GOP Rep. Dean Heller claims extending unemployment benefits is creating ‘hobos.’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/02/25/gop-rep-hobo/

GOP Rep. Dean Heller claims extending unemployment benefits is creating ‘hobos.’


Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is trying to pass an extension of unemployment benefits, but is facing resistance from Republicans who are throwing up procedural hurdles and trying to use the extension as leverage to push through a tax cut for the wealthiest families in the country. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) today questioned the necessity of an extension on the grounds that “we intend to have some immediate impact on the economy through what we’re doing.” And discourse in the House isn’t any better, with Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV) positing that extending unemployment benefits may be creating “hobos”:

Heller said the current economic downturn and policies may bring back the hobos of the Great Depression, people who wandered the country taking odd jobs. He said a study found that people who are out of work longer than two years have only a 50 percent chance of getting back into the workforce. “I believe there should be a federal safety net,” Heller said, but he questioned the wisdom of extending unemployment benefits yet again to a total of 24 months, which Congress is doing. “Is the government now creating hobos?” he asked.

1.1 million workers are due to have their benefits expire next month, and 5 million will see their benefits disappear by June. There are currently six unemployed workers for every job opening, and even without compensating for population increases, 350,000 jobs a month would need to be generated for two full years just to make up the jobs lost in the recession.

[seeinfweggos]

1. do they stay in flop houses? nt

[Vogon_Glory]

21. Many Homeless Already Camping Out in Their Cars

Many homeless are already camping out of their autos. I wouldn't be surprised to see more of them living in shanty towns (aka hobo camps).

[seeinfweggos]

22. i was making fun of the archaic language. hobo vs. homeless. not the homeless themselves

or minimizing the problem. homelessness is a problem in this country even in good times.

[Vogon_Glory]

24. I Wasn't Mocking You Or The Homeless

I wasn't mocking you or the homeless. I was trying to point out that we already DO have hungry, desperate, homeless, houseless, migrating people regardless of what some callous right-wing SFB Congressman might say, whether we call them hobos, homeless, or the Elizabethan "sturdy beggars."

:dem:

:patriot:

[seeinfweggos]

26. i think we are in total agreement on everything nt

[Toots]

25. I visualize a difference myself

Hobo were nomads, they rode the rails and tried to live off the land and their wits. There were Homeless at the same time. They lived in places like Hooverville and big cardboard boxes on the sidewalks. They tried to live off handouts and prayed for some employment to show up.

[sufrommich]

27. Trailers for sale or rent, rooms to let 50 cents. nt

[Arkana]

2. As an unemployed person whose benefits are fast running out,

fuck you, Mr. Heller.

[aaronbav]

8. Agree with you totally!

FUCK YOU HELLER AND KYL and all you other FUCKING TROGLODYTE REPIGLIKANS.

I am currently in tier 3 and would which runs out some time in March.

This is the point where we finally capitulate after 2 years of pure FUCKING HELL and DEFAULT on EVERY FUCKING BILL we have. FUCK THE GOD DAMN Polticiain and MOST ESPECIALLY FUCK the BANKSTER GANGSTERs.

When the FUCKING GOD DAMNED REVOLUTION COMES, I hope to see these GOD DAMNED BASTARDS GUTTED IN THE STREETS!!! FUCK THEM ALL TO HELL!

[veganpuffs]

3. Heller: not actually a progressive?

So not only is he a capitalist in disguise, but he is classist too. I'm ashamed to share the "Democrat" title as him.

[NNN0LHI]

4. Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV)

[Cerridwen]

5. Heller's a repub. Do you work for faux snews? n/t

[babylonsister]

6. GOP rep, per the original post. nt

[seeinfweggos]

12. and don't find that the least bit surprising - it's the archaic language that is noteworthy.

hobo?

[WCGreen]

7. If I remember my history, the hobos were created when there was

no help at hand.

So I guess you would be creating Hobos by not extending benefits.

[Berry Cool]

9. Just call me Freddy the Freeloader!

"Goodnight and God bless!"

Yeah, some hobos we are!

First of all, if you're on unemployment, you don't WANT to "take odd jobs," because all that does is reduce your benefits by however much you make!

Second of all, you sure can't "wander the country," because your state, even if you're to the point where you're receiving federal benefits from them, requires you to get your benefits through them, and chances are if you don't remain within the state, they're gonna declare you ineligible.

What a maroon. The reason there were hoboes during the Depression wandering around taking odd jobs was that they HAD no unemployment benefits. Duh.

[ingac70]

10. Fucking dick. n/t

[NNN0LHI]

11. I have always known Rethugs think this way

"Unemployment insurance is a prepaid vacation plan for freeloaders." - Ronald Reagan

[aquart]

13. There is no freeloader like a Congressional freeloader.

I'd like to put most of them on unemployment.

Which is an Obama compromise. What I really want to do is feed them to hungry sharks saving a few bits for the pelicans. But I took it off the table because someone might say mean things about it.

[tonysam]

14. That g.d. moron is "my" representative

He's as stupid as the governor AND the junior senator from Nevada.

Clue to Heller: Not everybody out here in Nevada is Mormon and has the church help its members.

[jwirr]

15. Heller needs to learn something. The hobos did not look for odd

jobs they were looking for any work that they could find. It was unemployment that caused hobos. What we call hobos were often young men and women who left home because the family could not support them. This guy has no brains.

[Dr.Phool]

16. It's turning them gay!? OMG!!!

:spank:

Never mind.

[Berry Cool]

19. No, it's turning us into double-reed instruments.

You should hear me. I've already figured out that tricky passage in Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin.

Everyone gather around and listen to us fluttertongue!

[Dr.Phool]

17. Did you ever notice that you can't do ANYTHING for the poor.

Or working people, or the unemployed, unless you give twice as much to greedy rich pigs.

More tax cuts, so they can squawk about the deficit.

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

18. "Hobos"? Who talks like that?

[leftstreet]

20. I noticed that. Young people would be like: WTF? Those chocolate cakes?

Stupid scripting by the Wingnut's advisers

[seeinfweggos]

23. Dick Tracey? nt