Should jobless benefits be extended?

I find the title to this story misleading….why doesn’t the author call congress on the carpet for not doing what they put into law!!! If congress wants to spend money for jobless benefits then identify where they are going cut to cover those expenditures.

• Link
• Report this comment

Enough with the unemployment benefits. Stop giving handouts to these lazy fools and maybe they’ll get off their arsses and find work.

• Link
• Report this comment

Where Oscar, tell me and I’ll go…..have not worked since Dec and don’t get unemployment anyway……tell me where to find a job. 60 years old and worked for 40 years, where do I go, tell me Oscar, I’m there……you are an idiot. Let me know where to go. I’ll go RIGHT NOW

• Link
• Report this comment

Well ?

• Link
• Report this comment

That’s what I thought…….

• Link
• Report this comment

Why not celebrate the fact a vote was taken and our taxes didn’t go up again.
When will they vote to extend the Bush tax cuts. That is a stimulus we need and more tax cuts. My largest expense each year is taxes.

• Link
• Report this comment

So, Bob, how long do you think the government should pay unemployment benefits? Forever? What’s a reasonable limit?

• Link
• Report this comment

How in the world did the out numbered Repubs defeat this bill? Something is wrong with your headline.

• Link
• Report this comment

and its true 40below zero keeps out the riff raff

• Link
• Report this comment

Oh, and Bob, sorry to say this to you, but you are the racist. You asked where to go for a job and said “I am there.” Derek gave you a response, and all of a sudden you jump to the conclusion that he is an uneducated racist. Bob, take a moment and look up racism in the dictionary. I am sure you will find that you qualify.

• Link
• Report this comment

So jobless benefits are going to run out for SOME. How long have these “some” been on unemployment? If it’s been more than a year, I say ok, let it run out. I hear conversations every week about someone who is on unemployment and the consensus is they might as well wait until the benefits run out before even looking.

• Link
• Report this comment

Yes, they do, Bob. The fact of the matter is, they just don’t care, and trying to reason with them is a waste of time and energy. Like the song “That’s the Way it Is”: ‘Some things will never change”.

Toby, my guess is that Henry labeled this article as a Republican defeat is due to their ongoing filibuster of the bill. However, both parties share the blame as neither was willing to employ reconciliation to get it passed.

Since the news broke last night that the bill has been defeated, over 12,000 have commented on Huffingtonpost.com:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

• Link
• Report this comment

Slanted reporting for several reasons, as some have already mentioned:
1) I only read a single, one line quote from a Republican; Democrats are quoted extensively (but without reference to substance of debate, just dogging Republicans)
2) Note mentioned is the fact that Republicans have offered to support the extension (not the first) if Democrats will merely fund it by reducing spending elsewhere (which Democrats have said they would do but now won’t)
3) The article mis-states national debt as 13 “billion” when it is of course 13 TRILLION.
Obama recently spent approximately a million of our tax dollars jetting to Ohio for a ten minute speech. His reckless shutdown of new Gulf Coast drilling is about to send tens of thousands of more workers to the unemployment roles. His various stimulus bills were all supposed to reduce unemployment and put the economy right, but all have failed and we are left with the enormous increase in the deficit. Future tax increases will further hurt the economy and workers looking for jobs.

• Link
• Report this comment

The author of this article says that the national debt is 13 billion dollars. He obviously doesn’t give a damn about the national debt. He couldn’t care less. The national debt means nothing to him. In no way could anybody that cares about the national debt, which is 13 TRILLION, allow for such a mistake.

• Link
• Report this comment

My husband has never been unemployed until now. We are a family that pays our debt and taxes & has never asked for any hand out. My husband has been looking “hard” for a job 8months–my salary doesn’t cut it and I worry over pay cuts and loss where I work now–people need help & there are so many unemployed. Big companies get bail outs so why aren’t they putting people back to work. All any of us are asking for is a job–we don’t want to be unemployed but I & may others have paid & paid and now that we need it–its not going to be there? Who is Congress reps us?? We know you take care of special interest grps and Big business who has you in their pockets—it seems like there are only going to be rich & poor–isn’t that how the French Revolution got started?

• Link
• Report this comment

What side am I on … the side to help hardworking Americans get through this terrible time!

I’m sick of reading folks talking about others who have been hit hard with job losses and calling them lazy or inept, that’s all about Republicans thinking they are the only ones who work hard!

Hardworking Americans didn’t cause this debt and hardworking Americans who have lost their jobs should be allowed to get extended benefits. It’s a disgrace that we go to Iraq in an occupation and NOBODY says crap about money being spent unjustly!

All of a sudden this ‘high and mighty republicans’ are concerned about our debt?????? What a bunch of hippocrits! So what’s new, it’s always been this way. I’m sick of it and I’m mad that this bill was not passed.

