Published on Monday, April 5, 2010 by
CommonDreams.org Shame on All of You for Hurting the Least of These Againby Donna Smith
So, Congress is letting unemployment benefits expire for many thousands of Americans just because they cannot work together for the public good? And our President cannot even step in and step up to protect these most vulnerable citizens during this recession? Shame. Shame on the whole lot of them.
From MSNBC today:
"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) criticized Republicans Sunday for blocking unemployment benefits, which will expire Monday while Congress is out of session," The Hill reports. Reid issued a statement saying that Republicans making 'excuses' for stalling the benefits package and are hurting the unemployed. 'Families in Nevada and across America are struggling to make ends meet, and many are relying on unemployment insurance and health benefits as they look to find work,' he said. 'It is inexcusable and irresponsible for Republicans to once again block the extension of these benefits. Their excuses ring hollow to American workers who lost their jobs through no fault of their own and are trying to put food on the table, pay the rent, and take their children to the doctors.'"
The Republicans were angry about the passage of the lame health insurance recovery act (also known as healthcare reform bill) so they saw fit to block the extension of unemployment benefits in order to punish the Democrats. Really? Who got punished? And the Dems are blaming the Repubs for the ending of the benefits even though they were so busy getting out of town for their own spring recess that they left Washington just complaining about it and not demanding some other way to get the extension approved so that millions of people would not suffer. So much for the Dems really caring about these families.
The President had some pretty important Easter plans following the health bill signing celebration, so he couldn't possibly take a pro-active stand to demand a fix for the lost money, could he?
So, during this most holy of weeks for many, our government officials saw fit to take their recess and let the unemployed whose benefits were expiring today just suffer. ........(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/05-7