Guess what? The party that brought you the Wall Street meltdown doesn’t think Americans should be able to receive unemployment even while every open job gets five or more Applicants.
THEY ARE BLOCKING EXTENSIONS OF UNEMPLOYMENT – HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE REPUBLICANS – SUFFERING IS GOOD FOR THE SOUL?
If you don’t think being unemployed is a moral issue, and you don’t think that the unemployed deserve to suffer how about making some phone calls?
Please: Call and ask “Senator Brown” as well as our own Senator Kerry, your congressman (for Arlington that is Congressman Markey) to please vote to fund continuing extended unemployment.
While it IS good news that unemployment is down, 30,000 Massachusets residents will lose their unemployment as of 11/30/10 without this legislation. If those 30,000 folks lose their unemployment, they go into the holidays with zero income. THAT won’t help the economy, Massachusetts families, or local retailers at all.
Further, it is not a “moral issue” as there are still FIVE applicants for every ONE job.
Sen. Scott Brown’s Washington office # is 202 224 2742 – I hope he gets LOTS of calls so he knows his constituents WANT him to support this funding for unemployment.
Sen. John Kerry’s # is 202 224 2742
Congressman Markey’s number is 202 225 2836 in DC.
Other Congressman can be reached at 202 224 2131 ( the switchboard for the senate and congress).
The Bill that needs support is House 6419 “The Emergency Unemployment Compensation Continuance”
Deborah Sirotkin Butler
PS: This is a multi-vote poll
And what infuriates me is that they have been doing this since before the election and not one Democrat in a competitive race called them out on this. Hopefully our 12′ Senate nominee, whomever he or she is, will have the tenacity to hammer ‘blue collar friend’ Brown for his litany of anti-worker votes from extending unemployment to reducing COBRA, to voting against sensible health care reform, and voting against the reliably pro-worker Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. If Brown had his way it would really be 1929 all over again as he certainly comes from the extreme right of his party on economics. Rockefeller Republicans were always pro-labor and pro-worker-Brown is alien to that tradition. His comes from the knee jerk anti labor policies of the Dixiecrats and Western Republicans and is certainly too extreme for Massachusetts.
The unemployed are a small subset of voters, and hopefully don’t vote solely based on which party will extend their benefits longer.
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p>Also, the “five applicants for each job” is explainable because people on unemployment are supposed to apply for a job every week, but they don’t necessarily want every job they apply for, and they probably apply for jobs they aren’t qualified for. These are the people who show up in those “Ten Worst Job Interview Answers” storied you see on Huffington Post every six months or so, where someone answers the question about if they are self-motivated by saying “No.”
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p>That said, I think there ought to be life long benefits, enough to buy food and shelter, whether the person has a job or not.
When there are fewer customers out there, each and every one of us is one step closer to being unemployed.
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p>Plus, crime is up. All over the news are reports of increased robberies, burglaries and larcenies.
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p>What do people expect someone do when they can’t find a job and no help is available? Die? No, they do whatever it takes to get by, even if it means checking every car in the neighborhood at night for a cell phone or other electronics, or even stalking and robbing the elderly.
and get a record deal, like Justin Bieber. Actually, that’s too much work. Like I said, I think people should continue to get checks forever. How long do you think people should get checks?
I don’t think that lifetime benefits are appropriate. I think that people should get unemployment checks until unemployment drops to a more reasonable level. Five applicants for every job is not an economic environment that warrants telling people to “just get a job”.
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p>It’s not like an unemployment check is anywhere near replacing someone’s income from their job. It’s not even close.
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p>Then again, I suppose that if we cut people off and there are riots in the streets, we may get a better economic system out of this crisis. The jobs that are being created for people who are not of very high skills are not middle class jobs.
but there are 14.9 million unemployed people, which amounts to about 20 percent of the votes Barack Obama got in the Presidential election in 2008. Certainly not nothin’.
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p>Also, sadly, the “five applicants for each job” statistic is literally true and doesn’t refer to the overinclusive job search activities of unemployment insurance recipients. There are 3.2 million job openings and 14.9 million unemployed people. So if all the job openings were filled by an unemployed worker, only one in five would end up employed.
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p>Here’s a link, or you could Google Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Opening Survey.
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p>Glad you favor benefits for unemployed people.
Here’s part of Senator Brown’s stock response to email requests to extend unemployment insurance.
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p>Now you get it right? Continuing unemployment insurance is bad because it adds to the debt, but continuing the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans is good because….
We need to play nice because the poor minority “never gets heard” even though Obama watered down health care, stimulus, and financial reform in a vain attempt to get GOP votes. Sorry, but I just read a column in today’s Lowell Sun by Peter Lucas saying that the GOP will treat Obama just as “badly” as he has treated them.
He blocked it in 2004.
The Republicans blocked it – and played games with rescheduling votes when Kerry returned to DC to vote. Every candidate – Democratic or Republican misses votes when running for office. The Republicans controlled the Senate in 2004 and there intention was to do just what to have the bill fail. Kerry was FOR extending unemployment insurance and said so.
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p>Though obviously you should call his office and Brown’s on this vote – i hope they both vote for it.
Since the election my thinking has been to give the people what they want. They wanted change to the right. Perhaps dems should stop saving people from themselves for a while. Let them get a real look at the GOP agenda and feel in action. I am all for reducing the deficit and see plenty of opportunities. Trouble is all the deficit reduction seems to focus on things which help people like uneployment and medicare. Where are the calls to end corporate welfare for agri business, oil companies, banks, defense contractors not to mention the wars. Senator Kyl wants 80 billion more to upgrade our nuclear weapons systems which it is our goal to never use. Where is the
return on investment there.
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p>Many seem to feel that the unemployed are freeloaders and that it is nothing but welfare under a different name. There is always the human nature mistrust that those on assistance are getting away with something for nothing. To counter that how about we create work for the able unemployed to do for their benefits. There is a wealth of talent out there and a lot to be done in this country. These programs need not all focus on manual labor either. In addition to cleaning up neighborhoods and cities
there is plenty of need for career and personal counseling, skill building. How about showing poeople how to start a small business at home. There is plenty of things tax dollars can do to help people and improve our economy. Better weapons, fatter coprorations and financiers are not one of them.