If anyone thinks that millions of Americans are sitting on their behinds and doing nothing to collect a measly $250 … your all whacko! NOBODY can live on that and it’s far from the truth.

• Link
• Report this comment

What can they be thinking?! Georgia’s unemployment rate has not gone down. The recession is still on. Congress has done nothing to encourage job creation. Congress funds so many things that benefit the wealthy, but wants to stint on benefits for the jobless poor. Unconscionable!

• Link
• Report this comment

“Hippocrits.” With an idiot that can’t even come close to spelling the word, how can any other word that he says mean anything at all? That’s the stupid kind of dolt that passes for a liberal Democrat writing to the AJC these days. The lust of greed from somebody that types “hippocrit”! Where does on see a “hippocrit?” At the Atlanta Zoo? This fool went to public schools! What a stercoraceous bed wetter!. The twerp must be a closet omphalopsychite as well! “blackprix” is the epitome of the ignorance that has elected Obama.

• Link
• Report this comment

The republicans only wanted to fund the cost of an other extension of jobless benefits. Surely in the trillions of dollars that the democrats are spending they could find hte money if they wanted to. They would rather borrow another hundred million from the Chinese.
Notice how little work is going on to actually encourage the private sector to grow again and create jobs. That’s where jobs come from…not from jobless benefits. It seems Obama and the Democrats either have no clue of where jobs come from or just don’t want to work on it.

• Link
• Report this comment

To Bob, can you apply for SS benefits since you mentioned that you were in your 60’s? I’m going out on a limb here but why can’t the government revoke all those H1-B visas and let American-born workers have those high paying IT/computer jobs back? Also, if we make it impossible for businesses to hire illegals (which number in the 12 to 20 million) then American-born workers can “do the jobs Americans won’t do”. We should come first when jobs are scarce in America or am I just being a racist?

• Link
• Report this comment

Remember that this bill was about much more than just the extended jobless benefits. Here are the bullet point details from the Associated Press:

TAXES
–Extends for one year about $32 billion in tax breaks that expired in January, including a property tax deduction for people who don’t itemize, lucrative credits that help businesses finance research and develop new products, and a sales tax deduction that mainly helps people in states without income taxes.
–Increases taxes on investment and hedge fund managers, venture capitalists and many real estate investment partnerships by $13.6 billion.
–Increases taxes on oil companies by $18.3 billion by raising from 8 cents a barrel to 49 cents a barrel the tax they pay into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.
–Raises taxes on multinational companies some $14.5 billion by limiting their ability to use credits for paying foreign taxes to lower their U.S. tax liability.
–Raises $9.2 billion by requiring lawyers, doctors and other service providers to pay payroll taxes on income funneled through their businesses.
SPENDING
–$35.5 billion to continue unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless through November. In a majority of states, the unemployed could have received benefits for up to 99 weeks.
–$16 billion for states to help cover Medicaid costs and avoid layoffs of public employees.
–$6.5 billion to provide a six-month reprieve from a scheduled 21 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors.
–$4.6 billion to settle long-running class-action lawsuits brought by black farmers and American Indians. One lawsuit concerned the government’s management and accounting of more than 300,000 trust accounts of American Indians. The other is a discrimination lawsuit brought by black farmers against the Agriculture Department.
–$4 billion to expand the Build America Bonds program, which subsidizes interest costs paid by local governments when they borrow for construction projects.
–$1.5 billion in relief for farmers who suffered crop damage from natural disasters in 2009.
–$1 billion for summer jobs programs, for workers ages 16 to 21.
SPENDING CUTS
–$10.4 billion cut from last year’s economic stimulus bill, mostly from reducing food stamp benefits starting in June, 2014. A family of four would have faced about a $45-per-month benefit cut.
–$1.2 billion from changes to a tax credit earned by the working poor.
–$2.1 billion from lower Medicaid payments for certain drugs.

• Link
• Report this comment

I was employed by a company for 20 years. Our company closed in 2009 and I started unemployment. My house is almost paid for and I have a 15 yr old car. I have a child in college who gets no assistance except for HOPE. I have been looking for work since I got layed off. I have never lived above my means and never got anything from this government for free. I have paid taxes my whole life. The $330.00 I get each week pays all of my bills with a few dollars left over. I am very dependant on my unemployement and never thought in a million years this would happen to me. When my friends told me to apply for assistance ( foodstamps why not I worked for them) I was told my unemployment income was too high, I was told to reapply if my unemployment ended. Well, not only will I be without groceries but without a home, car insurance etc.. For those of you who still have a job and look down on others you better hope this never happens to you and you never have to depend on our government dems or republicans to make a decision about you getting a check every week when it is your lifeline. You have no clue, you never know when you could be in this situation so watch what you say..

• Link
• Report this comment

It should not be passed. Do we pay these benefits indefinitely? And just continue to grow the national debt? No. No. No. Obama and the dems aren’t listening to the American people which is why they are on they way OUT!

