Bill Would Allow Spying on Bank Accounts of Unemployed

[babylonsister]

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/06/01/bill_would_allow_spying_on_bank_accounts_of_unemployed.html

Bill Would Allow Spying on Bank Accounts of Unemployed


A GOP bill that is speeding through the Wisconsin state Legislature "would require jobless people to provide more proof that they are seeking work, and make it easier for the state to recover overpayments -- including those made because of government errors -- by allowing officials to peek into unemployed people's bank accounts," the Wisconsin State Journal reports.

[Pragdem]

1. Rather than peeking into the bank accounts of tax avoiders.

[geckosfeet]

3. Yes. It's odd isn't it? Spend money to spy on people with no money. It's a real head shaker.

[LAGC]

19. No shit.

You can't squeeze blood from a turnip.

Reminds me of requiring drug tests for welfare recipients, even though people convicted of drug offenses can't get welfare in the first place.

Does the GOP just really hate the poor and downtrodden that much that they make them jump through such hoops, try to make their lives as miserable as possible while protecting the rich?

[AndyA]

23. Yes, the GOP does just really hate the poor and downtrodden

With a passion. If they worked as hard making sure everyone was treated equally, this country would be in a lot better shape than it is.

Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen, though.

[GeoWilliam750]

33. However, treating people fairly and equally

Would involve Christianity or socialism - far too out of character.

"Who would Jesus humiliate"

[Half-Century Man]

37. Scott Walker

will do whatever it takes to drive the poor, sick, or elderly from wisconsin.

[jimlup]

2. Yeah the Repuks have no trouble with laws that

limit the freedoms of the working class. Oh, but when it comes to the mercantile class, somehow that "freedom" becomes a sacred trust. These god damn people need to be stopped.

[SamKnause]

4. Bank

This country could do without the party of 'small government and civil liberties'.

I really don't know how they are so successful at pulling off their charade, but they seem to keep this country in constant turmoil.

The right and left want different things for this country and it's citizens.

There will never be unity.

[awoke_in_2003]

25. They get away with it...

because the rich control the media, and most modern dems are right of Reagan.

[Vincardog]

26. Most modern dem. POLITICIANS. Most American citizens are LEFT of "center".

[awoke_in_2003]

29. Yes, that is what I meant...

for a politician to get in office, they must sell their souls. When elections come, we are presented with asshole A and asshole B and we get to pick which one stinks less.

[im1013]

47. They get away with it because of racism.

Plain and simple.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. It's good to see that the anti-guvmint, stay out of my life GOP is at the helm of the law

making side of government.

[baldguy]

6. Why not cut through all the red tape & make it a crime to be poor?

Or better yet, just enslave the working class 99% and give them over totally to the Top 1%?

[L0oniX]

8. Lots of boot licker possitions are open.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. Why not just make it a crime to be part of the 99%?

That way, the 1% can put us to work to pay for our "crime".


13th Amendment:
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

[LAGC]

20. Don't give them any ideas.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

27. Trust me,...they've already consulted their attorneys on this.

[Posteritatis]

22. They're working on it. (nt)

[L0oniX]

7. The unemployed have bank accounts? Hey ...let's check homeless peoples bank accounts too.

Let's make it mandatory that everyone have a bank account too.

Fuckin crazy ass people!

[BlueJazz]

9. I'd like to give these GOP people a big kiss on the lips and...

..tell them I approve off what they are doing.

[SCVDem]

10. In the Beer and dairy state

The government finds you have been spending a few bucks at the tavern and then what?

Take away that last bit of social interaction and watch the suicide numbers climb.

Unemployment is a depressing dehumanizing experience with stress levels sky high.

I know! I can't sleep and the anxiety is paralyzing.

Sipping a beer with other unemployed people at least brings a small bit of solace.

[theaocp]

11. The problem for these lawmakers

is they think they are immune to their actions that hinder the very lives of their constituents. They are playing with fire and left the gas on. Beware.

[GoCubsGo]

14. Yep.

And, THEY are the ones who in need of the bank account investigations, and everything else they want to heap on others. May it be.

[GoCubsGo]

13. Kick 'em when they're up, kick 'em when they're down.

Just when you thought they couldn't get any assholier. It never ends with these fucking fuckers, does it?

[woo me with science]

15. Expect this to spread.

Had enough yet?

[hue]

16. Yes this is Walker's Wisconsin!!! Sickening!!!

[starroute]

17. It's also about humiliating and demeaning people

You can be solidly middle-class and out of a job. You can still have your house and car and retirement accounts and a decent cushion of savings. But if you dare to apply for unemployment compensation so that you won't bankrupt yourself while looking for work, you are immediately stripped of that middle-class status and treated as if you were a welfare cheat.

This is not to say that the unemployed middle-class person isn't still better off than the unemployed working-class person. But taken as a message, it's worse in a particularly insidious way. It's like taking teachers who once had tenure and pensions and other forms of security and self-worth and sending them to work in charter schools where they have no security and can be fired at any time at the whim of a CEO.

That sort of treatment turns a free people into slaves. And by attempting to apply it to anyone who happens to be unemployed, the power structure is sending a strong message to the middle class: Don't get above yourself. Unless you're in the 1%, you're nobody. Your miserable existence is subject to the will of your masters. So don't get out of line, don't dare to protest, don't even dare to want more than whatever we deign to give you.

