An Appalling Idea, Even by Washington Standards

[swag]

http://www.offthechartsblog.org/an-appalling-idea-even-by-washington-standards/

Posted by:
Robert Greenstein

For legislation to extend the payroll tax cut through the end of 2012, House Republicans are expected to push for a provision on unemployment insurance (UI) that is appalling even by current Washington standards. Neither President Obama nor Congress should accept any payroll-tax legislation that includes it. Here’s why:

The provision, part of a full-year payroll-tax bill that the House passed in December, would deny UI benefits to any worker who lacks a high school diploma or GED and is not enrolled in classes to get one or the other — regardless of how long the person worked or whether he or she has access to adult education, which itself has been subject to significant budget cuts in the past few years and is heavily oversubscribed.

The proposal would deny UI benefits to hundreds of thousands of workers — many of them middle-aged — who have worked hard, played by the rules, and effectively paid UI taxes for years and who then were laid off due to no fault of their own.

This would violate the basic compact that the UI system has embodied since its creation under President Roosevelt in 1935 — that people who have amassed a sufficient record of work, and on whose behalf UI taxes have faithfully been paid, may receive UI benefits for a temporary period if they are laid off and are searching for a new job.

Older workers would be hit the hardest. Nearly half (47 percent) of UI recipients with less than a high school education or the equivalent are over age 45, and 35 percent are age 50 or over, Census data show. In 2010, half a million workers age 50 or over who received UI lacked a high school diploma. By contrast, less than one-fifth of UI recipients without a high school diploma or the equivalent are under age 30.

...more

[FreakinDJ]

1. Save Social Security - END the payroll tax cut

[glowing]

2. And older workers tend to leave positions that are at higher pay...

So, these slimy bastards have taken a forced insurance tax from employers and employees to cover UI benefits, yet, now they will deny people the ability to collect what they have paid into the system due to a lay-off that is no fault of their own, and at a time in one's life when they are probably making the most money... Older people are being laid off by companies anyway because of their pay costs and benefits costs....

This country needs to swing wildly to the Left/ Progressive way... If the people had actually had a DC under the Dems like was had under FDR, then The Dems wouldn't be facing such and uphill battle for these elections and they certainly wouldn't have lost 2010 to the Tea Baggers.

[DCKit]

3. That there's some nasty Santorum. nt