• Link
• Report this comment

If the Democrats had not been on a spending spree, the likes of which we’ve never seen before, maybe we could afford to pay additional unemployment benefits.

• Link
• Report this comment

Republicans are only saying that if you want to extend jobless benefits, make other cuts to pay for them — as the new Obama-backed law requires. But obviously there comes a point when the gov’t cannot continue to fund unemployment benefits, no matter how it impacts people. I ask again: What’s a reasonable limit?

• Link
• Report this comment

You can call me what you want … it doesn’t change the fact that this state and the people in it are suffering with loss of jobs and are concerned for their lives.

If that makes me an idiot YOU HAVE TO BE A MORON!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

To Derek:

You and Oscar can go smoke some meth at the trailer park. Maybe that will clear your heads from all of the nonsense you are putting out there.

• Link
• Report this comment

No. This is what you get when you vote in inexperienced, incompetent fools to run the country. So enjoy that change you idiots believed in.

• Link
• Report this comment

To Derek:

If you had an education you would not have had to work two jobs for the past 12 years. See where a GED will get you? Two jobs in 12 years.

Don’t be so insensitive because it might happen to you.

• Link
• Report this comment

I am 58 and was terminated April of last year.I have been in the job force since the age of 16.Do I want a handout? No.I just want a little bit of what I have paid for.I have always voted Republican but will reconsider the next time I go to the ballot box.

I think this is a way for God to humble those of us who took life,and a steady income,for granted.

• Link
• Report this comment

Greedy republicans are trying to keep the unemployed, especially minorities from getting more benefits. Obama needs to keep these benefits coming for another year—it’s hard to find a good job.

• Link
• Report this comment

Folks are upset. I wouldn’t be. I don’t doubt they will come up with some kind of new emergency bill. In addition the AJC, may want to list alternative things people can do other than finding a “job”. Things they can do on their own. Look at the bright side here. We could become independent human beings.

• Link
• Report this comment

Thank you Nick for pointing out that the bill does more than extend unemployment benefits, it gives tax breaks to businesses to help them hire the unemployed and extends tax breaks for research and development.
I recently got laid off from a job that i had been at for 15 years. Thankfully, my wife is still working and we are not in debt. And we have some savings and i recently got my bachelors degree from college.The problem is there is 6 workers that have qualifications for every one job in this country. And its worse if you live in a small town like i do.
The bill needs to be passed. The republicans arent going to agree to anything, the democrats cut 15 billion out of it and the repulbicans still wont pass it. The republicans dont give a damn about the debt that they ran up ( 11.8 trillion in the last 30 years) , all they want to do is say no and that is all they do is say no, even if they agree with the bill, they will still vote no.

• Link
• Report this comment

Blah, blah, Bush Bush Bush…..get over it, the Dems have controlled the purse strings since January 07.

• Link
• Report this comment

That should read $13,000,000,000,000.00, not $13,000,000,000.00. It’s hard to even type that number!

• Link
• Report this comment

When the extended benefits are exhausted each week and thousands of Georgians are without any funds, the Georgia economy ceases to benefit from the $7 of economic boost per $1 spent. The social services budgets will continue to rise and more unemployed need help with food and shelter. Then there’s lower sales tax revenue from the stagnated economy.

Way to go GOP! Once a Reagan Republican, you continue to push me farther away from your ballots and candidates.

• Link
• Report this comment

unfortunately there will always be a percentage of people who because of bad decisions while growing up, will never be able to take care of themselves. To them I say, this country is strong enough to provide some sort of meager assistance although it urkes me because I have made good decisions and pay for their aid. Personally I think we give too much money to foreign nations anyway.

And then are people who will accept aid from the government because its “free money”, get off your arzz and make something of yourself and stop living on public assistance. It is meant as a temporary aid.

Social security will never go away despite the fact it was meant as a temporary program and jobless benifits will keep getting extended as long as there are slackers and the democrats pandering for votes.

• Link
• Report this comment

In other news, some 28 millions dollars from the first time home buyer tax credit was reported as being spent fraudently !!!

• Link
• Report this comment

all of you guys sure do love to write, well, get paid to do it, I DO I made it easy for you to find it

• Link
• Report this comment

Is it just me, but does it annoy you that the only people against the extension and worried about the debt are people who still have jobs? We spend billions to fight a war and defend people in other countries, but how quickly we snub our fellow Americans. As for people who think I’m a lazy, uneducated, drug-abusing fool, I’ve got a few degrees and a stack of rejection letters to prove different. Here’s what’s depressing — I went to college, got a good job, worked hard for 15 years, busted my butt to get into a management position before I had my daughter, etc. Now my degree in print journalism isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, so I’ve got to change careers and start over, yet no one will give me the chance. I’ve even been PAYING for a sitter to go and volunteer to get some new job skills. If you want to be enlightened, go spend some time at the unemployment office and talk to the people standing in line. When you meet the folks with master’s degrees, the older folks who were let go just months before they retired, the single parents who consider letting their benefits lapse so they can qualify for stamps and housing, maybe you’ll be more sympathetic. Do I care about the debt. Yes. But not as much as I care about not getting evicted or getting my baby girl a new pair of shoes. Do you think I’d prefer a few hundred dollars a week over a few thousand a month, you’re crazy.

