Thank You Mr. President!

[Sebass1271]

I know all of you are very upset at President Obama for giving in on the tax cuts, but I am particulary grateful he fought for me. I have been unemployed for a while now, my unemployment extension expired on December 4. I have been extremely worried thinking how i was going to eat or pay for my light bill. My UB is not a lot- I can't survive on it alone or make a "living" out of it as some right wingers like to say, but it is better than receiving nothing. I have been looking for work for a year and half now as a Secretary. I have accepted low end paying jobs to survive. Some of them paying only $12.00 an hour. HOwever those jobs have not lasted long because some managers and small business owners realized they can get rid of me and hire someone else for LESS money. I don't believe for one second the economy is as bad as people in the news say- I do believe greety small business owners, CEOs and managers are taking advantage of the situation by firing people to later hire workers for less pay.

I don't know when this will stop and who will have the guts to stop it, but what i do know is that it is very easy to put blame on the President. I personally think he gave to Republicans a little more than what he had probably wanted to- but I know he felt he had to do it to protect US- the unemployed.

Thank you Mr. President.

[aquart]

1. You got yours, screw everybody else.

Well, I got news for you. This bill guarantees that at the end of the piddling delay he bought you by destroying the economic future of the United States, you are going to be worse off than you ever imagined.

Enjoy your victory. It's a doozy.

[Sebass1271]

3. I don't see it as a victory. I see it as survival.

MOst of us are surviving. The middle class tax cut was fine. Most of us need that extra cash. I don't know why some of you just don't see this.

[bushisanidiot]

5. Because when you hate your enemy so much, your friends and family

bare the brunt of your anger.

[aquart]

30. You aren't getting any extra cash.

Anything you put in your right pocket is being removed from your left as everything you pay for goes up BECAUSE THIS NATION IS INSOLVENT. Our local governments are flat broke. Every tax, every fee, every fare is going up. PLUS whatever else you have to pay for.

I have no idea why you haven't figured that out. Looked at your health care bill lately? Paid for parking?

At the end of this UI extension, there won't be any jobs because our economic situation will be worse, not better.

[Sebass1271]

53. I actually don' t have healthcare. I don't have any bill to look for

I applied for medicaid but was turned away because they said i make too much money.
Yes, i am still trying to figure out where they are getting i make too much money from since i am unemployed.

[jtown1123]

64. i was looking into this for my husband. I believe unemployed do not qualify for medicaid (I think)

[TwilightGardener]

10. "Got yours"? This poster is surviving on unemployment. That's not a "victory" by any stretch.

Don't be bitter.

[aquart]

26. Not nearly as bitter as he will be.

When he joins the ranks of ignored 99ers. Because there isn't a prayer in hell of bringing investment into this nation under this insolvency plan.

[JNelson6563]

13. Yeah. Selfish bastard!

So the OP gets to eat and have a place to live for the foreseeable future. What a jerk for being grateful.

Julie

[JoePhilly]

24. He should die NOW, rather than DIE later. That your point?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

34. That's The OP's Modus Operandi

I am sure he or she is comfortable.

[LawnLover]

57. You know what? You have NO IDEA what the future will bring

I'm so sick of people predicting gloom and doom. I see it every decade with every new President. The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

And you have the audacity to come at the OP as if he/she is somehow being selfish for wanting to survive.

Gee, what a horrible, horrible thing to actually want to put food on our tables.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Sebass1271]

6. Take it as you please. But I do need food on the table.

I am sure its gratifying for you to type from behind a desk while a lot of us are scrapping for food.

[bushisanidiot]

4. I will second that!

Both of my college aged kids are now guaranteed health care and they are getting more money for school. And I know many people living paycheck to paycheck who are very thankful that their taxes won't be going up in January.

[jtown1123]

7. How are they guaranteed healthcare? I am a few years our of college

and none of my friends can afford healthcare. Nothing in the new bill will help us except for the adult child provision. A few fortunate ones will be on their parents insurance until 26 until they get kicked off...then they are screwed. Our future is incredibly bleak.

[Erose999]

52. Indeed it is. I am now mandated to buy health insurance I can't afford.

I live paycheck to paycheck and can't afford the insurance my employer offers. And every year they cut coverage AND raise the premium. And now that my state has a one-party-system of Republican goons it doesn't look like my health insurance will be getting any more accessible.

