Marie Cocco: The Unemployed Will Roar

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



The Unemployed Will Roar

Posted on Jul 8, 2009
By Marie Cocco


When a virulent disease is ravaging you like a cancer, you don’t want a cacophony of voices promoting different or contradictory cures. Yet that is what we’re starting to hear about the economic crisis, not only from a politically divided—and pretty scared—capital, but from within the Obama administration itself.

In just the past few days, Vice President Joe Biden has said the young administration misread the depth of the recession—an honest account, since most private economists did as well. Laura Tyson, an outside economic adviser to the White House, said it’s wise to start preparing another stimulus package.

Then President Barack Obama made everything perfectly muddy when he said in an ABC News interview that the seriousness of the downturn and how to attack it is “something we wrestle with constantly.” Yet in the next breath, he expressed concern about the burgeoning deficit.

But if anyone’s looking for some clear voices, there are 650,000 of them just waiting to be heard. That is roughly the number of long-term unemployed who will begin losing their jobless benefits in September, according to the National Employment Law Project.

Remember, the recession didn’t start last fall when the government bailed out AIG and the financial system froze. It began in December 2007—and 6.5 million jobs have been lost since then. Depending on which state and the sort of triggers that apply to benefits, hundreds of thousands of workers laid off early in the downturn are soon to be left without the basic sustenance of an unemployment check.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department says, the number of unemployed people out of work for 27 weeks or longer continues to grow, reaching 4.4 million last month. In June, three out of 10 jobless workers had been out of work for at least six months, according to the department’s data. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090708_the_unemployed_will_roar/

[customerserviceguy]

1. I'm sure there will be a Federal extension of unemployment benefits

even Chimpy did that back in 2002.

One thing they could do is go a little further with a concept that the stimulus bill started, and that is to stop taxing unemployment benefits. If the millions of people out there having ten percent of their checks withheld to cover taxes could stop having that done, it would be an immediate shot in the arm for the economy for the people who are most likely to spend it.

[OHdem10]

3. Unemployment checks only last so long.

Think of all the people with no job and unemployment has run out.

She is referring to the fact, that the lay offs will continue
until at least 20ll.

[KillCapitalism]

2. They won't even whimper.

The unemployed really should be staging massive job marches in Washington DC demanding work.

[Extend a Hand]

4. where will we get the money

for the trip and what shall we do with the kids?

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Beg, borrow or steal - and take the kids with you. nt