• Link
• Report this comment

It’s not lobbing money for the state to create jobs. Never is. Currently many contracts go to private companies. Instead. They should hire their own workers. It really is not throwing money away. Those people pay taxes. They need to cut permanent welfare roles. See the problem here is throwing money away on people who do absolutely nothing. In the name of being fair. Tell me what is fair about giving money to people who do absolutely nothing. Mind you I am not talking about unemployment.

If you took that money and gave it to essential services. Public Safety. City and State services. You would have people that pay taxes and actually do something. It baffles me why you would want to throw away money to people who don’t work. You can bring up the defense budget. How does that balance or detract from people that do nothing all day but sit around and watch game shows?

• Link
• Report this comment

I’m glad to report that I’ve emailed both our senators and my congressman (because he’s a republican too) and called them SOB’s for their shortcomings.

• Link
• Report this comment

atlshirt.com/job

June 25th, 2010
8:17 am
In other news, some 28 millions dollars from the first time home buyer tax credit was reported as being spent fraudently !!!

Ahhhhhh….more Government at it’s finest!

• Link
• Report this comment

Neshnev

June 25th, 2010
8:37 am
I’m glad to report that I’ve emailed both our senators and my congressman (because he’s a republican too) and called them SOB’s for their shortcomings.

Sure hope you sent Obama, Reid, and Pelosi the same “SOB” letter for their huge spending spree!

• Link
• Report this comment

Can’t you see a real major problem here is welfare. For some reason in a really bad situation. It’s not out there for cuts. I say get rid of a lot of it. Create all kinds of jobs for people who want to work. It’s a real way to get money back into the system. They actually produce something. We need new jails. Guards. Police officers. City workers. Road crews. State workers. State public safety. We can build transit systems. Public water and sewage all over the state. People pay for these services. Public electricity. That would lower our bills. We could build our own gas system. Heck we could even have our own airline and electric car plant. Georgia cars. We have an entire plant sitting vacant in Doraville. Why is the State limited in such things? Why do we have to do things like everyone else? We are a state, independent. Not the Federal government. I say cut out welfare use the money for other purposes.

• Link
• Report this comment

Unemployment benefits aren’t being cut. They just aren’t being extended any further than they have already been extended. The reality is that they can’t go on forever.

I would have been in favor of extending them in order to help both the economy and those looking for work vs. paying for this healthcare debacle, but the current administration and congress do not have their priorities straight.

• Link
• Report this comment

Those people are lazy and should not get free money.

• Link
• Report this comment

Great points pookfester! They should do it!

• Link
• Report this comment

The reason we are in debt is because of a money,oil driven war started by the White man…Then once the economy takes a dip and millions lose jobs, they want to cut off the Unemployment benefits…Wow..
almost an all time low

this ranks up here with the worst that the white man has done

1.katrina ( opening the levys, then not helping them, then calling them REFUGEES)
2.Iraq ( Lying about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, just as an excuse to get over there, i thouight the people who did 911 were from Saudia Arabia right? WHY ARE WE IN IRAQ) and we will be there forever…
3.Vietnam(the white man lied and said that a ship owned by the Us was blown up by Vietnam( IT NEVER HAPPEND) to start that war.Then off course they used blacks as shooting dummies…
4.Slavery
5. Stealing the election for George W Bush
6. Not extending the benefits for thousands out of work, red necks remember all these people HAD JOBS, they didnt get fired, they got laid off…

• Link
• Report this comment

Oscar, Derek and Bubba are idiots who should be laid off and see how much they will hesitate to collect the government check then. I bet they would be the first ones in the line.

Good luck to you Bob.

• Link
• Report this comment

Our government is to busy supporting those who do not work and depend on government to support them.They collect food stamps, medicaid, housing assistance and whatever else they can get for free. In the meantime they buy lottery tickets, nice cars and steak and shrimp with the welfare checks. Someone told me the other day that she knew a lady who got $600.00 a month in foodstamps with a bunch of kids and she sold her stamps for cash. Yet, we get our unemployment cut and cannot qualify for welfare. We are shot down because we worked for a better life, THAT is what is wrong with our screwed up country…

• Link
• Report this comment

If people could find a job they would work. Put yourself in their shoes. What if you couldnt find a job? Would you need help? Walk a mile in their shoes. If they can’t find a job, they need help. I’d rather help them than the fat cat bankers who got us in this mess with their real estate shenanigans.