Thanks Obama! Thanks DNC! Thanks big Rx!!

[kentuck]

8. I feel sad that you see this as the only option...

How did you get your initial benefits? The Repubs always say they are against extending unemployment benefits, and sometime will let them expire for a while, but always have voted for them in the end. Why do you think it was so different this time around??

[Sebass1271]

11. What other options do you see for us on the horizon?

Republicans ARE TAKING OVER IN JANUARY.

[kentuck]

14. What happens then?

What does the President have that he can bargain with to continue UI benefits? They will do like they have always done. They will fight for them. Maybe?

[bushisanidiot]

27. Stand your ground! Cut the baby in half, King Solomon!

if the baby dies, so what? at least the other woman won't have the baby that isn't her's!

[msongs]

9. when Bush tax giveaway first passed DU thought it was awful but now it is GOOD lol nt

[Sebass1271]

12. I personally don't think its good, however, President Obama

knows the right wing tea partiers will be a headache come january. He worked with what he had.

[katnapped]

17. Terrific idea

Next time they'll know to double-down because they know he'll fold.

[nevergiveup]

15. Thanks for your post.

Most progressives understand your plight and your personal support of the president on this bill. There will always be a few snarky ones, as we already see here, but all in all we got your back. I wish you well and much good luck in the coming year.

[gristy]

16. Is this a case of you not understanding the cost of this to our economy and society?

Or a case of you getting some cake, so you're happy and you think this is a good thing overall too?

To tell you the truth, your statements are baffling.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

33. Cake

She's getting fucking crumbs. But that's the point... You can live on crumbs...You can't live on hollow rhetoric...

[outerSanctum]

18. You're right - one of the best Republican administrations we've ever had...

n/t

[mmonk]

19. The strategy of division works.

[KansasVoter]

20. He could have got both but didn't even try! -1

[madmom]

21. I know how you feel and can sympathize with you. My son was up watching the

vote last night. He called me, woke me up, he was actually crying with relief. He is laid off, his benefits ran out Dec 4 also. He has 3 young girls and a wife with a heart condition. We, his parents, live on a retirement pension so we can't help much. He said now he knows his kids will have a roof over their head and food to eat at least. OH, he is also a full time student.

[TCJ70]

22. I didn't think the extension in the bill applied...

...to people who have already lost their benefits. Maybe I was wrong?

[jtown1123]

63. It doesn't apply to 99ers.

[lukasahero]

23. I wish he had fought for you and not for me

And I wish folks here would understand that some of us are fighting for you at the expense of ourselves and if we're mad at Obama it's for not doing enough for YOU, not the folks who didn't need the tax cuts.

[Sebass1271]

54. I understand and I thank you for fighting for us. Since you are

in that position financially you might be in a position where you can voice your dissaponitment directly to him, not forgetting however that what he did was to also fight for the same grooup you are. That you wanted him to do it differently? I BET! Let him know! But don't divide us.

[lukasahero]

58. I have expressed my opinion to the WH - repeatedly -

but I have no connections more than you. I have also pledged to donate what I will save in taxes to local charities to help give people in need what our government will not.

[Better Believe It]

25. Minus this bi-partisanship love affair with Republicans you'd probably be collecting a paycheck now

You could have won extended benefits for two years and a lot more if Obama and Congress had fought for you instead of caving in to the demands of the rich for huge tax cuts.

And if President Obama had proposed and a Democratic Congress passed massive WPA style public works projects you'd probably be collecting a pay check instead of an unemployment check right now.

[Marr]

28. This is an incredibly depressing post.

Is this the level of hopelessness out there? People willing to accept the undermining of Social Security and massive cash giveaways to the wealthy, just so long as they can get a meal?

We have been severely screwed over here, and too many people, I fear, have come to accept it as unavoidable and natural.

[TwilightGardener]

31. Worrying about the wealthy's tax rate takes second place to worrying about

how you are going to feed your kids and keep the lights on, I guess. Some people are forced to be more worried about their own immediate circumstances than about gloom-doom predictions and what someone else is unfairly getting.

[Marr]

38. When the item being received (U.I.) could've been attained without

"compromises" in the form of tax giveaways to the wealthy, it's incredibly sad. The Republicans ave caved on this issue repeatedly in recent history, and would've done so again. Politicians using it as cover for promoting the conservative agenda is sickening, but seeing regular people accept it as a condition of having food on the table is just depressing.

