Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

PROTEST Monday at Noon in front of Senator Scott Brown’s office

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Senator Brown helped kill extended unemployment benefits

As a result of Senator Scott Brown’s vote, almost ONE MILLION unemployed Americans will have no income.  10,000 people a week are being cut off in Massachusetts.

Here is the information about the Rally:

RALLY

Demand that Scott Brown votes “Yes” on the FMAP Bill

Monday June 28th at noon.

2400 JFK Federal Building (Scott Brown’s office)

It’s time that Senator Scott Brown votes for Massachusetts

When he took office, Senator Brown promised that he would be an independent thinker and that he would protect Massachusetts. Now, the Commonwealth stands to lose $685 million if Senator Brown votes against a bill that includes federal funds (Federal Medical Assistance Program).

Now’s the time for Senator Brown to stand up!

Along with losing $685 million of Medicaid payments, if Scott Brown votes no Massachusetts will lose:

• Tax credits for small businesses

• An extension of unemployment benefits

• Better funding for our public schools and universities

Come join a coalition of unions, religious groups, advocacy organizations, senior organizations, healthcare workers and building trade workers in asking Scott Brown to support funding for critical state services.

Sponsored by: UFCW, the Greater Boston Labor Council, the North Shore Labor Council, SEIU/NAGE, 1199SEIU, SEIU 509, SEIU 615, SEIU State Council, Mass Building Trades, Massachusetts AFL-CIO, Health Care For All, Mass Homecare, Mass Senior Action Council, National Association of Social Workers, Massachusetts Teachers Association, Boston Council for Independent Living, Stavros, Public Higher Education of Massachusetts, Ethos, the Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientists, Neighbor to Neighbor, Greater Boston Interfaith Organization and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Coalition growing daily.

Can McConnellvilles, todays Hoovervilles be far behind?  Here comes the next wave of foreclosures, too.

I would love to see some of the 24% of veterans who are unemployed set up a McConnellville on the Washington Capital’s Mall.  How about some of the 14% who are unemployed in Casino world, also known as Nevada?

For the archaic “filibuster” system to render One Million Americans destitute is just wrong.  I hope everyone remembers to vote out every Senator who voted NO on extending unemployment in November.

Disclosure:  My husband was laid off as part of a “rolling layoff” in the financial district, when his entire information technology working group saw its work outsourced to Mumbai.  Five years ago, he was given a Waterford clock.  When the “Euro” came in he was housed downtown and worked for five days, self lessly.  He had planned to retire in three years.  For us, termination of unemployment now is personal; it isn’t easy to land a new position at 62.

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Comments

  1. I’m looking at your list of sponsors.  Isn’t this the same bill that ALSO had a big chunk of cash going to states to prevent the layoff of government employees?

    <

    p>I FEEL for your husband’s situation.  Really.  But the money – and we’re borrowing all of it – wasn’t just going to the unemployed but also to prevent government workers from ever being unemployed.

    <

    p>Instead of the problems your husband has, they won’t look at solutions like forgoing step and COLA raises, or unpaid furloughs in return for having a steady paycheck coming in, even if it ISN’T as much as hoped.  That is just not the same as somebody who has been laid off for months and months with no prospect.

    <

    p>If the government-only payroll supplements came out, and perhaps a shorter period of extension was tried – maybe we could get along?  Or at least pick up a Snowe or Collins?

    • but not all of it. Not anywhere close.

      <

      p>Quite frankly, I think any attempts by the Democrats to “pick up” a single Republican at this point in time is foolhardy. Everything that can be passed using parliamentary procedure to avoid the filibuster should be, and when we come into our next Congress after the upcoming elections, the filibuster should be stripped for good. Only takes a simple majority at that point to do so. It’s by far the least democratic thing about our government, despite the fact that it has a lot of competition.

    • And the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization is a sponsor because they see the damage being done to real human beings.