This is really what the battle over "entitlements" is about. Social Security was originally about giving people an assured retirement income that they were entitled to -- meaning it couldn't be taken away from them and they didn't have to justify their worthiness, the way they would have been required to do for private charity. The new agenda of the owners is to prove to people that they aren't entitled to anything -- so they'd better get good at groveling.

[pandr32]

35. Treating anyone who falls into hard times

...as deviants.

Romney was busted when he said that 47% of the population will not vote his way because they are moochers who think they are entitled to government hand-outs, but the rhetoric didn't die along with his hopes of winning the election. It is repeated so much it has become part of the right-wing belief of anyone who is not white-and-right. You said it perfectly, "...immediately stripped of...status and treated as if you were a welfare cheat"--applies to anyone needing government help (especially if you are a democrat, a woman, a senior, receiving disability or veteran's benefits, social security, or a minority)--even if you have paid into the program or worked hard and paid taxes. Sadly, children are among the hardest hit.

It seems the unstated assumption behind this law is that the recipients of unemployment benefits are cheating.

Here's the thing--politicians receive government money, too, and they DO cheat. Let's look into their bank accounts and see if there is any suspect money in there. Are they paying their fair share of taxes? How about corporations and the rich? We know that corporate welfare is real--ditto for the creative exploitation of tax loopholes.

Let's be the one's that frame social issues--not the Tea-pubs. We should call them on it LOUDLY. No more turning the other cheek or playing defense.

[Iliyah]

18. What about bank accounts of those

welfare pac groups and the super pacs ya'know the ones whining about FREEDUMB.

[Rex]

21. That is the GOP for you - the war on the working class.

I've never seen another political organization hate the poor like the GOP. It is like their obsession. They MUST spy on the working poor - in the bedroom and even while looking for work

They are the party without shame.

[Lurker Deluxe]

24. I dunno

I kinda like it. Better if it was a federal law though. And immediately upon becoming unemployed the Feds should step in and investigate their assets, all of them.

Every single outgoing member of any political office would become unemployed and immediately audited to find out how public servants making a buck eighty or so a year are all multi-millionaires.

Sure would be interesting to focus our energy where it is needed, getting the money out of politics. Instead we focus our energy of what? Looking at the records of people who have no money? Brilliant.

[Arctic Dave]

31. I think you hit the bullseye.

I think they are hoping for a backlash as to shut the idea down of looking into their practiced and accounts.

[santamargarita]

28. This bunch is criminally insane, they should be removed

and given help.

[HiPointDem]

30. really really sick of the fascists

[A Simple Game]

32. What purpose would this serve? Unemployment Insurance is just that,

Insurance, you pay the premiums, you get the payments. Doesn't matter if you are a bum or a billionaire. You pay in, and yes ultimately you are the one paying because it is part of your compensation package along with your wages and other benefits, and you can claim the benefits.

What are they trying to prove?

[blkmusclmachine]

34. Fascist Government.

Big Brother Is Watching.

[Skittles]

36. let me get this straight

Last edited Sun Jun 2, 2013, 03:51 AM - Edit history (1)

you can allow the biggest terrorist attack in American history, drown a city, start unnecessary wars and crash the economy and not be held accountable but if you need unemployment assistance YOU WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE!!! F*** THAT.

[HiPointDem]

38. + 1 billion. when are those fucking murderers going to be held accountable? it makes a mockery

of the justice and policing system.

[DeSwiss]

39. If the rationale for stripping away the last vestiges.....

...of American's dignity is that they are benefiting financially from government largesse and therefore are compelled to relinquish any privacy rights they thought they might have had, if they want to keep being fed; well then can we also spy on the bank accounts of GE, Exxon and all those other companies not paying any taxes. But are nonetheless getting government money from tax credits and tax subsidies, tax loopholes and gubmint contracts. Well, it seems only fair.

- And while we're at it, let's include Congress Member's bank accounts in that bill too.....

K&R

[John2]

40. I wonder if there

is some legal way, these people can sue the Bank and the state of Wisconsin on some privacy laws or violation of contracts laws between the Bank and these people personal accounts in agreement with the Bank. Seeing how these people didn't break any laws, would these be an intrusion by Government on the private lives of these people and singling them out for persecution from the general population? It seems to me they are treating these people like common criminals just because they are unemployed.

[KrazyinKS]

41. Maybe we should look into overpayed CEO's bank accounts-

That might prove to be interesting. Maybe even revealing. Look at the guy who bankrupted J C Penney's, got paid a lot while doing it. Maybe the company ought to try to get their money back.

[Snake Plissken]

42. The rights of those who steal billions on Wall St must be protected, but those who are unemployed

must be monitored.

Pretty soon they'll want anyone who makes less than $200K a year to be implanted with an GPS transmitter, to make sure you are attending party reprogramming services on Sundays.

[Chipper Chat]

43. Reminds me of Nazi Germany "no privacy no more" tactics.

The American GOP Aunchloss must be coming faster than we thought

[Honeycombe8]

44. That is disgusting. But then...this is what Wisconsiners voted for.

When they voted for Republicans, this is what they voted for, I guess.

[drm604]

45. If it wasn't for the money I had in my bank account, I would have been in big trouble.

I could not have survived on the unemployment I was forced to live on for four months if I hadn't been able to supplement it with my savings. I could not have paid my rent, health insurance, health care costs, and regular living expenses on UC alone.

[blackspade]

46. My disgust knows no bounds....

for republican scum.