• Link
• Report this comment

For all of you who support the Senate not passing the “extended unemployment benefits” to help the umemployed and for those who continue to talk about not wanting to the increase the US deficit and for those who say it the lazy who can’t find a job and for those who are blaming President Obama and the democrats and who are placing NO blame on Bush and his administration and the Republicans today, please let me educate you, if possible. It was Bush and Chaney that passed the bill to “bail out” big business. It was Bush who passed TARP. It was Reagan’s “Trickle Down Economics” that actually started this country on its downward economic spiral and the rapid GROWTH OF BIG BUSINESS! You want to blame Obama for this mess and he has been in office for only TWO years! The mess we are in started over 12 years ago when companies closed in America and went overseas. It started when you voted for and supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which cost the US $4 Billion dollars a week! Wars we have been in for 10 years with no end in sight!

• Link
• Report this comment

To Be scared,…………..ha ha ha……..I make over 100000 a year….you???

• Link
• Report this comment

Yawn. I don’t mind extended benefits for people that paid in at an almost 40% tax rate. Heres to you.

• Link
• Report this comment

Stop Complaining, and finger pointing, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT !!!

• Link
• Report this comment

Derek, I make over 150000 a yr, but that doesn’t give me the right to demean other people. You might be in your little comfort zone today, just remember, what goes around comes around you idiot.

• Link
• Report this comment

I’d like to know how many nasty phone calls and e-mails our senators are getting today?

• Link
• Report this comment

When will Whites Change

June 25th, 2010
9:13 am
I keep hearing people say “Get off your lazy ass and get a job”…

Some body please tell me where a decent job is hiring at, and no sorry Republicans(whites) i will not take a job making 10000 a year when i was making 40000 a year..i would be an idiot to give up my unemployment for a job paying less than my unemployment.Do whites know that people have to pay bills?..U will never get us back to slavery people..its time to be fair…all of this is just the NEW WORLD ORDER..The white man have been planing this for years….blacks and Whites who are struggling just have faith….and if i was white i would feel extra bad, when i go to the department of labor i see almost more whites than blacks..PEOPLE ARE LOSING THEIR JOBS EVERYDAY..So that means Whites only care about people who are rich they really dont care about their own people who are struggling along with these so call “LAZY” people

Another fine example of an Obama supporter.

• Link
• Report this comment

Work is for everyone. What I am trying to say here. As a state we can come up with some alternatives here. That works program which I will remind you originally came from Washington. Its a great idea. What I am saying is that on a State level. We could make this thing work. The old wives tale of WPA workers doing nothing in Roosevelt’s day. Is nothing but bad management. With good management. Things like water and sewer for everyone…. Who stopped our right to compete?

• Link
• Report this comment

See there is no point here in disagreeing on what is a simple thing. Look closely. We have the LABOR. Frankly I am not that good at it. We need to put our heads together. Not work this thing out. But say get a little uh entrepreneurial about things. Other States well thats their problem. 100 dollar electric bills please. We have things we can do here.

• Link
• Report this comment

If we have congressmen and senators. That like to play for Washington instead of for the State of Georgia. Vote them out. It’s our survival in a really tough situation. If we are together on this as a State. If we play for ourselves. I think we can easily win here.

• Link
• Report this comment

SCOTT,

How can people survive off a job that cannot even pay the bills?

U are a perfect example why the whole world looks at white people like the devil…u are an idiot
i bet your dad still helps with your bills

• Link
• Report this comment

When will Whites Change

June 25th, 2010
9:38 am
jason T

U want blacks who lost their jobs making 50000 a year to take a job at taco Bell right?
are u a typical white boy who was given everything by your ancestors? do u understand bills and kids?
do u understand Umemployment equals out to 8 a hour…If a person is struggling to make ends meet with a benefits check what makes u think that a man can live off 7 or less an hour…
thats the problem i have with most whites…its like u all live in a fantasy world….U act like like its our fault that we lost our job…what did we do wrong? If it were reasonable jobs out there people would take them

Jason

its time for u to grow up and get over this racist s—- that people are still on

If the US needed to draft people to go fight one of they unfair, corrupt wars, Blacks would have to go just like whites so grow up

Got a little problem with race, do you? Perhaps if you could see past your “issues”, and judge people by “the content of their character, not the color of their skin”, as MLK said, you might just be successful in a civilized society. You’ll never be successful depending on Government.

• Link
• Report this comment

See we are a smart people. Here in Georgia. We are also a very strong people. Combine those two things. We can come up with ideas. Also we can carry them out. A real physical product. If you understood NY. How they do things. You might not think they are independent. However they are very self-contained. Atlanta is lucky enough to have the diversification of business. We are not a one industry town. If we start now. One place to look believe it or not is NY State and how they do things.

