Senate Republicans Would Require The Unemployed To Volunteer

[babylonsister]

Senate Republicans Would Require The Unemployed To Volunteer
Arthur Delaney


WASHINGTON -- Republicans in the U.S. Senate want the long-term unemployed to volunteer for 20 hours a week in order to receive unemployment insurance.

A bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) would also require claimants drawing benefits six months or longer to search for work at least 20 hours a week.

"Engagement in volunteer service will encourage unemployed workers to maintain job skills, marketability, and a sense of self-worth while providing for the betterment of their communities," Burr said in a statement. "Even more, the active job search requirement will enhance the integrity of the unemployment system and its ability to identify and serve those most in need."

Burr's bill dropped right as Republicans and Democrats are deadlocked over a reauthorization of federal unemployment insurance programs and a 2 percent cut to workers' Social Security payroll taxes. Those items and several other domestic spending measures are set to expire at the end of the month.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/10/unemployment-senate-republicans-richard-burr_n_1269214.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

[Nuclear Unicorn]

1. Mandatory volunteering

makes perfect sense -- I suppose.

[zbdent]

9. back in the day ...

they just called it slavery ... and, oddly enough, the skin tone of the "volunteers" is probably matching the "good ole days" in many Repugniconvicts' minds ...

[demtenjeep]

13. indentured servants

ugg

[JDPriestly]

14. Unemployment pays very little. How are people supposed to

pay for all the things you need to maintain a lifestyle that is decent enough to permit you to volunteer if they are living off unemployment. To keep a job you have to pay rent or a mortgage so that you can look and smell like a human being, feed your family, pay doctor's and maybe even dentist's bills, keep a car or some transportation going, buy clothes, shoes, get your hair cut, etc. You may be able to keep up appearances for the occasional job interview, but you have to have more money than unemployment generally pays to be able to afford to volunteer. It isn't so easy.

Besides, why should schools or hospitals or other places where people volunteer hire people if they can just get volunteers for free. It would be better to pay people to stay in the jobs that they had whenever possible. That is what the Germans did. It paid off.

[Lifelong Protester]

2. And I suppose they can volunteer as janitors?

Although that will clash with Newt's idea of exploiting child labor.

[CottonBear]

3. Who's going to pay for childcare for the unemployed volunteers?

WTF?

[zbdent]

10. Don't you understand?

the kids will be "volunteering" so they get WIC ...

[CottonBear]

12. Well, Ok then. That explains it.

On a serious note, how would the unemployed pay for childcare while they are volunteering?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. "Mandatory volunteer" - there's an oxymoron for you.

Doesn't that mean being required to work without pay? And wasn't that practice abolished by Constitutional amendment over 100 years ago?

[SickOfTheOnePct]

8. I guess not

There are school districts around here that have "mandatory volunteering" requirements in order for kids to graduate from high school.

[TexasTowelie]

5. More exploited slaves in the labor force

so that they cut the salaries of those that actually have a job.

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. It would be nice if Burr could actually do something useful for all the money he makes....

utterly useless waste of space.

[BlueCaliDem]

7. And this is the core of Republican belief: SLAVERY.

Take a look at all their policies, their wailing, their anti this and anti that...it comes down to their desire for slavery.

The fight to do away with minimum wage. The fight for people to pay for state I.D.'s or they can't vote. The fight to remove our social safety net - no matter how poor it is. The silence about unauthorized immigration and not taking a hardline against undocumented workers. The fight for universal health care and health care insurance for all. The fight to deny women's rights from the pill to abortion (keep'em humble and under a man's thumb). The fight to shove religion down our throats so we're indoctrinated. The fight to launch wars against sovereign countries so their corporate friends can enslave the people and take their resources . . . on and on and on.

I believe slavery makes these sorry excuses for human beings feel exalted, like gods, and that makes them feel better about themselves.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

11. Wasn't this volunteering stuff one of the objections they had about Obama?

Something about communism and stuff? I guess that only applies to voluntary volunteering...