My Family Is SCREWED!!!

[Dirty Socialist]

My wife's unemployment runs out on Dec. 28. She has been looking for a job since April. I am underemployed. Thanks to the lack of unemployment extension, we are royally SOL.

[NaturalHigh]

1. Sorry to hear that.

I hope your luck turns around.

[Dirty Socialist]

3. I Hope

I hope the President and Congress turns around and approves the extension. I hear the majority of Americans want it.

[etherealtruth]

2. I am so sorry

[Auntie Bush]

4. You and millions others are royally screwed. I'm more sorry than I can say.

Damn selfish cheap Rethugs!

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

6. That's too bad

I'm so sorry to hear this. How did these people get in office?

[mimi85]

24. Good question!

We have to work extra hard in 2014. Damn Republicans! I'm so sick of the "I've got mine, screw you" mentality.

Best of luck to you, we've been there also.

[truedelphi]

38. Is it the Republicans? Funny but it was not a Republican President that

Not only Appointed criminal Geithner to the top spot at Treasury, but let him veto any requests by the states for help.

Back in the summer of 2010, and Gov of California Ahnold Schwartzennegger asked Washington DC for a 20 billion dollar loan for the state of California.

Geithner was apparently in charge of these decisions as well as other goings on at the Treasury. He immediately told the governor that that loan would be devastating to the budget processes of the Federal government. And in doing that, Geithner nixed not only dreams and necessities of the 37 million people in California, but also nixed any hopes for any other governors who were thinking of asking for money to keep programs going in their states. To add insult to injury, around the exact same time, the USA had the wherewithal to offer up some 55 billions of dollars of weaponry and armaments to Israel and the UAE.

So what of the people of California will have to endure slashes made to the school budgets, the highway system, and even one billion dollars in cuts to health spending! Far more important that we give weaponry to places in the Middle Est.

Another insult to injury was the extension by Democratic President Obama of the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich.

It has been stated that this was a 2.1 Trillion dollar negative impact on the Nation's Treasury, but hey, it was for the rich! And it will be easy to make up this money - after all, the Social Security Fund as a 2.4 trillion dollar surplus!

[lpbk2713]

5. One hell of an irony ...

"The Congressional Budget Office said the cost to extend the federal benefits by another year is about $26 billion." {Link to article}

As it turned out, the Congressional rethuglicans thought it would be better to shut down the government and do nothing rather than use that same amount of money they wasted on extending benefits to deserving Americans for another year.

[Holly_Hobby]

7. OMG that pisses me off nt

[2naSalit]

20. And

Boehner says he MIGHT consider doing something if it's paid for... how about we take it from the Congressional income since they don't really seem to need all that cash, refuse to do their jobs and cost all those billions to kick us ion the teeth!?!

[Egalitarian Thug]

42. One day on the debt clock, but too much for Main Street.

Also the amount of weapons we're going to sell to Iraq this year and next.

[BobUp]

8. OhNo

When after her UE runs out, make sure you go to a social service agency to see what else might be available to you and family, like an increase in food benefit, if you pay rent or mortgage, ask if they'll wait for your payments, meanwhile, if you're a member of a congregation of a church, consider asking them for assistance, also ask friends or family for help, don't be afraid to ask for help. Even if you're not a member of a church, occasionally Catholic Charities will help, as might Goodwill and Salvation Army. If you or wife are Veterans, there may be some Veteran's assistance available to you.

I wished there were something we all could do for you or say to you to help calm your fears.

http://catholiccharitiesusa.org/our-solutions/programs/

http://www.redcross.org/find-your-local-chapter#O

http://www.needhelppayingbills.com/html/ohio_assistance_programs.html

If you might be behind paying some bills, some will work with you. You should try to maintain your internet connection so you can apply for programs over the internet, which will save you from having to go here and there, possibly saving you gas money, bus fare, taxi fare and so forth.

