Is Georgia Waiting for Its Jobless to Just Kill Themselves? How State GOPers Made Unemployment Hell

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/story/154810/is_georgia_waiting_for_its_jobless_to_just_kill_themselves_how_state_gopers_made_unemployment_hell_on_earth/

Is Georgia Waiting for Its Jobless to Just Kill Themselves? How State GOPers Made Unemployment Hell on Earth

ATLANTA -- His name is not important; his story is. Let’s call him Joe. Life has been bad lately for Joe and others like him. And now, thanks to the heartless actions of the Republican-dominated Georgia General Assembly, things are about to get worse for many more Joes.

As legislators raced toward adjournment in the waning hours of their mandated 40-day annual session in late March, they trampled on the well-being of those who will become unemployed in the months ahead. It’s already hard enough to get, and keep, jobless benefits here in the Peach State. The pay is paltry, there’s a long wait to get the first check, and there’s little hope of getting additional benefits if claimants can’t find a job in six months.

Joe is typical. He lost his job in mid-January. The very next day Joe went to a Georgia Department of Labor office to file for unemployment benefits. The computer application process took two hours to complete. A state worker, after checking Joe’s application, told him he would not get his first benefit check until his claim had been certified by a DOL officer at headquarters in Atlanta. The call, he told Joe, should come in several days.

Only when he was certified could Joe start receiving $330 per week from the state. When Joe protested that he was making much more than that and had many bills to pay, the worker gave Joe the facts of life: everyone on unemployment in Georgia gets $330 a week -- TV anchors, stockbrokers or coffeehouse baristas. And once taxes were withheld, the DOL worker said the weekly payout would be closer to $280.

[ck4829]

1. It's not a safety net if you have to wait for it. They need to fix this.

[npk]

2. Well you know they had to really consider the meat of this shit sandwich

over countless long hours of late night sessions... Oh well I tried. Nope it's basically just as simple as no other testimony was going to be given on the floor and since good golfing weather was coming up it was time to put this issue to bed. The hell with the poor. They would have been better off living elsewhere any way. What a wonderful fucking governor we have.

Eat shit you cowardly GOP state reps.

[RebelOne]

3. I did not have much problem when applying unemployment here in Georgia.

I had to stand in line for a half-hour and then go to an orientation session and then go to the computers and fill out a questionnaire. And then I started receiving benefits in about 2 weeks. I had taxes taken out of the check, so I collected $270 a month. I was already collecting social security, so when the notice that my benefits were expiring, I did press my luck and try to collect the emergency extension because I decided to retire then and I was not actively seeking work. But I did receive $270 a week for a year.

[FarCenter]

4. I thought the southern strategy was to motivate unemployed to move to some other state?

[xchrom]

6. Die... Move... What ever. Nt

[FarCenter]

7. A state's economic success is influenced by the residents that it can attract or get rid of

States have business development policies to use tax incentives, etc, to attract business that are clean and offer high-paying jobs. They also use tax and regulatory policies to get rid of business that pollute, are low paying, and don't fit in with their vision for the future.

Same with people.

[xchrom]

8. What a Charming point of view.

How enlightened.

I am Illuminated by your Brilliance.

[Zalatix]

5. Now you get it. There's a reason why President Obama called this SOCIAL DARWINISM.

That is a very specific term chosen very carefully, for precision's sake.