[TwilightGardener]

46. Maybe, maybe not. Repubs would have waited until the next Congress,

would have tied the UE to undesirable cuts or other things we don't want, and would have forced Obama to sign shit he didn't want to sign because by this point people's benefits would have run out for 6 weeks or more. That would have been a desperate situation. Obama avoided that, got 13 months (and not 3 months, which is what the GOPers have in mind--and now they want it in the form of a loan).

[shraby]

36. I assume you're not worrying about where your next meal

is coming from.

[Marr]

45. If you give a shit about the working class, you would not support this.

Hiding behind the unemployed for this 'Jack and the Beanstalk' deal, where we get a one year extension on UI in exchange for a lifetime extension on rigging the economy against the working class, is a bit distasteful.

[NaturalHigh]

29. As I posted elsewhere, we would have been better off to extend unemployment benefits...

and let the tax cuts expire. Yes, I know that would have required political courage, something in short supply these days.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

37. The Votes Simply Were Not There To Do That

Last time UI was extended it passed with two Repub votes. In the new Congress we would need eight.

[NaturalHigh]

42. Like I said, it would have required political courage.

It's sad that we don't have a Congress whose priority is to do the right thing.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

44. Even If There Was The Will I Don't See The Way

The numbers were simply not there.

[Marr]

47. The president could've actually... I don't know... campaigned?

He could've gone to the hold-out's constituencies and told them flatly that their representative was blocking an extension to UI because they can't have tax cuts for the wealthy or your Social Security funds. He could've picked individual Republicans off one by one on an issue like this if he'd wanted to, but apparently he didn't want to.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

50. During The Fall He Campaigned Against Boehner

And the voters gave Boehner sixty four more Repub Congressmen. As long as the economy sucks the president will be in a weakened position and his ability to move votes or his agenda will be compromised;which is exactly what we got...

[jtown1123]

65. Once those unemp. benefits ran out, Repubs would be forced to vote for them

you don't think angry constituents would do the trick? I certainly do. There are many unemployed Republicans too.

[Pacifist Patriot]

39. That would have been a no-brainer to me.

The increased revenue could help pay for the cost of extended benefits. Seems simple enough to me, but I could be missing something.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

43. Please See Post Thirty Seven

.

[Pacifist Patriot]

49. I get the politics of the situation.

It's the economics of it that seem obvious to me.

[hfojvt]

32. ONLY $12 an hour?

Sure, the only way to help the unemployed is by passing a tax cut for the rich. Where have I heard that one before?

"Yes, I'm worried about the deficit. I'm worried about the deficit, but I'm more worried about the fellow looking for work. I'm worried about the deficit, but I'm more worried about the single mom who's worried about putting food on the table for her children, so she could find work. And that's where the focus of this administration is going to be." May 12, 2003

Thank you, Mr. President Bush.

[kentuck]

35. Maybe the Repubs will finally do what they have wanted to do for a long time?

Maybe they will repeal the law that created unemployment insurance. They never cared for it anyway? It was created when we had a Democratic Party willing to fight for it. I don't see that Party today.

[alcibiades_mystery]

40. Not ***ALL*** of us

;-)

[demwing]

41. Sorry, he didn't fight for you. You were the bone he got tossed

for caving on tax cuts for billionaires.

I know you need the support, and I'm glad you got it, but let us be honest - Obama does not "fight" for anything. He's an awful poker player who fold his hand if he doesn't have a straight flush.

You got lucky. The country did not.

I hope your holiday is good this year, and you find work soon.

Peace

[Scurrilous]

48. K & R

:thumbsup:

[MadHound]

51. Short term gain for the few,

In exchange for long term damage for the many.

Face the facts here, Obama failed on this one. He could have easily extended your UI benefits if he had wanted to simply by funding them out of surplus stimulus funds. He did not have to make them part of this "compromise". Instead, he could have taken that gun away from the 'Pugs and made it a straight up contest between tax cuts for the middle class vs. tax cuts for the rich.

He failed.

He used you and your UI benefits as hostages in this negotiation and as a result, while you have short term gain, we are all going to be in for long term pain. Not only with the our debt increase, but the costs of that debt will increase as costs of borrowing go up, and the dollar slides as the reserve currency of the world.

