Extra Unemployment Benefits Lose in Senate

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&ncid=703&e=5&u=/ap/20040227/ap_on_go_co/unemployment_benefits

WASHINGTON - A Senate measure to extend federal unemployment benefits failed by two votes Thursday despite the election year support of 12 Republicans from states hit hard by layoffs.


Democrats tried to attach the amendment to a gun liability bill, but it failed 58-39 in the GOP-controlled Senate. The margin was two votes shy of the 60 needed to overcome a procedural objection.


The measure would have extended the emergency benefits program for six months, providing 13 weeks of extra unemployment benefits to people who exhaust their state benefits — usually after 26 weeks.


The unemployment rate dropped to 5.8 percent last month from a high of 6.4 percent last summer, but the economy still is not producing many new jobs. In fact, more than 2,400 U.S. employers reported laying off 50 or more workers in January, according to the Labor Department (news - web sites). It was the third-highest level since the government started tracking mass layoffs a decade ago.

more

[cryofan]

1. All the other western nations have MUCH longer unemployment periods

Heck, even Canada, which is not nearly as generous a welfare state as most in the EU, have a setup where the average able-bodied white male draws about 2 years of unemployment in a typical period.

How do they do it? THEY TAX THE RICH using a PROGRESSIVE TAX SYSTEM.

[kalian]

2. I think the dems screwed up....

by trying to "attach" the extended unemployment "bennies" to a gun
liability bill... :eyes:
Just to lame really. Instead of just saying that Americans NEED
the additional support, especially when jobs continue to bleed
overseas...no, they try to couple it with lame ass gun legislation.

[NNN0LHI]

4. Due to the fact that the Dem's hold neither houses of Congress they...

...do not set the schedule for what bills are brought forward to be voted on any given day. Adding an amendment to an existing bill is they're only hope for right now.

Don

[stevedeshazer]

5. Yeah, you're right.

That's how it works. Dammit. :-(

[ikojo]

23. That's odd..when the pugs were a minority party

they had no problem getting their issues heard and playing bully. You know one word one rarely hears from a pug is "bi-partisan." They could care less about appearing or even working to be "bi-partisan." IMHO, "bi-partisan" equals Democrats bending over and doing the will of their corporate masters and the Republicans.

Appeasing bullies gets us nowhere. Dems need to stand for something.

[NNN0LHI]

24. When was the last time the Democrats held both houses of Congress...

...and the White House at the same time?

Don

[ikojo]

25. I believe that was 1993 when Clinton first became

president. It was also the year he and Al Gore worked so hard to push for NAFTA and the Don't Ask Don't Tell provision that has gotten many gays and lesbians dishonorably discharged from the military.

[NewJerseyDem]

22. What else are they going to do?

They can't bring the bill up on their own because of congressional rules so they have to try to tack it onto other unrelated bills. It is really the only option.

[stevedeshazer]

3. Unbelievable.

7.7% in my state. Guess I'll have to consider a move to India. I hear they have jobs there.

And my Democrats try to tie it to a gun liabililty bill. Yeah, that's a real winner in an election year of full-time fear. :eyes:

Thanks, Zell Fucking Miller. Glad you have a job lined up. I don't.

:grr:

[SmokeyBlues]

6. And there you have it!

Nickles said jobless workers have more incentive to find a job when the extra unemployment benefits stop. "The more you pay people not to work, the less inclined they are to work," he said.

It's a pity that as a nation we have evolved to the point where we no longer appreciate the attitude-adjusting benefit of pillories.

[mbperrin]

13. Gee, I wonder if Nickles would get extra incentive

if we quit paying him?

[SmokeyBlues]

17. One size fits all laziness

In the past, I only thought this line of reasoning was used for all those lazy shiftless folks collecting public assistance. Looks like I've been mistaken all this time.

I also wonder how all those people who can be counted on to shout down public assistance now feel knowing that in the eyes of many conservatives (their friends and allies in the struggle) they too carry the lazy and shiftless gene.

