GOP Does Not Extend Jobless Benefits (Due to "improving econ")

[Khephra]

WASHINGTON -- Citing the improving economy, Republicans decided Monday against extending federal unemployment benefits before Congress leaves for the year. Democrats said it would mean a joyless Christmas for tens of thousands of jobless Americans.

"It's almost inconceivable to me that Republican leaders are poised to play the Grinch again," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.

Democrats raised the benefits issue Monday in a vain effort to block a vote on a $373 billion spending bill for the 2004 budget year, the House's final major act before it ends this congressional session.

Federal unemployment benefits, which supplement state payments to the jobless, have been extended three times since March 2002. Without legislative action, they will be phased out beginning Dec. 21.

more.........

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-jobless-benefits,0,3033584.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[wryter2000]

1. Add the unemployed to the seniors

More votes for us in 2004. Thanks for giving us a hand, Repugs.

[0007]

2. The medicare bill and now this...

'tis a blue monday.

[UpInArms]

3. look how easy it is to reduce the number of

unemployed!

This should make the numbers look so much better so that the economy can improve that much faster!

/sarcasm button no longer working

[prolesunited]

20. I didn't think of it that way

But you're absolutely right. Once the benefits run out, they are not counted in the unemployment stats any more, are they?

[UpInArms]

21. they just "go away"

becoming dis-spirited workers or some such other invisible number - creating a shrinking workforce so that even fewer jobs are needed to "put food on one's family"

[papau]

4. Follows Wall Street Journal ed board advice on how to get UE rate down

Follows Wall Street Journal ed board advice on how to get UE rate down


Today's Wall Street Journal ed board says that paying unemployment benefits provides a disincentive to take the jobs that will be created by the recovering economy, keeping the jobless rate artificially high...

[GainesT1958]

7. So much for all the folks the WSJ calls...

"Lucky Duckies", huh?:mad:

The Repubs are one heartless bunch--more an unreformed Scrooge than Grinch, I'd say!:grr:

B-)

[alfredo]

19. Try to find work this time of year. By the 21st

most businesses are laying off. January and February suck for the job seeker.

[loudnclear]

5. I guarantee you that most of those affected voted for and still love Bush

It will sink in one day who the Repugs are and the folks like Bush.

[malachi]

12. Sink in? Not a chance

They love the monkey. He's one of them.

[KansDem]

6. This must really upset the Republicans...

...joyless Christmas for tens of thousands of jobless Americans.

They wanted hundreds of thousands...(/sarcasm)
(edited to remove "smiley face" and replace with "sarcasm off" command. There's nothing funny about this. Sorry if offense was taken)

[underpants]

9. How would you like to pay for these toys? Uh with the "improving economy"?

Security!

[cthrumatrix]

8. share with your friends....... always remember

[tokenlib]

10. Well, they are hiring for our new Wal-Mart Supercenter....

Damn republicans! Service sector non-living wage crap.

[stevedeshazer]

11. Merry Fucking Christmas

My benefits run out this week. For the record, I have been actively seeking a job that pays EVEN ONE-HALF of my previous earnings, and I was not well-to-do by any means before then.

This&#*)Q_)_!*#(_ never mind.... :grr:

[Oreegone]

13. Be vewee vewee quiet

And maybe no one will notice people can't pay their freakin rent.....

I guess they really couldn't pass it cause if they did they would be admitting that they were wrong about the economy....getting better is it? Oh of course its getting better ask any unemployed person. The Neocons think you are lazy bastards and just don't want to work if you don't have a minimum wage job or 3.....

This keeps up they won't have to send work overseas, we can make Walmart clothes for 6 cents an hour too. Oh yeah they are forgetting who will buy their shit when no one can afford to buy it anymore. That's right they have the1% wealthy to sell to, but how many pairs of shoes will they buy?

[aquart]

41. Thousands. The greed is endless.

And what have these worthless people got to do but shop and show how rich they are?

Hope the designers make those shoes REALLY pointy. For the men, too.

This throws the entire burden on the states. A state with a high number of unemployed is already coping with a lower tax base. So what's the choice? Raise taxes on people with no income? Raise taxes on the rich who are left? Or borrow at usurious rates of interest?

The states will borrow, leaving a double burden, state and federal, for the future.

Good going, Republicans.

[tom_paine]

14. Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

The Big Wheel of History just keeps bringing us back to where we started.

[bobbieinok]

16. is that from Dickens??????

.....

[Frodo]

17. "A Christmas Carol"

Scrooge to a pair of men trying to raise funds for charity.

