Millions of unemployed being held hostage by Senate

[prolesunited]

Why is this not even a topic of discussion?

So, if the deficit hawks get their way and the extensions that were *already passed* are not funded, what happens? All of a sudden, millions of "lazy" people just get up off their butts a get a job and start businesses. After all, they were just waiting for the checks to stop coming before they get out there and do something. :eyes:

No matter what they say, there still are no FREAKING jobs! And if you are older than 45 or have been unemployed for more than a year. Good luck. You are might as well have leprosy.

Some people have been without checks for weeks already. It's not like they have a savings account to tide them over until this mess gets straightened out.

I know BP is huge and dominating the news cycles, but why has there been so little coverage of this? I guess if you are unemployed, you just cease to matter.

[Aramchek]

1. change that headline to "being held hostage by the GOP"

the Democrats keep trying to pass an extension to unemployment benefits.

[prolesunited]

6. They had help

With 12 Democrats joining a unanimous Republican bloc, the US Senate voted Wednesday to defeat a proposed extension of unemployment benefits

[Duer 157099]

2. They're working up the chain

First the homeless are the invisible class; then the pre-homeless (ie, the unemployed) are invisible. I wonder who the next target will be? Who are the pre-pre-homeless?

But yeah, invisible.

[inna]

3. Mind fucking blowing.

:nuke:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/unem-j18.shtml

[prolesunited]

4. I love this comment

Senator Diane Feinstein, a multi-millionaire Democrat from California, complained, “We have 99 weeks of unemployment insurance. The question comes, how long do you continue that before people just don’t go back to work at all?”

It really shows how out of touch they are.

First, the measure does NOTHING to move payments beyond 99 weeks. There is no fifth tier even being proposed!

What this bill does is actually FUND the extensions they already passed. Theoretically, there are up to 99 weeks, but if you have exhausted the tier that you are on, you can't move on to the next tier. For example, if you exhaust tier two, you can't move higher up the chain to tier three or go any higher. Sorry, your benefit just ended.

Also, if you are on the 20-week extended benefits in the states with the highest unemployment, they just ended immediately. So, if you live in a state the worst job numbers, they just pulled the rug out from under you. Also, most states have the most stringent requirements and audits for people in this group, so the "fakers" already are being weeded out.

And then there is this from Ben Nelson:
“Borrowing and deficit spending at the point of an economic crisis—and we were in a severe one in late 2008 and early 2009—is one thing,” Nelson said. “But when you’re in an economic recovery, as we are today, borrowing and deficit spending is another thing.”

Stocks may have recovered and we're not bleeding jobs, but where are the JOBS! Millions of people are being cut off. Where is the jobs growth report showing millions of jobs being created.

And what do you think will happen to this "recovery" when millions of people who have no money to spend on the essentials. We'll definitely have a second wave of mortgage foreclosures. Anyone who has managed to hang on this long will certainly lose everything now. And then another round of job losses. As was shown in Japan, if you don't spend enough money, you just end up back at square one with just a bag full of debt to show for it.

[inna]

8. I know. This makes me absolutely livid.

I want to (virtually, of course) punch my Democratic senator in the face (and I swear, I'm not a violent person at all.)

Big business politicians of both parties have expressed their disdain for the unemployed, suggesting that extended unemployment benefits, now set at 99 weeks, are encouraging jobless workers to stay home and not look for work. Georgia Republican Congressman John Linder said that extended benefits were “too much of an allure.”

Senator Diane Feinstein, a multi-millionaire Democrat from California, complained, “We have 99 weeks of unemployment insurance. The question comes, how long do you continue that before people just don’t go back to work at all?” California has a 12.6 percent unemployment rate, with 880,000 workers unemployed for 27 weeks or more, and receiving extended benefits.

Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat with particularly close ties to the White House, voted against the unemployment extension and backed the $25 a week cut. “This is not something that can go on indefinitely,” she said. Otherwise, “it begins to look like a brand-new level of entitlement program, which is something that we really can’t afford to do right now.”

So, what are those who lose their unemployment benefits and still can't find a job supposed to do?? Kill themselves??

:banghead:

Meanwhile, the rich are getting richer and richer.

What a fucking country.

:nuke:

[prolesunited]

5. Wrong place

[Dulcinea]

7. Quickest way to a double-dip recession: Cut off unemployment.

Unemployed people, unlike, say...bankers, don't sit on their money! It goes right back into the economy!

Dulcinea
Unemployed 16 months, and over 40, so that means no one wants me

[prolesunited]

10. I'm 47

And I had previously deluded myself into believing that I didn't have to worry until 50.

I was right between tier 3 and 4 and my state had offered EB. I really thought I had some time to carve out a plan for self-employment now that after hundreds and hundreds of applications later I have finally faced the fact that I'm unemployable in a traditional sense. Doesn't matter that I have a degree, graduated with honors, have a spotless employment and credit histories, maintained my skills.

I bought into the American Dream and did everything they said would provide me with a good life -- get an education, work hard, save money, be a good citizen... I didn't screw this up and now I feel so betrayed.

[TheKentuckian]

9. Hostage takers have demands, this is more fuck off and die territory

[prolesunited]

11. Unfortunately, you're probably correct.