      <

      p>Plus not only is the money to pay for it not exactly being borrowed, not anywhere near all of it, but my analysis – even aside from our families situation – is that NOT extending unemployment will actually cost MORE in the long run AND this was not the right way or the right vote and to the extent my sharp pen can publicize every single senator who voted NO and have ANY part in those NO voting senators NOT getting re-elected, my sharp pen will be writing on the internet, in news papers, and who knows, maybe it is time to reclaim my old credentials as a political cartoonish (last published, I admit, about 1969).

      <

      p>And, oh yeah, doesn’t McConnelville on the Mall have a ring to it that deserves to go viral?

      • And it stands to Ryan as well.

        <

        p>Do you think it necessary to include supplements to the states to protect the COLAs of government workers (who just happen to be union members, of course) who have NOT been laid off with the unemployment extension bill?

        <

        p>Or is aid going only to those who are actually laid off more important?

        • Please be specific.  I am not a union member.  I am not even an “employee” and haven’t had “W2” income since 1981.

          <

          p>I certainly don’t demand or expect that each piece of legislation must do only one thing, nor have I read the piece of legislation under discussion.  Why not post a link to it?  If you want me to do something (i.e. read legislation or agree with YOU) it is up to you to make doing what you want as easy as you can.  Mind, I will try to find and read the bill before Monday, but failing to extend unemployment and failing to protect medicare payments are ENOUGH to make me irate even if there is other baggage of some kind you don’t like (whatever that is).

          <

          p>Have YOU read the bill, by the way, yourself?  

    • The US had borrowed relatively more (over 100% of the GDP) during WW II. The resulting economic stimulus kicked off the big post-war boom.

      <

      p>Without more money in the hands of people who will readily spend it, demand remains stagnant, business and employment remain flat, and we risk deflation. I have more confidence in Paul Krugman, who was right to be concerned about the housing bubble, than I do in those who were taken by surprise.

      <

      p>The logic of the need to further stimulate the economy is not intuitive. Per a recent Krugman blog post,

      <

      p>

      The case for expansionary policies in the face of a slump is intellectually difficult; Keynes described the writing of the General Theory as a painful process of discovery, and so it is. The natural instinct of almost everyone is to think that tough times require tough measures, and that if the economy is suffering, the government should tighten its own belt. It would take a clear consensus from economists to overcome that natural bias.

      And that consensus has, of course, been lacking – largely because a significant proportion of the economics profession has spent the last three decades systematically destroying the hard-won knowledge of macroeconomics. It’s truly a new Dark Age, in which famous professors are reinventing errors refuted 70 years ago, and calling them insights.

      <

      p>I’m not an economist. My simple-minded version of the above is to recall Henry Ford’s practice of paying his workers enough that they could buy his product. If we reduce the money in the hands of one set of modestly paid people (government workers) in order to help the unemployed, we haven’t done much to increase overall demand. Low demand makes businesses reluctant to introduce new products and hire more people; with the current high unemployment numbers, that should not be acceptable.

  2. There are some photos and write-ups from this rally at SEIU’s blog.

    “We want to talk to Senator Brown and we want to tell him that now is the time to create jobs, not cut jobs,” said Denise Leschernier, a Massachusetts personal care attendant and 1199SEIU member who spoke at the rally.

    <

    p>Was anyone at this rally? Anything to report?

    <

    p>Disclosure: I’m proud to work for the Service Employees International Union as a member of the New Media Department.

    • It was hot, and windy.  Lots of union folks (much appreciated) including Bobby Haynes who gave a fiery speech.  George Noel was there, Mike Lake stopped by, Grace Ross was there, lots and lots of Homeland Security folks were there and I am told a sit in had begun in front of Scott Brown’s office even before the rally.  I closed my office (I am self employed and as long as enough clients come in the door, and my invoices get paid, have an income albeit with peaks and valleys) and gave up some income to stand with my husband on this one.  Not easy, for him at the age of 62, to see his long term position go overseas to Mumbai; this decade it is information technology workers seeing their jobs outsourced.

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