Furthermore, the focus is now going to be on cutting spending, and as indicated by the Catfood Commission, the focus of spending cuts is going to be on cutting SS, Medicare, the mortgage interest deductions and other programs designed to help the poor, elderly and the middle class. So while you will have your UI benefits for the next thirteen months, you will more than pay for them later as these programs are either curtailed or cut.

Don't thank Obama, for he failed. He held you and others like you as needless hostages, and he has taken steps that will doom the poor and middle class to increasingly hard and harsher lives.

He has failed, badly, and it is we, the poor and middle class who will be paying for that failure.

[Rex]

55. We should have NEVER let tax cuts and unemployment be on the

same table, if the Repukes have that much power over us (while being in the minority) then what is the point to winning elections? :eyes:

I'm glad for you, I was in your shoes 6 months ago.

[mstinamotorcity]

56. This is some raw dog bs!!!!

There is no reason for you to be ashamed of Thanking our President for assisting you in getting much needed benefits!!!
I don't know how long you have worked in your lifetime this far,but I am quite sure its been longer than you have been drawing benefits. I look at some of the comments to this OP and find some of them utterly repulsive. Having the nerve to strike an opposition with someone who's daily existence is now dependent on this source of income. I see some saying that you may end up like the 99ers. This I do not wish for you. I wish you success in finding employment. And there is a systematic attack going on to drive down wages in this country.

Everyone says we don't want a Tax cut for the top 2%. And the President made this very clear when he ran for office and while he has been in office. He can only bring into legislation what comes across his desk. If we had a majority Senate and House, why wasn't this addressed before now. They say they wanted to fight for it but nobody would throw the first punch. Then as soon as the President makes the DEAL, now there is outrage!!!!

Yes everyone wants Jobs. But you have big business sitting on trillions, and still outsourcing.And increasing their profits. And How many that are talking SHIT, are still COMMERCING with these people. Its easy to point fingers and place no value on human suffering, but its another thing to actually be the one suffering. I wish you and yours the best!!!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

62. Can Someone Please Explain To Me How You Can Live With No Money At All?

.

[GinaMaria]

59. This might help you make ends meet a little better

http://www.angelfoodministries.com/

I have not used them but I've seen this resource referenced on DU by others. Doesn't hurt to look into it. You get a lot of food for a little money. Wish there had been food stamps included instead of tax cuts. That would have helped everyone.

[BlueDemKev]

60. Short-Term Gain, But Long-Term Pain?

The main problem I have with keeping the Bush tax rates in place and increasing spending (however vital it may be) is that it will only increase the national debt which, down the road, will hurt each and every one of us who make under a six-figure income.

While I am happy that you will be able to get some extended relief right now, chances are you will be paying for this ten-fold in the years ahead.

By making this deal with Obama, the Republicans proved--once again--that they are NOT the party of "fiscal responsibility" (i.e.--balanced budgets), they are the party of "tax cuts." They know that openly cutting spending is political suicide so they systematically "starve the beast"--denying the federal treasury needed revenues to fund vital programs like unemployment comp., Social Security, & Medicare. Eventually, when the deficit can be ignored no longer and the day of reckoning arrives, they'll be able to say, "Gosh guys, we're really sorry but we just can't afford to fund these wonderful programs anymore. If only the Democrats hadn't been so big on spending over the years and the gov't had 'lived within its means', this wouldn't have been necessary. It's the liberals' fault, not ours."

This long-term scheme started 30 years ago when Reagan was elected and the top tax rate of 70% was slashed all the way down to 28%. Although Bush, Sr. and Clinton (combined) increased the top rate to 39.6% in the early '90s, which bolstered gov't revenue considerably (esp. with the booming economy during the '90s), revenue was dramatically cut back again when Bush defeated(?) Gore in 2000, and the Republicans controlled both ends of Pennsylvania Ave. for the first time in nearly 50 years...."Trickle Down II" started with the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and the end of the dot-com boom. That's how we got to where we are now.

With this tax cut deal now approved, we will sadly continue down this same path which ultimately will send virtually all vital domestic gov't programs into oblivion.

[True_Blue]

61. It does nothing to help the 99ers

You would think they could have at least thrown them in the deal in exchange for stealing their SS.

I'm unemployed too, but I was hoping & praying that this bill wouldn't pass.