Republicans Reveal Just How Heartless They Feel Toward the Unemployed

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via AlterNet:




ColorLines / By Seth Freed Wessler

Republicans Reveal Just How Heartless They Feel Toward the Unemployed
The Republicans are numb to why they're in the minority in Congress.

July 21, 2010 |


The Senate has finally closed its four-month long ideological bludgeoning match over unemployment insurance, voting 60-40 yesterday to move forward with a bill extending the benefit through November for people who've been jobless for more than six months. After a final Senate vote, the bill will head to the House, where it will pass easily. So the demoralizing back and forth will come to an end--at least for the next four and half months.

On the surface, the debate has provided ground for an ongoing fight over the deficit. Republicans and Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson insist that unemployment insurance extensions should not add to the federal deficit and should be paid for with budget offsets. But lurking behind the deficit discussion has been another, arguably deeper ideological debate about the social safety net itself. Over the last several months, Republicans have revived an idea that had faded from the public discussion during the boom years: The absurd notion that safety net programs like unemployment insurance create disincentives to work.

As this debate has unfolded, there's been typically little acknowledgement of just how much race informs it. With unemployment rates as racially skewed as they are--blacks and Latinos, young people of color and single moms are all way more likely to be without a job--the benefits-make-them-lazy assertion is weighted by familiar, if silent tropes about people of color and work.

The suggestion that unemployment insurance is the reason people aren't working may seem absurd in a time of almost 10 percent joblessness, rising homelessness and record levels of participation in the food stamp program. The average unemployed worker has been without a job for 34 weeks. But throughout congressional debate over the past four months and on the airwaves and editorial pages, conservatives have repeated the theme over and over. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/economy/147609/republicans_reveal_just_how_heartless_they_feel_toward_the_unemployed/