Going Over The ‘Unemployment Cliff’ - MSNBC

[WillyT]

Going over the ‘unemployment cliff’
By Steve Benen - MSNBC
12/11/13 08:40 AM—Updated 12/11/13 09:05 AM

<snip>

Federal emergency unemployment benefits will expire for 1.3 million struggling Americans in just two weeks. President Obama used his weekly address a few days ago to raise the visibility of the issue and urge Congress to act before it’s too late.

And while many have wondered whether congressional Republicans are actually prepared to follow through on this, cutting off jobless aid for Christmas, we apparently have our answer.

The bipartisan budget deal announced last night doesn’t include any extension of unemployment insurance – and no such extension is forthcoming. During the negotiations, Republicans proved hostile even to limited extensions in unemployment insurance. Right now, the House is expected to vote on Friday to pass the budget deal…. They’re expected to let unemployment benefits for 1.3 million long-term unemployed expire.

The prospect for 11th-hour heroics is remote, at best. House members are planning to wrap up their work for the year on Friday, and the chamber won’t return until January – well after the Dec. 28 deadline. Democratic proponents of extending unemployment benefits in the budget agreement came up empty.

There’s still some talk of attaching an extension to some other must-pass bill – the farm bill, the “doc fix,” etc. – but Democrats are running into fierce resistance from Republicans, who simply do not want to act before the deadline.

The question, then, isn’t whether success is still possible, but what the consequences of failure will be.

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More: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/going-over-the-unemployment-cliff

[KoKo]

1. ALEC AMERICA still rules.....

Dems hope for a last minute extension of Unemployment Insurance Benefits in a separate bill....I wonder if they can do it. I hope so.

[villager]

2. If not, we need a New Year's march on Washington, and new "Hoovervilles" surrounding our...

.."Representatives"

[ChisolmTrailDem]

3. That is going to leave a mark on our society. We're living in a pre-dystopian era. n/t

[Egalitarian Thug]

4. I'd check that 'pre' part. Vast areas of this nation are fully dystopic already.

It's like the new fascism, it has moved in more slowly and has changed its colors, but it's in here with us, doing its damage already, while counting on people denying its existence until it hits them personally.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

5. I had to give including the "pre"-fix some extraordinary thought. I decided to

include it because I don't think we're all the way there yet. If I had to quantify it, I'd say we're perhaps 65% of the way there. And the momentum is against us.

In my opinion, all we'd need to send us over the dystopian cliff is a right-wing super-majority, although they've done well to destroy this country as the minority party thus far.


Disclaimer: I am a fan/writer of post-apoc fiction, so what is happening is playing right into a commons vision in that genre, and into my hands as a fan/writer. I'm not saying I'm happy about that, just that what was once imagined is now becoming reality. As such, envisioning these stories becomes much easier because, as fan and writer, we can see it and now longer have to imagine what it would be like.

ETA: BTW, I agree with you that there are parts of the country that are already there. I am especially struck by this in vast tracts of the south, which I have seen first-hand, and in the large areas of the north.

[Egalitarian Thug]

7. I agree, we're not all the way there yet. Even when we are it won't look exactly the way we've

imagined it, and that is one of our biggest obstacles.

Unless Mel Gibson is actually roaming the Outback in a black leather get-up in a never-ending search for gasoline to fuel his mythical car, there are a significant number of people that will deny it. Unless the troops are on their corner, with a tank, wearing black Hugo Boss uniforms, it isn't fascism.

[countryjake]

6. K&R!

[mstinamotorcity2]

8. The 1.3 million should

camp out at republican homes and business of the congressmen and fire up the barbeque grill and get the sleeping bags. And stay.