I sincerely wish you the best.

[Dirty Socialist]

9. Brother Can You Spare A Dime?

Thanks for the advice.

I will apply for mortgage help (Save The Dream Ohio), utility payment help (HEAP), food stamps, and Medicaid for the kids. Fortunately, I saved a lot of money on health insurance by signing up for Obama Care.

[BobUp]

13. I would help if I were able to

It's good that you know where to go for help. My wife's hours were cut earlier this year, and she has health ins through her workplace, $176 a month, I'm lucky to be a Veteran because my HC is free, it's not the best but it's better than having nothing. My SS disability payments w/ my wife's wages just barely keeps our eyes above water. But we receive no other assistance at all, no food, heat or rent subsidies. The last time I recall times being this tough were during the Ronald Raygun years. Bush f*cked America up for at least 12 years, and we're paying for it, we're the casualties of bad past policies.

[MsTanja]

22. Living in the same world...

Looong time lurker... finally crawling out of the woodwork.

I was laid off last year and am going to school to change careers, also underemployed (part time, getting an hourly wage that is half what I was making, so actually I am now making a quarter of what I made before).

I applied and was approved for Save The Dream Ohio, so it works and is very helpful. The only thing I will say is that you need to keep (constantly) reminding your mortgage lender that you are working with them. Even after my approval and payments were caught up I was still getting "Call your mortgage lender now" notes literally taped to my front door. Creepy and irritating to say the least. It's almost as if they don't want to acknowledge you're receiving assistance and still move forward with the foreclosure process. Imagine that.... It also took them a while to "approve" the program. What they needed to approve, I have no idea, but at one point I yelled at their collections person and told her that they were the ones holding up the process and preventing them from receiving the money.

Don't forget Medicare is temporarily expanded in Ohio (bug your state congresscritter to make it permanent), so you will likely qualify for Medicaid. Unemployment put me over the limit before the expansion, but now I've reapplied and will likely be approved.

I spoke with the unemployment people last week and they said to make sure I keep filing claims so they can be paid without more delay if/when an extension is approved, so make sure you're wife keeps doing that.

Other than that, sucks to be us, but keep your head up.

[mimi85]

25. Welcome and

best to you. Some people are definitely not going to have a Happy New Year.

[NYC_SKP]

35. Welcome to DU!

There's always room for a good new member!

[DrewFlorida]

10. I'm sorry to hear that, best wishes at finding a solution/job.

I hope at the very least you have family or friends who can help you.

[onethatcares]

11. I heard that Wall Street is

splitting 90 Billion in bonuses this year.

and I think I just puked a bit in my mouth.

I truly hope you can make it through. Best wishes coming your way.

[kelliekat44]

12. So sorry for you. My family has been going through this for almost two years. Now the only

thing allowing them to hang on is being taken from them. I'll be broke also mid 2014 if things don't change. In the meantime, we are doing all we can to support one another to help others as we wait for the change that is bound to come. I just don't believe that the Dems will not try to change the unemployment situationl

[jtuck004]

14. We have all been getting screwed for decades - From Reagan firing air traffic controllers to Clinton

selling us out with NAFTA to Bush's financing of an illegal war and his complete and utter support for the criminals on Wall Street and the theft they perpetrated, and continue to perpetrate, on the American people and the world, to Obama and his support of TPP and the Heritage Foundation's Health Profits Plan for insurance companies...

they are just now getting around to making it more personal for a few new people. Welcome to the Party.

Even so, most people don't realize they are the victims of a war. They not only haven't started to fight, they are still carrying ammo for their enemies. We could start lining up empty boxcars on the outside of town to put people in, and people would stand in line to fill out applications for minimum wage jobs with the railroad...

[bluestate10]

15. Hang on. There a bipartisan bill to extend for three months that is gaining traction.

I hope that the three month extension happen and that republicans get holy hell and are forced to approve a long term extension.

