2010 Unemployment Extension’s Passed — Still, No One Is Talking About ‘99ers

[Dulcinea]

-snip-

Unfortunately, while it's true that over two million Americans will benefit greatly from the bill’s passage, they’re not the ones that are suffering the most. Those would be the ‘99ers, the one and a half million people who have used up all 99 weeks of federally-granted unemployment extensions. The talking points about that group…don’t exist.

A ‘99ers options are slim. Congress seems intent on ignoring them despite growing efforts online and via phone to push them toward the creation of a Tier 5 unemployment extension. Many ‘99ers are trying to nudge Obama into creating a Tier 5 via executive order, but such an act would almost certainly be seized on by Republicans as an egregious abuse of power.

At the same time, without a Tier 5, there isn’t a lot left for the long-jobless. The federal TANF, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, program offers a tiny respite — just over $500 each month IF you can prove that you’re capable of paying your rent somehow — is pretty much the last-ditch assistance that a ‘99er can expect. That and food stamps. It’s not enough to pay your rent, and if you can’t pay your rent with it, you can’t get it in the first place.

The big argument against Tier 5 is that it creates a disincentive for job seeking behavior. In other words, if you’re getting a check from Big Brother, you’re less motivated to find a job. That said, the Congressional Budget Office itself described that concern as “less of a factor when employment opportunities are expected to be limited for some time.”

http://all247news.com/2010-unemployment-extensions-passed-still-no-one-is-talking-about-99ers/2278/

[dkf]

1. No one is talking about job creation either.

Just the lack of it.