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

[marmar]

AlterNet / By George Bauer

Is Georgia Waiting for Its Jobless to Just Kill Themselves? How State GOPers Made Unemployment Hell on Earth
Red-state deficit politics become personal when Georgia's Republican majority cuts unemployment benefits.

April 2, 2012 |


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. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/154810/is_georgia_waiting_for_its_jobless_to_just_kill_themselves_how_state_gopers_made_unemployment_hell_on_earth/

[Fumesucker]

1. That's one way to lower the unemployment rate..

[nxylas]

6. Reminds me of the 1988 movie Whoops Apocalypse

In it, the insane British Prime Minister, played by the great Peter Cook, comes up with a brilliant plan to reduce unemployment by 10000 a week. Every week, 10000 unemployed people jump off a cliff.

[raccoon]

2. Unemployment benefits didn't used to be taxed. It was in the mid-1980's

the government started taxing them. There was a tax law passed in '86 or thereabouts
that took away a lot of tax exemptions that the 99% used to have.


Bookmarked to read later.

[BlueToTheBone]

8. Ronald Reagun did that. n/t

[Capt. Obvious]

11. I was just reading about when taxes started being taken from DUA

2 weeks ago (in prep for taxes). It started under Carter, ramped up under Reagan.

[raccoon]

3. May I suggest that all those like Joe call, email, nag, berate, badger the hell out of their

Republican legislators about this?

Not saying Joe did this, but lots of those in his shoes will still keep voting for Republicans until they die.

[groundloop]

4. Another side to this problem is that the state has been cutting employees

They've cut employees at the DMV offices, so it's a bigger hassle getting a driver's license. Teachers have been cut. School budgets have been cut (my daughter doesn't have a science textbook to bring home). School lunchrooms are running short handed. And of course they've cut workers at the unemployment offices, so to add insult to injury it's a bigger hassle to collect unemployment. All of this while the state has been granting tax breaks to big businesses (otherwise know as "job creators" in repub circles).

[Ikonoklast]

5. Maybe Joe and all others like him who vote Republican will finally get the message.

This is your "Low taxes, smaller gubbamint" Republican Wonderland you voted for.

And if Joe is a Democrat, he needs to volunteer as much as he can in order to get Democrats elected, even if it's only an hour a week.

[magical thyme]

7. no, they are not

They are waiting for most of them to take up a new career in, say, bank robbery or drug dealing, so they can arrest them and put them in jail for life, thus supporting the law enforcement and prison industries. If you want to be part of "society" you must contribute your fair share. D'oh!

[bighughdiehl]

9. So.....

Everybody gets the same amount?
The one time Repubs like equality.
Jesus Christ.

[Enrique]

10. my check in Florida was $250

$200 normal plus $50 from the stimulus which I'm not sure is there anymore. Since Rick Scott was elected they cut the weeks down and then this last federal legislation cut it down further. Brutality all the way around.

[ck4829]

12. This system needs an overhaul

Also, our infrastructure needs an overhaul.

Why can't our government put one and one together and create a new Civilian Conservation Corps?

K&R.