Taking their stand...on the necks of the jobless

[dcsmart]

Elizabeth Schulte looks at the collection of clueless Republican governors who are refusing federal assistance to boost unemployment benefit

LOUISIANA GOV. Bobby Jindal wants to take a stand against "big government." And he doesn't care how many other people have to suffer so he can do it.

Jindal along with the Republican governors of eight other states, most of them in the South, have announced that they will reject millions of dollars from President Barack Obama's stimulus legislation.

Specifically, they're turning down money designated for unemployment benefits--because they refuse to make changes to state regulations that would expand eligibility.

The way unemployment benefits are administered is up to individual states, and many go by outdated rules that leave out thousands of people who would otherwise qualify for benefits--or at least qualify for a larger check. One provision in the $787 billion stimulus bill signed into law in February offers incentives to states to update their rules.

For one thing, states would be required to use a more up-to-date time frame in determining if an unemployed worker had earned enough to qualify. Some states still use rules put in place before the widespread use of computers that exclude data from a worker's last three to five months of employment. Workers who cycle in and out the labor force--typically, low-wage workers--lose out.

According to the National Employment Law Project, some 40 percent of applicants who currently don't qualify because they didn't earn enough would be eligible if states complied with the proposed alternative base period.
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FULL ARTICLE
http://socialistworker.org/2009/03/02/on-the-necks-of-the-jobless