Unemployment Compensation

Joe Miller’s Hypocrisy: Unemployment Compensation!

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Alaska’s Republican Senate nominee, Joe Miller, a favorite of the Tea Party Movement, has made it known that he opposes the continuation or expansion of unemployment compensation because it promotes an “entitlement” mentality!

This is his view despite the fact that we have had the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression for the past two and a half years!

And yet while he now enunciates this hard hearted view, it turns out that his own wife received unemployment compensation recently, even though Joe Miller is a successful attorney and therefore did not need for his wife to take such an “entitlement” to make ends meet! 🙁

But Joe Miller has no shame at “taking” government money, but wishes to deny it to those who desperately need it!

What hypocrisy and gall on Joe Miller’s part, and another reason for the voters of Alaska to repudiate his candidacy for the US Senate this November!

Essential Action Needed For “99er” Unemployment Compensation Extension!

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We have reached a stage unseen since the Great Depression, having a few million people who have been unemployed through no fault of their own for 99 weeks, nearly two years, and without much hope any time soon for employment opportunities!

These people are heavily middle class, who have been suffering financially and emotionally in a way none of us wish to experience!

To wake up for nearly two years without much hope, particularly with the millions of people unemployed in late 2008 and the first half of 2009, and to face the reality that each job out there has between 5-6 competitors on average, requires immediate action by our government to prevent these people from becoming homeless, living on the streets or out of their cars if they still have one, and going hungry and without medical care!

Many of these people had never experienced unemployment before, and many are highly educated and trained, and many are family people, with wives, husbands, and children!

To tell these people, sorry, you have gained 99 weeks of unemployment, and now you are on your own, is to tell them basically that they can “go to hell”, and that this nation does not give a damn about them and their future!

Here, it is appropriate to bring a religious statement into this discussion: “There but for the grace of God go I!” To say that this misfortune could never happen to us is a sign of cockiness, arrogance, and lack of care for other human beings!

When we have many people taking better care of their pets than we deal with misfortune of human beings, it is time for what Senator Debbie Stebanow of Michigan and others are sponsoring right now! Give small business tax credits to hire workers for a guaranteed 52 weeks of employment, and meanwhile give these unfortunate workers an extension of 20 more weeks of unemployment compensation!

This can be done before the Senate and House go on break, and with only a few Republican votes, and it is essential that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi keep the Congress in session until and when this legislation is approved!

Unemployment Compensation, Tax Cuts For The Wealthy, And The Problem Of The Deficit!

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Republican Senators and Congressmen are actively involved in condemning an extension of unemployment compensation as wasteful, not paid for, adding to the deficit, and promoting laziness and shiftlessness in those people who need to have the “work ethic”!

But, at the same time, they claim it is essential to continue to promote massive tax cuts to the wealthy, even if it adds to the deficit!

If one is to back the idea of the deficit as a major crisis, which it is rapidly becoming, then it makes no sense to assert that tax cuts are acceptable, when these wealthy people have had major increases in income in the past ten years, while the average American either pays more in taxes, or has only had a small decrease in taxes!

When people who are unemployed receive unemployment compensation, it keeps them “above water” and gives them purchasing power, which helps to promote a revival of the economy! It is NOT the same as working, and to say that people who receive part of their salary as unemployment compensation, are living “high off the hog” is an outrageous, uncaring, despicable fabrication! 🙁

But still, Senators Jim Bunning of Kentucky, Jon Kyl of Arizona, and Orrin Hatch of Utah, along with numerous Congressmen and radio talk show hosts and Fox News Channel, continue to spread the word that the rich need more tax cuts, and the poor unemployed be damned! 🙁

What kind of country that calls itself advanced and civilized would allow such a circumstance to continue to exist? If the top one percent already have 17 percent of all income in the country AFTER taxes, is not that enough? 🙁

Senator Ben Nelson Personally Responsible For Defeat Of Extension Of Unemployment Compensation! :(

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Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska is clearly the most conservative of all Democratic Senators!

He tends to vote with Republicans a good deal of the time, since he represents a state which is more conservative than most!

