We now have more people out of work than at any time in American history, over 15 million, with many millions out of work for more than six months.
Unemployment compensation was created during the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt to help unemployed people stay afloat during what is the greatest crisis in a person’s life, other than divorce or death in the family!
We all are paying for this entitlement through our taxes, and it is NOT a handout or a welfare giveaway, as many Republicans and conservative talk show hosts claim! 🙁
To say that one wishes to take unemployment compensation and not look for work is an outrage, as everyone knows it is a TEMPORARY assistance, nothing more! 🙁
And yet, we have Republicans in Congress calling for the end of unemployment compensation as a right for those losing their jobs through no fault of their own! 🙁
As examples of this hardhearted attitude, we have Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, and Senate candidate and loser Christine O’Donnell of Delaware! 🙁
Bachmann, already well known as one of the most controversial and divisive members of the House of Representatives, complained that the new tax bill will allow extension of unemployment compensation beyond the 99 week maximum for another 13 months. But the problem is that she is totally wrong, as the legislation does no such thing, but just simply allows the present unemployment compensation system to be funded for 13 more months! Bachmann is totally misinformed, as well as mean spirited, both characteristics nothing new for her! 🙁
But in a way, Christine O’Donnell, who lost the Senate race to Chris Coons in Delaware, is even worse in her reaction to the issue of unemployment compensation!
This woman, who proved her total incompetence to be a United States Senator during the campaign, complained about the tax bill because it allowed an extension of unemployment compensation to those out of work, wanting it to end completely! But this woman has NEVER held a regular work position, and has lived off running multiple campaigns for public office, inappropriately using campaign funds to pay her rent, to eat out at restaurants, go bowling, etc! 🙁
What a nerve that a woman who has no real work experience, has proved to be both extremely lazy and stupid, and has been corruptly living off campaign funds, should express a view that unemployed people should not have a safety net that has existed since the 1930s!  To top it off, she compared the “tragedy” of unemployment compensation to the death of Elizabeth Edwards and to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor! 🙁
Both these women just are further evidence of how out of touch with reality, and how lacking in concern, is the state of the Republican Party in 2010! 🙁