• Link
• Report this comment

Con-Ed is state owned in NY!

• Link
• Report this comment

Best thing that could have happened. I am sick at watching known slackers use my tax dollars rather than taking some type of job. There are jobs out there to be had: they will not pay 65 grand for 8 to 5 jobs for pushing paper. Unemployed workers, especially laid off Government slackers just sit around and expect Daddy Democrat to keep tossing them cash for their six packs.
Thank goodness we have 41 people that disagreed.

• Link
• Report this comment

I’m reading all this from New York. Our NY state legislature is completely dysfunctional unable to pass a budget that is now 86 days overdue. Three people, yes THREE PEOPLE control the whole NY legislature: The governor (lame duck), the Assembly speaker and the Senate majority leader. (This is not political hype, it is true, check it out.) We have a state deficit that is unreal and NO JOBS. So, Georgia, I’d go find another state to emulate if I were you.

As to unemployment (or even welfare). It’s time to take an economics course. What do those recipients do with those checks? Think…….they SPEND them. Where? At YOUR grocery store, YOUR gas station, YOUR clothing store. Then at the end of the year, a portion of that goes to taxes. Where do taxes go? Think……back to the GOVERNMENT! Ah, so if we as the government responsibly PAY DOWN the deficit with the tax revenue, then there is not a dollar-for-dollar increase in the deficit for each dollar spent on unemployment. So to say that extending unemployment increases the deficit dollar-for-dollar is a lie.

Instead of electing all those lawyers who know nothing about economics, let’s elect more regular folks who at least took Eco 101. AND BY ALL MEANS EXTEND THE UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS lest a worse economy be the immediate result!

• Link
• Report this comment

Cost of War in Afghanistan/Iraq
Total Cost of Wars Since 2001
$1,009,755,341,230
OK folks, we would all be better off if this were not chocking the heck out of us and some floks perdict another 10 years. So who did we really FREE? We are so short sighted if we bring our men and women home OR HECK send the “right” package over there this would be all ova. But we doing wnat to admit this.
War Trillions sunk into a whole – OK
Bank system bail out – OK
USED to be hard working amercians need assistnace NO Way. Heck here is an Idea ALL and i do mean ALL Aide we send to others countries stop it and once and you can fund the unemployed here for a few more years. If the little checks stop, so does the limping economy. Can we stop to think for a change and take politics out of it and look at the PEOPLE

• Link
• Report this comment

“For those who are against those “lazy unemployed workers” I can only hope that you lose your job too. It will cure your selfish ignorance.”

I am unemployed right now, and have been more times and for longer periods than you could ever wrap your tiny brain around. I have worked 3 decades in the same unstable industry, however I always saved for the unexpected. NEVER had the need to use umemployment benefits either! NEVER have I been without heathcare benefits and paid by me for as well! I am at the point in my life now that I can pick and chose if and when I need to work. What I have accomplished is all done through hard work, financial wisdom, and personal responsibility.

So take a look in the mirror at what “selfish ignorance” looks like and own up to your mistakes!

• Link
• Report this comment

Metro,

It must be nice to be able to afford to be pious and judgmental too.

“So take a look in the mirror at what “selfish ignorance” looks like and own up to your mistakes!”

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Anonymous Stop posting and look for a job. Wallow in your own self pity in private, please!

• Link
• Report this comment

Extend them. It’s a pittance compared to the Pentagon’s budget much of which ends up in foreign coffers. Deficit spending has been a big part of economic growth since Reagan sold his soul.

• Link
• Report this comment

Metro move out of your parents house and maybe have a couple of kids and a wife and become unemployed. Then post your situation I think things will be a lot different. Thats reality.

• Link
• Report this comment

Of course the Republican “fiscal conservatives” still can’t say how they plan to pay for their UNFUNDED Medicare Part D. They can’t say how they will pay for their UNFUNDED trillion dollar wars.

Put up or shut up.

• Link
• Report this comment

LMAO @ linda. You can’t even come up with anything original to blog, your post makes me smile. Same old tired retort when you have no answers or explanations for your failures. Pity.

You socialists have fun wallowing in self pity today. This unemployed gal is off to stimulate the economy a bit. TGIF!

• Link
• Report this comment

Also, metro if you dont want me on unemploymnet then offer me a job.

• Link
• Report this comment

if the lawmakers would just put their efferts on the unempolyments benefits only and not try to add on their riders then, hopefully the plan can be extended. I have been out of work for over fifteen months. Any job openings, just stand in line to get an application and wait for an answer just like the other hundreds wanting the same position.