On edit - "Yes" it's Dickens.

[notadmblnd]

22. is this how they're going to force us into slavery?

could this be how they will eventually justify opening labor camps? too many homeless, no place for them to go. :tinfoilhat:

[tom_paine]

29. Certainly possible. The only thing certain is

that the Busheviks are going to try and force their Imperial Subjects, into, say, a "more traditionally subservient" perspective.

How they are going to do it is open to debate...

[alfredo]

36. Maybe it will bust unions, and force wages down by using

slave labor.

[aquart]

42. Ah. That's what the rich thought in 1877.

What it got them was regulation, unions, labor laws, and taxes they couldn't even imagine when it all began.

After much bloodshed.

The difference here is that the working class isn't the only one being shafted. Stock fraud is eating at the middle class, too.

That also leads to bloodshed, regulation (as the rich begin to fear the popularity of the guilotine or its modern equivalent), unions, and lots more punitive and regulatory laws. And taxes.

Everything these fools have swept away will be replaced. Or we will be gone as a nation.

But not before many American deaths.

Ain't it fun the way these things operate?

[POed_Ex_Repub]

15. If the economy is so good...

Then there shouldn't be that many unemployed people to extend benefits to (and the government should be having plenty of income from taxes to pay for the extension).. I'll believe the economy is back when I can get at least one interview per 100 resumes sent out. In this wonderful economy my degree is only useful as toilet paper at the moment. :cry:

[UpInArms]

23. welcome to DU POed_Ex_Repub -

would that name be PO-ER or poorer? - excuse my bad humor (not to be mistaken for my bad moods)

glad to have you here amongst the thinking!

[Hobarticus]

25. Welcome, POed...

Welcome to DU!!!

[alcuno]

26. Welcome to DU, POed_Ex_Repub

Our government representatives live in a different world from the rest of us. The job situation is a disgrace for the nation and they are busy crowing about it. I hope they all end up unemployed.

[hatrack]

18. In the immortal words of Bob Novak:

"Suck it up!"

[KayLaw]

24. My!

80,000 to 90,000 people losing their benefits each week? Surely, that's going to cause serious problems. If they do have to accept part-time employment at fast food places, won't these people have to slam the breaks on any kind of spending at all? What happens when someone goes from earning, say, $80,000, to $8,000?

[54anickel]

27. Well, you cash in the 401K and pay the penalty to the Fed. That gets

you a few extra months to try and find work, you cut down on ALL extra spending, try to work out a deal with the bank on just making interest payments on the mortgage. If you're lucky, the credit card companies sell your account to a collection agency that is happy to settle up with you for 60 cents on the dollar. After a while, it all catches up with you and the bank forecloses or you file for bankruptcy. If you're lucky, you've got family to mooch off of for a while who is willing to take your paychecks, however many and however small to help with the expenses and become an extended family.

[mbperrin]

28. Buy a 70s or 80s Ford box van - huge, roomy,

and you can heat it with a large plumber's candle. Doesn't have to run well, just enough to move daily from one place to another!

The Salvation Army will feed you for three days every two weeks, and there are lots of other churches that will feed you once a week or so. There's a lovely woman in our town who brings sandwiches to a park daily, too!

[htuttle]

34. LOL!

LIVING IN A VAN, DOWN BY THE RIVER!

[stevedeshazer]

30. Already done that.

My Internet connection goes next.

[Skittles]

35. Stevie

you can't lose your internet connection - you need that for job searches. Pay as little as you can - juno for ten bucks a month

[stevedeshazer]

37. Yeah, you're right

I can scale back to dialup.

[alfredo]

38. Or use the library computers.

[citizen snips]

31. Come on Bush don't be a pig.

Don't be a pig I think it is going to be funny when you lose your job. So stop being wasteful. well I am just wasting my breath.

[KalicoKitty]

32. Go to CNN and vote

LOU DOBBS TONIGHT QUICKVOTE


Do you think Congress should extend unemployment benefits?




http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/

[UpInArms]

33. done

Yes

92%
961 votes



No

8%
88 votes

[acmavm]

39. Done and sent the link to everyone. Time to scare the shit out of these

pimples on the ass of humanity.

[Rex]

40. Inconceivable Nancy...really?

WTF! Is Nancy a bubblegirl? Must take a lot of drugs to become totally blind to the raping of America. :(

[0rganism]

43. In all fairness, she did say "almost inconceivable"

I don't think she's blind and bubbled.