However, there is a positive side to what happened yesterday, and that is can you imagine how much more awful things would be if we didn't have compassionate conservatives running the country?

[goobergunch]

7. Where were Kerry and Edwards?

Their votes would have put this over the top.

:grr: :argh: :mad:

[NNN0LHI]

8. You tell us. You seem to be the one concerned. Where were they? n/t

[goobergunch]

10. It's a rhetorical question

They were campaigning and not doing the jobs which they were elected to do.

[dusty64]

14. I'm concerned too.

I've heard before their failure to do their jobs didn't matter cause the bills would have passed or failed anyway. Well this time it really DID matter.

[NNN0LHI]

16. Actually it made no difference whether they voted or not because...

...the only reason this amendment appeared to have a close outcome was due to 12 Republicans voted with the Dem's. Whether Kerry and Edwards were there to vote or not there still would have been enough Republicans to vote it down. If it were necessary to get two Republicans to change their vote Frist would have found no problem getting a couple of Republican volunteers to vote against it. The vote was only close because the Republicans wanted it to be. They control both houses of Congress.

Don

[goobergunch]

18. How do you know?

It's really impossible to say.

[NNN0LHI]

19. I am psychic n/t

[Pastiche423]

9. My guess is...

Edwards was probably patting the heads of more disabled people. And Kerry was probably getting another injection. I do believe I saw his right eyebrow move yesterday.

You couldn't possibly think they might actually be doing the job the American people are paying them to do, could you?

[SoCalDem]

11. Who was not there to vote??

:(

[NewJerseyDem]

21. Kerry, Edwards, Campbell

Kerry and Edwards were campaigning and Campbell was in the hospital. Campbell might have even voted for it because he is still a labor ally. But, they can just have another vote on this on another bill. It isn't like it will get passed the house anyway because the democrats' discharge petition only has only 200 signatures and hasn't gotten a new signature in months. Plus, no republicans will sign the petition for fear of revenge from Tom DeLay.

Discharge petition signatories in the House:
http://clerk.house.gov/108/lrc/pd/petitions/Dis4.htm

[teryang]

12. American establishment to unemployed:

Join the homeless and uninsured, then drop dead.

[Mari333]

15. People are getting by? How??

Dumping their health insurance they could once afford, which drives up costs in general, driving without car insurance (in Michigan its mandatory), which results in higher arrests and higher costs, in credit debt up to their eyeballs with 21% interest on their credit cards (which are handed out like candy ), selling their furniture (my mom did to afford medication), filing for bankruptcy, working 2-3 jobs at 5 bucks an hour, picking up bottles and cans to get food monies , burning wood (where I live) to keep warm...we had a rash of HOUSE fires here, some people died this winter, and Wal Mart reaps the profits of cheap slave labour goods..
what a set up for corporation short term profits ..and where is the consumer base? Not in the US...people cant afford to have their teeth fixed, their medication, their kids vaccinated, the food they eat is cheap crap and they are literally starving (obesity in the poor is a poor diet, i.e. a form of starvation), and people are dropping dead or sick
add to that the drug dealers will grow larger, as they do around here, because it makes MONEY...a lot of money...
what the Bu$h policies have done is create MORE despair and MORE criminal behaviour out of desperation..
and children will be the victims of the ever increasing domestic violence as parents try to cope with the stress of just getting by, barely..
thanks to:
blackhearted CEOs and prostitute Politicians.

[toopers]

20. How are the drug dealers getting rich,

if no one has money to buy their goods?

[SOS]

26. The Congress can find

a quarter trillion dollars to bomb Iraq, but not a penny to extend unemployment?

My wife lost her job in 2003. Her benefits have run out.
We can no longer afford our medical insurance. We lose that in March. This month we took out retirement money to pay basic expenses. Personally I don't care about the politicians excuses (rider on a bad bill, travel, blah blah blah).

And in other news...111 new billionaires were minted in 2003.
The new American feudalism is no fun for us peasants.