[Tab]

16. Been there, done that, and it sucks.

Hoping for the best for you.

[reACTIONary]

17. Hoping for the best for you, and hoping the law gets extended quickly. (nt)

[RebelOne]

18. My neighbor is in the same predicament.

She has been unemployed for a couple of months and when her unemployment runs out in February, she is shit out of luck. She has been applying for jobs every where and can find nothing. Pretty soon, the Republicans are going to have us all begging on the streets.

[narnian60]

30. Same here. My precious, talented 36 yr. old daughter

has been out of work in NYC for 6 mos. & has interviewed so many times I've lost count. She has remained positive, but her unemployment runs out end of Dec. and obviously she is feeling very stressed.

[Iggo]

19. That fucking blows!!!

[Demo_Chris]

21. Hang on!

[SCVDem]

23. Join the club

I haven't had an income since November.

Good luck to us all!

[LisaLynne]

26. God damn assholes that let this happen.

They don't care -- it's like they don't even know there are REAL PEOPLE out here suffering. Or they do know and they don't care.

Either way, we have got to find a way to change things.

In the meantime, hoping for the best for you and your family. I know that doesn't count for much.

[woo me with science]

32. Correction: "God damned predators who MADE this happen."

The looting of a nation does not happen by accident.

bvar22: "These things do NOT happen by accident."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3199941

[freshwest]

27. Hell of a way to greet the new year. Some on the thread have given good advice. When it's extended,

and I believe it's a when and not an if, possibly you and your family can downsize even more but with kids you can only cut so many corners, give up only so much, and you sure don't want to move and cause them to lose their school, friends and any other benefits you may have right now.

My heart goes out to you, and the other millions, because that 1.3M figure is just like you, with a family counting on a way to see you through to another job. This is going to affect probably 4 or 6 million people, and the damn GOP calls for bootstraps. What boots do they expect folks to tie up, or do they just want people to polish theirs?

I highly suspect some local rethugs would love to have your whole family working for room and board and nothing else to have a food and a roof over your heads. That's their vision of freedom for the few.

Bernie Sanders as usual is caucusing with the Democrats and submitting a bill for at least a 3 month extension. The GOP will try to extort everything they can to get a concession. Your life and that of your family should be played with, this was never done before in our history like they've done since 2011.

Damn the 2010 voters for putting these hateful people in office, it does not have to be this way at all. Oh, I'm probably making you feel worse. I'll stop.

I'm sorry. Good wishes are all I say.

[blue14u]

28. This is so sad.

I'm sorry.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

29. Hopefully, Congress will reinstate it retroactively ...

... so that all who lost benefits will be made whole.

It all seems like Congressional Kabuki, until we realize there are people being harmed by the idiots on the hill.

Hang in there.

[lonestarnot]

33. They better those bastards!

[bigwillq]

31. I am so sorry this is happening to you.

It's very sad that our government allows this to happen. Shame on them all.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

34. interesting user name

what do you mean by underemployed? and I do feel for anyone who has been unemployed since April. That is actually more and more common with the structural unemployment due to fundamental changes to our economy.

it's too bad conservative pricks won't acknowledge that and only call people on unemployment "lazy".

[Yo_Mama]

36. I'm sorry

I know it's no damned help whatsoever, but you are not alone and you are not at fault.

[Liberal_in_LA]

37. kick

[BobUp]

40. Our do nothing

congress is living up to it's reputation of having the lowest approval rating in history.

There must not be any republican voters who are unemployed, if there were, they'd be calling their representatives and bitching at 'em.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

41. I know I have been one of the biggest "Debbi Downer's" on the board as of late...

But I know that you can and will make it! Just keep your head up and don't be to proud to reach out if you need help! If we all pull together we can survive this round of Tea Party approved hells!

[laserhaas]

43. Hang in there. Yours truly has gone from mountain on high to the sewers below

and knows that every smells better -

just one step up!