Unemployed and Unnoticed

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.afscmeblog.org/2010/11/30/unemployed-and-unnoticed/?__utma=1.1847225545.1261531521.1276731138.1289957884.87&__utmb=1.1.10.1291254321&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1275745986.79.4.utmcsr=google|utmccn=%28organic%29|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=AFSCME%20member%20deaths%20on%209-11&__utmv=-&__utmk=58596778

November 30th, 2010

From Think Progress:

Today, Congress sets a new record; in the last 40 years, it has never allowed extended unemployment benefits to expire when the unemployment rate was above 7.2 percent. But today, in an economy that faces a 9.6 percent unemployment rate, Congress will let the benefits expire and force 2.5 million Americans to lose their benefits in the midst of the holiday season. As the New York Times notes, such a “lack of regard for working Americans is shocking,” especially when juxtaposed with decades of bipartisan support for similar measures. But, in their pitch to obstruct any legislative progress, the Republicans of the 111th Congress have waged a two-year, all-out war against extending benefits, regardless of who it may hurt. The GOP’s chief defense of its position is the $12.5 billion cost of a three-month extension, or $60 billion for a full year. Such feigned concern for the deficit is made all the more deceptive when considering the same Republicans are simultaneously demanding that Congress extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. And, while these tax cuts for the rich provide very little economic stimulus, the unemployment benefits they obstruct have provided a vital economic boost to struggling families and businesses. By prioritizing the pocketbooks of the privileged over the needs of the American worker, Republicans are turning their back on their two alleged priorities: the American people and the economy….

This Republican rebuke of the 2.5 million Americans who will lose their benefits is particularly remarkable when juxtaposed with the GOP’s clarion call to extend all the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans without an offset. An extension of tax cuts for the wealthy would set the deficit back $830 billion over the next ten years. However, in the same breath, Republicans like Sen. Mark Kirk (IL) call for a tax cut extension “no matter what” while deeming an unpaid-for unemployment extension “misguided.” Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) even refused to support a compromise that would extend both the cuts and unemployment, characterizing the tax cuts expiration as “a massive tax increase” while dismissing unemployment benefits as “massive spending.” As the New York Times points out, benefits, unlike the tax cuts, do not “bust the budget” — they do not add to the long-term deficit because spending is temporary and, because of the notable bang for each buck, “they contribute powerfully to the economic growth that is vital for a healthy budget.” But Republicans play by their own brand of logic in which a $830 billion chunk in the deficit to finance tax cuts for the wealthy is permissible, but $12.5 billion to help millions of struggling Americans is sacrilege.

Read more from Think Progress. And contact Congress now!

[thunder rising]

1. For me, neither the homeless nor the unemployed are ever forgotten. Any of us can join them

Those of us that are neither may think of ourselves as "those temporarily employed and housed"