It is understandable that Nelson is often on the fence on party issues, but it is unconscionable that he would block the extension of unemployment compensation to millions of people who are desperate, many of them out of work for nearly two years in the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression! 🙁

These people will lose their homes or apartments; many will go hungry; their children will experience the horrors of total poverty; and the health of these unfortunates will deteriorate under the stress! 🙁 The Great Recession is still raging! 🙁

And yet Nelson, and the entire Republican party in the Senate, with the exception of the two Maine woman senators–Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins–seem unconcerned about the human suffering they are causing! 🙁

The longer people in the millions are out of work, the longer the deep recession will last, as if one does not work or have disposable income, then it brings down the economy for other Americans! This hardheartedness on the part of Nelson and the GOP is incomprehensible! 🙁

And ironically, as Robert Bryd left the Senate chamber for the last time after being in a casket in the legislative body he loved, the Senate Republicans and Ben Nelson dishonored their colleague, as had he been alive and able to vote on unemployment compensation extension, it would have passed in time for the July 4 holiday! 🙁

Now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will have to struggle to find a 60th vote to overcome a filibuster, and that cannot be done until the Senate returns on July 12 after the holiday break! 🙁

How can Ben Nelson and his GOP colleagues enjoy their break on the backs of the unemployed and needy? 🙁

This whole situation is absolutely a disgrace! 🙁

Debtors’ Prisons For The Poor: Is That Our Future In America? :(

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There are some conservatives and Republicans who are advocating the concept of “debtors’ prisons” for those who renege on their debt, in the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression! 🙁

It is a fact that six states already allow jail time for those who have not paid debts as low as under $100!

These states are Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Washington! This is beyond belief! 🙁

People who bring down the Wall Street economy get a slap on the wrist, but are bailed out, and there is no plan to imprison those who have caused massive suffering for millions of Americans! 🙁

But if one fails to pay a small bill as low as under $100, they can be jailed, and the idea is spreading as a way to promote “responsibility” and “accountability!”

As it is, Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, is trying to prevent further extension of unemployment benefits to people unless they prove by a urine sample that they are not on drugs! 🙁 This has been reported by Daily Kos, and is an idea to be condemned!

Are there any limits to our mistreatment of those less fortunate in our society? Apparently to Senator Hatch and six states that have created “debtors’ prisons”, there is no limit! 🙁

Tom “The Hammer” DeLay Is Back: Please Go Back Into Obscurity! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, forced out of office, and facing a federal trial on corruption charges in the future, was back in the spotlight on CNN State of The Union with Candy Crowley this morning, and after his appearance, the best advice one could give him is GO AWAY! 🙁

Already controversial for promoting the “Birther” movement which has questioned the birthplace of Barack Obama, DeLay now has the gall to defend those senators, including Jon Kyl of Arizona, who claim that unemployment compensation promotes laziness and lack of interest in seeking work! 🙁

DeLay expands this idea of Kyl to say that everyone knows that most people on unemployment compensation like being unemployed, and will only look for work a few weeks before it runs out! So in other words, the fact that unemployment compensation only covers up to half of a worker’s salary up to a certain level, is motivating to have people sit around and enjoy their unemployment period! 🙁

What an insult this is to the millions on unemployment compensation, many who are desperate to feed their families, pay their rent or mortgage, and have no health care in most cases while unemployed! 🙁

I hope the Republican party continues to promote this hard hearted, Social Darwinism concept of those who are unemployed and poor. In the midst of the Great Recession, the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, primarily caused by Republican Congresses and the Bush Administration through their advocacy of massive tax cuts for the rich and deregulation of business corporations, they have the nerve to advocate such views! 🙁

This kind of mentality will, if there is any common sense left in this country, lead to the GOP NOT gaining massive numbers of new seats in Congress, as they have the cocky belief is about to happen! 🙁

Senator Jon Kyl And Unemployment Insurance: He Should Be Ashamed! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, the Minority Whip, has been moving steadily toward the far right over the past few years, a real shame for someone who seemed reasonable and decent, but now appears to be flirting with being whacky! 🙁

For Senator Kyl to back Senator Jim Bunning in his assault on unemployment compensation, by stating that unemployment compensation promotes laziness and lack of motivation on the part of its recipients, and that it discourages job growth, is beyond any limit of decency! 🙁

No one can live on unemployment compensation, as recipients of it are in the poverty level of existence, just barely trying to pay the food and rent bills, and stay above water. No one gets rich, or lives off the fruit of the vine, existing on unemployment compensation!

Many recipients have become vicitims of this horrible Great Recession, and have little hope of returning to a middle class life that many shared not long ago!

For a senator who makes nearly $200,000, and has great health insurance, to fault and condemn people who are on their last legs financially is a hard hearted, insensitive, despicable act, which every decent American should condemn!

The Republican party is gaining, more than ever, a reputation of not caring about the plight of the poor who are struggling to survive this terrible time in our history. Hopefully, it will backfire this fall and lead to poor gains, if any, by the GOP, because if this kind of lack of compassion is endorsed by American voters, then indeed we are a nation that has lost its humanity! 🙁