Republicans Plan to Block Unemployment Benefits Again

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Posted by digby at 1:46 pm
March 25, 2010

Republicans Plan to Block Unemployment Benefits Again


This post originally appeared on Hullabaloo.

It would appear that the Republicans have decided that America is now a Hobbesian hellhole so devoid of decency and good will that they can repeatedly hold unemployed people hostage for political purposes and be rewarded for it.

Remember Jim Bunning’s one-man government shut down earlier this month? Remember how everyone — even Republicans — condemned it?

Well, it seems the GOP has had a change of heart. According to a report by Politico’s Manu Raju this morning, multiple Republicans in the Senate are now preparing to repeat Bunning’s scheme to block unemployment benefits if Democrats attempt to pass an emergency extension of them again, a move that could come as early as this week.

Playing the role of Bunning next time will likely be Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK). But he’ll have an ensemble cast to help.

The unemployed only comprise 10% of the working population so a good portion of the other 90% will probably agree that they’re all just freeloaders (”I got me a job, why can’t they get one too?”) And a few more are so mind-bogglingly ignorant that they’ll go along with the rationale that the biggest problem we face right now is a future debt. But most of the people who will respond positively to this are the shock troops who simply don’t believe that anyone but their team has a legitimate claim to govern this country. The whole thing is a base motivation strategy (in both senses of the word “base”)but it’s really just another bit of proof that the right wing of this country has become a nihilistic force with no remaining pretensions of virtue.

And god help us if these people are rewarded for this behavior at the ballot box. They are so morally twisted at this point that I’m not sure what they’ll do, but it isn’t a good idea to take any chances. Considering their overwrought reaction to the passage of a health care bill, I think we can see how easily their deluded sense of besiegement could turn very ugly if they have the power of the state at their disposal.


http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/03/25/sick-republicans-plan-to-block-unemployment-benefits-again/

[Fresh_Start]

1. big miscalculation there

maybe only 10% are unemployed....but everyone has a friend or loved one unemployed

[pepperbear]

2. OMG! Take your toys and GO HOME! n/t

[tonysam]

3. More stinking games

Congress needs to add more weeks to Tier IV, which right now is only six weeks, or else add a Tier V. There has been no change at all to the maximum UI of 99 weeks since last fall. Pushing back the date for eligibility is fine, but let's not call it "extension" of benefits. It isn't.

[NNN0LHI]

4. This was SOP during Reagan and Bush 1

All of us unemployed workers who were out of work were considered lazy people who didn't want to work according to the Rethugs.

This isn't so important right now with a Dem Congress and President. But that could change quickly. All it takes is one election.

Don

[tonysam]

5. Never mind it is the fact EMPLOYERS have to lay you off or fire you

for you to even get UI. You can't quit your job and get it.