Wisconsin: Republicans Refuse to Release $89 Million in Unemployment Compensation

[Scuba]

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/124238398.html


<snip>


Madison - More than 10,000 out-of-work Wisconsin residents are no longer receiving an estimated $89 million in federally funded jobless benefits because state officials have not acted to renew them.

The change to state law would not touch the state's struggling unemployment insurance trust fund and would provide 13 more weeks of benefits to workers who have been without employment for roughly a year and a half.

The change in state law, which has tepid support from Gov. Scott Walker, could come before a state advisory panel Thursday. However, the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council has done nothing, despite knowing about the issue for months.

The Legislature could have gone ahead on its own. It did pass in the state budget a cost-saving proposal to stop paying workers the first week of unemployment insurance benefits - a difference to both the state and the workers of tens of millions of dollars a year. But with some Republicans and business leaders wary that benefits are actually a disincentive to work, there's been no action.


<end snip>


So Wisconsin citizens have been waiting for their available benefit Since April 16 simply because the Republican Party is too mean-spirited to dispense it.


Great blog comments...

From book134...


State officials have not acted to renew these benefits to the long term
unemployed because Walker and his Administration have directed them not
to.

Refusing federal money intended for unemployed workers in this way is
counter productive to the State overall and is extremely damaging to these
workers who are suffering from this minor economic depression caused by
the policies of Bush II.


From ConcernedforMKE


Apparently Wisconsin businesses do not need an extra 89 million dollars circulating around the economy. Businesses would rather stand on philosophical principals. Let the other states take Wisconsin's money!


From getmeoutahere

Until recently, our family breadwinner was out of work for the better
part of 2 years. Would the breadwinner have relinquished
unemployment benefits and have taken a $9 an hour job vs. the $20 an
hour the breadwinner made previously before the layoff? You betcha if
the $9 an hour job also came with health insurance and was within
commuting distance considering gas was almost $4 a gallon.

Our breadwinner from day one of the layoff was busting butt for almost 2
years to find work, applying for easily 500 - 1000 jobs anywhere and
everywhere within the Madison, Milwaukee, northern Chicago area
triangle, and sometimes beyond. Anyone who thinks $363 a week is
some sort of lavish disincentive for anybody (except maybe a young
adult still living at home and mooching off mom and dad) to seek or
accept a REAL job is sorely deluded, or should I say, obviously
Republican.

Let's see how long one of the State Legislators or the Governor could last
on the weekly unemployment benefit pittance (which is also taxed as
income at the end of the year). Maybe when Scott Walker is recalled
and neither he nor his wife suddenly have a job and have to cough up at
least a $1000 or month or more to COBRA their health benefits while
supporting two teenagers at home he'll finally figure out what it means to
become part of the "lazy" unemployment class he so reviles as a
sanctified Christian.


(edited for sophomoric grammatical error)

[midnight]

1. K&R Thank you for taking the time to write about the

real impact of what no jobs means, and how politics is being used to keep Wisconsin families unemployment insurance benefits from them....Just wow...This is not governing this is something else, but this is not governing...


"State officials have not acted to renew these benefits to the long term
unemployed because Walker and his Administration have directed them not
to.

Refusing federal money intended for unemployed workers in this way is
counter productive to the State overall and is extremely damaging to these
workers who are suffering from this minor economic depression caused by
the policies of Bush II."

This mind set to keep money out of the hands of the working people has been going on for almost a decade...

[sarcasmo]

2. How can any working person vote republican?

[Scuba]

3. There's a massive PR machine that keeps telling them lazy thug drug-riddled Union members....

...are trying to steal their hard-earned pay.

edited because I'm careless.