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Labor secretary presses Boehner to renew jobless aid for 2.6 million long-term unemployed
Labor secretary presses Boehner to renew jobless aid for 2.6 million long-term unemployed
by Laura Clawson
Noting that, since the federal emergency unemployment insurance program expired in late December, "almost 2.6 million people, including more than 70,000 in Ohio, have been stripped of unemployment benefits that help them keep the lights on, rent paid, and family fed," Secretary of Labor Tom Perez has written a letter to House Speaker John Boehner urging him to allow an unemployment aid extension to come up for a vote in the House.
Perez rebuts the idea that the Senate's unemployment extension would be too hard to implement—one of Boehner's favored excuses for not bringing the measure to a vote—by noting that the governors of the high-unemployment states of Nevada and Rhode Island, the former a Republican, say their states could implement the Senate bill, and by pointing to his own experience as a state labor secretary. But most of all Perez emphasizes the human need, framing it in terms that push back against Republican accusations that jobless people are just being lazy:
Their fight is a difficult one, though, in an economy with no jobs for 60 percent of job seekers and with people unemployed for six months or more facing discrimination. Not that Republicans care. They'd rather voters not realize it, but all their excuses about challenges implementing the Senate bill are just a thin cover for the basic view that unemployed people don't deserve help, even in a bad economy.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/07/1297600/-Labor-secretary-presses-Boehner-to-renew-jobless-aid-for-2-6-million-long-term-unemployed
by Laura Clawson
Noting that, since the federal emergency unemployment insurance program expired in late December, "almost 2.6 million people, including more than 70,000 in Ohio, have been stripped of unemployment benefits that help them keep the lights on, rent paid, and family fed," Secretary of Labor Tom Perez has written a letter to House Speaker John Boehner urging him to allow an unemployment aid extension to come up for a vote in the House.
Perez rebuts the idea that the Senate's unemployment extension would be too hard to implement—one of Boehner's favored excuses for not bringing the measure to a vote—by noting that the governors of the high-unemployment states of Nevada and Rhode Island, the former a Republican, say their states could implement the Senate bill, and by pointing to his own experience as a state labor secretary. But most of all Perez emphasizes the human need, framing it in terms that push back against Republican accusations that jobless people are just being lazy:
In the months before and after the expiration of EUC benefits, I have met with numerous people struggling to get back into the workforce after a long period of unemployment. Their determination inspires me. Their full time job is to look for a job. One person shared that he had successfully beaten cancer years ago, and "fighting cancer was far easier than fighting long-term unemployment." I travelled to Ohio recently and met with a group of determined people seeking employment, one of whom said " I've got no quit in me, because I do not want my son ever to think that his father is a quitter." These people embody the spirit and resilience of the long-term unemployed, who are working tirelessly to get back into the workforce.
Their fight is a difficult one, though, in an economy with no jobs for 60 percent of job seekers and with people unemployed for six months or more facing discrimination. Not that Republicans care. They'd rather voters not realize it, but all their excuses about challenges implementing the Senate bill are just a thin cover for the basic view that unemployed people don't deserve help, even in a bad economy.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/07/1297600/-Labor-secretary-presses-Boehner-to-renew-jobless-aid-for-2-6-million-long-term-unemployed