• Link
• Report this comment

To: Jason T and Scott….I think you need to choose your words wisely and stop lifting yourselves up thinking you are more than others, noone cares about what and how much you make. What I also know is “the good Lord giveth and the good Lord taketh away”. In other words, “You can be up today and down tomorrow”. You need to take God for your jobs instead of bragging. You do not need to belittle people and make them feel inferior. That is not what Jesus would do. I see that a lot of bashing is going on on this site, why don’t you put all this negative energy into something more positive and start praying for each other because we’re all His children.

I am unemployed and most certainly not lazy and I am a fulltime student majoring in Business Administration I am not mad or bashing anyone. If they extend the benefits or not, I am not mad I know without a doubt I will gain, simply because God is my source, not the governmental system and as long as there is breath in my body and I can get from point A to B I will make it.

People let try to come together according to II Chronicle 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. We need to pray for our leaders in Congress and stop pointing finger there may be some thing not right but, remember God is looking down on what is and whats not. He will do the judging, just watch I promise you he will take care of all this mess that is going on behind the scene. God is going to pull the cover and expose so much watch, wait and you will see. President Obama, is doing only what he can, he is not God. There was mess when he walked in office, don’t expect it to take form over night, I do not forsee that happening for quite some time.

My heart goes out to the elderly, children, sick and shut in and especially to those of you who do not know Christ.

So we need to come together and love each other, pray for each other and try to get along.

• Link
• Report this comment

To answer the question that was initially asked….Yes! I think they need to extend the benefits, we are not getting free money, that is money we worked all our life for so again….YES! It is rightfully ours.

• Link
• Report this comment

If you take my husbands 42 yrs of hard work, the 32 of mine in the workforce, it adds up to 74 yrs of working…., all in Ohio. If someone needs to find money to pay for extended unemployment benefits, take some from all that we send overseas to people that have never ever put sweat into our economy.
We are not young loafing workers, we are older, 60 and 53 yr olds trying to find work in an area where 300 or more people apply for the same job we are applying for.
My husband and I are both Republicans, but this makes no sense to us. We both were laid off, then struggled till our house was forclosed on. We moved into a rented apartment but with the Unemployment extension not being approved, we now have -0- coming in. No gas money now to get to interviews that seem to always send rejection notices. Never ever thought at our age we could be this close to being homeless.

• Link
• Report this comment

Steve

June 25th, 2010
11:53 am
WOW!!!!! Metro you are really impressing me. When you turn 65 i’m going to assume you will not apply for social security or medicare correct?

Hey Steve, did Metro, or anyone, for that matter, have a “choice” in paying into Social Security and Medicare? Was it an “option”? Noooo, it wasn’t. If they paid in to these grand Government “Ponzi” schemes, are they not to receive it?

• Link
• Report this comment

Jason T, you do understand the “ponzi scheme” you criticize is still widely supported by the American public don’t you?

In fact a Wall St Journal poll released 2 days ago show exactly that. 66% of all Americans do not want it changed. Only 24% would support changing or ending Social Security.

• Link
• Report this comment

To Bravissimo: I hope things work out for you. It is very unsettling to be where we are. I am 59 years old, I have worked all of my life, raised a family alone and still have significant financial responsibility. I really need the extended unemployment benefits to help me get through this difficult time. I have applied for both full time and very low paying part time jobs. No success. I have had several interviews to be turned away for someone younger and less experience and education time and time again. I have been depressed and afraid, hopeful and prayful. But even still, I am yet unemployed. I am not quite sure what my options are but I have to keep looking and trying to find a source of income to regain my independence. I have not given up hope and I hope you will remain hopeful, keep going and find work soon. So please BE STRONG. I am doing my best to continue and hope you will do the same. My prayers are with you.

• Link
• Report this comment

This just in, more great words of wisdom from a career politician…

“It’s a great moment. I’m proud to have been here,” said a teary-eyed Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee led the effort in the Senate. “No one will know until this is actually in place how it works…

Hey! Guess we have to “pass the Bill to see what’s in the Bill”, as Nancy said.

• Link
• Report this comment

I’m on the side of reducing the deficit or at least not increasing it. Surely they could have cut funding on a dirt pile or salamander birth rate study somewhere and offset the money? The question is not a fair question either. Thank God the republicans have finally gotten a backbone. Too bad some of the democrats wont join them.

• Link
• Report this comment

I agree with Sen Snowe of Maine…the unemployment extension should pulled out on a stand alone amendment.

Ive watched cspan a lot over the last few months, and never have I seen so many do so little.

Im amazed that ANYTHING gets passed there.

