKY reporter was at the Louisville Office of Employment and Training, at least two people were escorted out. Right now, benefits are scheduled to run out Wednesday for people who have been jobless for more than six months.

Although the deadline to file for extended unemployment insurance is officially Nov. 30, many jobless have already filed their last claim for benefits. And since lawmakers aren't likely to extend the deadline anytime soon, many more unemployed Americans will run out of their extended federal benefits in coming weeks. About 2 million people are expected to stop receiving checks in December. Though President Obama on Tuesday called on Congress to extend unemployment benefits, lawmakers are still fighting over the expense. Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, introduced a bill Monday night that would extend benefits through next year at a...

We know illegal immigration is no longer really unlawful, but is it moral? Usually Americans debate the fiscal costs of illegal immigration. Supporters of open borders rightly remind us that illegal immigrants pay sales taxes. Often their payroll-tax contributions are not later tapped by Social Security payouts. Opponents counter that illegal immigrants are more likely to end up on state assistance, are less likely to report cash income, and cost the state more through the duplicate issuing of services and documents in both English and Spanish. Such to-and-fro talking points are endless. So is the debate over beneficiaries of illegal...

WASHINGTON - The D.C. area makes plenty of Top 10 lists, and this one shows its residents make the big bucks. According to a new report from Newsweek, seven of the nation's 10 richest counties are in this region.

Without Unemployment Benefit Extensions, This Rally Will Die In Q4 by: Markos Kaminis November 11, 2010 Something is happening in the labor market, something good even. I'm still waiting to see if it is all a dream, the Giants winning the World Series, Republicans taking back the House, and the insured unemployed count is at the lowest it has been in two years. That said, without government intervention to extend benefits again, consumer spending could dive in the critical fourth quarter, labor recovery or not. This week's jobless data covering the period ended November 6th showed weekly initial unemployment claims...

The Washington area led the nation in employment growth with 56,000 new jobs created over the 12-month period that ended in September, according to federal government data released Wednesday. The gains were fueled by private-sector hiring and drove the region's unemployment rate down three-tenths of a point from a year earlier, to 5.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "It shows job growth is nipping away at the unemployment rolls," said Stephen S. Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University. "We had quite a bit of job growth in a wide range of...

Official numbers released by the government late last week show salaries of federal workers falling slightly farther behind their private-sector counterparts in the last year, by an average of 2.1 percent across the country. The disparity shows wide variations among the 31 regions where the government compares federal pay with salaries for private-sector jobs in order to determine pay raises. The Washington-Baltimore area, for example, showed among the largest gaps, with federal workers 38 percent behind the private sector.

David Cameron today defended the Government's plans to limit housing benefit, saying it was not fair for working people to see their taxes used to fund homes 'they couldn't even dream of'. The Prime Minister dismissed reports there could be a climbdown over the proposals, telling Labour leader Ed Miliband: 'We are going forward with all the proposals we put in the spending review and in the Budget'.

For some, jobless benefits trump a jobWork sometimes pays less than benefits in such a weak job market By Allison Linn - Senior writer updated 10/21/2010 11:31:28 AM ET You know the economy has become truly screwy when it pays more to collect jobless benefits than to get an actual job. The economy is so weak and jobs are so scarce that some people are finding that it isn’t worth it to work. These workers say that’s because the only jobs available are part-time or low-wage gigs that would not only be a big step down from their previous careers...

Today we are releasing a brand new picture of the nation’s welfare ghettos. Our research gives a disheartening insight into the extent of dependency in England and Wales. The top line: things are getting worse. This is much more detailed and useful information that the statistics often bandied about by politicians. It is well known, for example, that nearly 2 million people have been claiming out-of-work benefits for more than five years. But what does that look like? We’ve examined the smallest measurable units recorded by the Department for Work and Pensions (the technical term is ‘Lower Super Output Areas’)...

California officials are cutting off use of state-issued welfare debit cards at casinos across the country and on cruise ships, in the wake of Times reports that the aid cards have been used to spend or withdraw millions of dollars in benefits at popular vacation spots including the Las Vegas strip and on ships sailing from ports around the world.

A Cabinet minister was branded 'abhorrent' today after saying that the state should not provide limitless support to benefits claimants with large families. Campaigners reacted with fury after the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt savaged the policy of sizeable handouts totalling more than the average household earns. Mr Hunt claimed that the Government's proposed cap on benefits reflected the need for claimants to 'take responsibility' for their children.