• Link
• Report this comment

Wow! everyone stop being so hateful.I am 51,I did not prepare in loosing my job of 10 yrs! Hello,In one day it all changed,not by choice.I have lost my home, my harley,my SUV,the dogs i once helped rescue.while staying with a friend,had a apt.fire set by two 8yrs olds they cant prosecute because they under 10,so no one responsible.lost my glasses and partial plate that cost $2,700 to replace,ya right like that will happen.so missing teeth,no job,51 yrs old,been in trucking 25 years and cant get a job.i apply and apply you think they want to hear the BS i have been through? no, they want my credit score, well i am out of the hopes of that job.Cant compare to the 20yr olds fresh out of logistics courses that will take 300 a week, hell i would to at this point,but they dont believe that do they? ok so it’s not the 19.00 a hr i made,so i need a job just as bad hear.I know sounds like a country song,but i dont sing country but i do write.So all you OSCARS, out there,you aint tasted HUMBLE,you think you all that? open eyes now and pay attention ok? see you on the back flip.I just need help right now,never ever asked before.

• Link
• Report this comment

Is this the last word on this? Will Congress have another chance? I can’t find work in my field because just about everyone in my field has been laid off, AND I’m over 50 so the employers know they can get someone 20 years younger for $20-30K cheaper who will do “fine.”
I’ve worked my a** off for over 30 years, and my employers and I have always paid into the system. I just can’t believe the Republicans are using the deficit as an excuse. The deficit?!?! It doesn’t matter how high it is when we’re fighting a needless war, but when it comes to helping hard-working Americans who have always contributed, and who are now struggling? Oh, no, we have to watch the deficit. Pure BS politics.

• Link
• Report this comment

Obstructionists

June 25th, 2010
4:32 pm
…Obama needs to get congress to pass more laws giving out a lot more government benefits to the the oppressed people….

And that my friends, IS the Obama/Dem agenda. Ever wonder how, and from whom, the Government receives these ….”benefits”?

• Link
• Report this comment

It’s good to see Americans of all backgrounds finally recognize how disconnected the republicans are from average hard working and “want to be working” American citizens. Republicans are playing politics. I say let’s rally behind Mr. Obama and support our president’s goals for economic recovery. He is not perfect but I believe he is doing the best job he can in spite of the hateful, mean-spirited and “NO” agenda of negative unsupporting republicans. To date, they have not supported anything that Mr. Obama has placed before Congress. They have voted as a block to prevent everything he has proposed. Just like we support our troops in combat, let’s support our president. He is constantly fighting major battles with republicans on capital hill . He our president and is well qualified for his job. He is prepared to lead and make critical decisions. He is a law professor who has his education and PhD from prestigious Ivy league institutions, an expert in constitutional law who has regained world respect for our country. He is trying to lead our country out of a financial black hole that our former republican president and his adminstration put us in. I firmly believe if he were not a Black Man, he would get his agendas passed with limited challenge. I believe the republicans are so determined to see him fail that they are sacrificing support for the average American citizen and limiting the progress of our country. Be American, let’s support our president and help him to help us!!

P.S. Do not vote for these self-serving republicans in the upcoming mid-term elections. If they betray you once, shame on them. If they betray you twice, shame on you. Don’t even give them a chance. If nothing changes, then … nothing changes!! Do not give them a chance to do it twice!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

This is one of the few times in American Hx that many of the very people who normally carry the burden of the tax base are in need of assistance themselves due to no jobs, lay offs and the lousy economy. What right does the Republican party have to take the food out the mouths of these people in denying unemployment benefits? And as for state layoffs, if we get any shorter on state workers, we might as well just close on down and forget that we ever had any type of government for the people and by the people. Just remember all these little slaps in the face when it is time to vote.

• Link
• Report this comment

“WOW!!!!! Metro you are really impressing me. When you turn 65 i’m going to assume you will not apply for social security or medicare correct?”

You are correct! No need for SS or Medicare at all!

“Also, metro if you dont want me on unemploymnet then offer me a job.”

Based on your postings, you have already failed the pre-interview stage in my book. Change the attitude and good luck to you!

• Link
• Report this comment

lots of people on here who are real tough behind a computer screen… If you think it’s only the republicans or democrats who caused the problem you need to dig deeper for your facts. Unemployment should not last forever, but compared to the cost of the billions in bailouts to big corporations its a small amount. Being over 50 I just started my own company because corporate america does discriminate when it comes to age.

• Link
• Report this comment

WE ARE NOT IN DEBT……….. IF ONE THINKS ABOUT WE ARE THE ONES WHO MAKE THE MONEYI IN D.C. OR WHEREVER IT IS. ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS MAKE MONEY AND PAY OFF ALL THE LOANS. F THE GOVERNMENT. SOMEBODY GONNA KICK THERE AZZ ONE DAY REAL SOON. JUST WANT AND C. PASS THE DAMN LAW U JACKASSES SO PEOPLE CAN GET ALONG WITH THERE LIVES. U PEOPLE SO FULL OF IT THAT YOU DONT C WHAT IS GOING ON, PEOPLE ARE GOING TO START ROBBING AND KILLING HERE REAL SOON BECAUSE OF THIS AND I WONT BE SURPISED.

• Link
• Report this comment