Time to wean Ga.’s jobless from taxpayer support, right guys?
The official unemployment rate in Georgia is 10.2 percent, which means that more than one of 10 Georgians who want a job can’t find one. Unfortunately, that number that doesn’t fully describe how widespread the problem has become, because it doesn’t include those who have simply stopped looking in an economy in which a single advertised job can attract thousands of applicants.
All in all, almost 240,000 jobs have disappeared from Georgia in the last year.
Last night, the U.S. House of Representative voted 331-83 in favor of a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits in high-unemployment states, defined as those with an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent or higher for the last three months. That would include Georgia and 28 other states. The check isn’t a lot — it maxes out at $355 a week here in Georgia — but for many households it’s the only income they can depend upon.
(UPDATE: I just got off the phone with the state Department of Labor. According to their estimates, as many as 40,000 Georgians would lose their unemployment benefits by the end of the year — and in many cases their only source of income — without legislation extending those benefits.)
Six of Georgia’s 13 congressmen voted AGAINST extending unemployment benefits to fellow Georgians out of work.
They were:
U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Athens, Phone (202) 225-4101
U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Gainesville, Phone (202) 225-5211
U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Marietta, Phone (202) 202-225-2931
U.S. Rep. John Linder, R-Duluth, Phone (202) 225-4272
U.S. Rep. Tom Price, R-Roswell, Phone (202) 225-4501
U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, Coweta County, Phone (202) 225-5901
I’ve included the Washington phone numbers of each of those congressmen just in case anybody wanted to phone their office to make their opinions heard. If you hear any interesting explanations for the vote, feel free to post those responses in the comments below.
I should also note that the bill next makes its way to the U.S. Senate, where Johnny Isakson (202-224-3643) and Saxby Chambliss (202-224-3521) will be asked to vote on it.
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256 comments Add your comment
ByteMe
September 23rd, 2009
1:04 pm
Just because you call doesn’t mean they actually hear your opinion unless you first accept Jesus Christ and Rush Limbaugh as your personal saviors…..
GayGrayGeek
September 23rd, 2009
1:09 pm
ByteMe – Tsk, tsk, tsk. You seem to forget that the Wingnuts have proclaimed Obama to be “The Messiah”. They must believe it, given how often they repeat it, so one must accept the POTUS, as well.
Nothing is Free
September 23rd, 2009
1:10 pm
Jay
If the politician in the White House that you support would maybe start making an attempt at helping the owners of small businesses instead of paying off fat cat banks, maybe the economy would improve and people would start finding jobs.
No one likes being on unemployment and strangely enough, you left out where those benefits would come from.
**Extending unemployment-insurance benefits will support the recovery at a critical turning point, Mr. McDermott said. He also said the legislation is being funded by extending a small tax on employers so it does not increase the federal deficit.**
So once again, small businesses are left to take it on the chin because this administration is incompetent.
Why can’t you tell the whole story, Bookman. Are you that afraid of the truth?
ByteMe
September 23rd, 2009
1:12 pm
Except for Broun, who’s definitely out there in loony-land, the rest aren’t true wingnuts.. they’re just deluded by their own wrong ideas.
Turd Ferguson
September 23rd, 2009
1:13 pm
I agree with unemployment benefits being extended.
Bosch
September 23rd, 2009
1:13 pm
Or maybe if we could get a single-payer system, then businesses wouldn’t be spending a large percentage of their profits on health care for their employees and could hire more people.
Nothing is Free
September 23rd, 2009
1:15 pm
ByteMe, GayGrayGeek
Do you really need to call? They are going to tell you that they are trying to offer some relief for small businesses that are stuck paying those benefits. In spite of what you are told here and other liberal; sites, there is a reason why Republicans want to support business and get our economy back on it’s feet. I would think that eventually, you will start to wonder why the economy just keeps getting worse and worse.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 23rd, 2009
1:16 pm
I’d hate to have their karma.
Nothing is Free
September 23rd, 2009
1:17 pm
Bosch
**Or maybe if we could get a single-payer system, then businesses wouldn’t be spending a large percentage of their profits on health care for their employees and could hire more people.**
Congratulations. You have finally figured out why most Republicans believe that the “Public Option” would destroy our health care system.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 23rd, 2009
1:18 pm
“the economy is getting worse and worse”…..there’s your sign.
Bosch
September 23rd, 2009
1:18 pm
NIF,
“the “Public Option” would destroy our health care system”
Oh, please, do tell.
Normal
September 23rd, 2009
1:20 pm
Jay, I really need to know why my 11:42 downstairs was moderated. Please!
Bosch
September 23rd, 2009
1:21 pm
Normal,
Did you refer to an alcoholic adult beverage as the word that starts with a “c” followed by the word tails? I did that once, and the Blog God got me. It took me a good five minutes to figure out what’d I’d done.
Public Option's Doing Swell
September 23rd, 2009
1:24 pm
Phoning those six numbers or the numbers of Chambliss and Issackson for anything the Repubozos don’t support is like going out in the street, getting on your knees, and talking to the curb. It would do that much good.
Money talks in the Senate and House for Repubozos–hooker-john is the only paradigm that matters.
Zedd
September 23rd, 2009
1:24 pm
Where are all the new jobs we were told would come as a result of passing the stimulus?
Nothing is Free
September 23rd, 2009
1:24 pm
Bosch
**Oh, please, do tell.**
Yep. Caught you making sense so you certainly need to come back on that one.
So make up your mind: If corporations would make much more profit by paying the fines and dumping health care coverage, why would they not do that? And if they did, what would that mean to the insurance companies and the drug companies?
Think really hard now. What would happen.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 23rd, 2009
1:24 pm
Bosch
I noticed where universal healthcare has turned Sweden, the UK, Canada
and Germany into slimy cesspools full of terrorists and gays, who read
newpapers, eat organic and practice safe sex.
It’s sooooooooooooooooosad.
Public Option's Doing Swell
September 23rd, 2009
1:25 pm
Bosch–
What’s wrong with the word cocktails?
Paul
September 23rd, 2009
1:26 pm
Jay
Good to see you’re into public service announcements.
‘Twas noted in a local paper the other day that after all the hoopla by the Texas governor over the bad stimulus, secession and all the other nonsense…
that he took the stim money and used it to fund Medicaid and a host of other social service programs.
I hope he gets defeated. Kinky Friedman’s looking pretty good right about now.
Normal
September 23rd, 2009
1:26 pm
BOSCH. I used the word Peter
Normal
September 23rd, 2009
1:27 pm
nope, that wasn’t it…
Nothing is Free
September 23rd, 2009
1:27 pm
Mrs. Godzilla
I’m just not a “sign” person. I have noticed that only radical liberals and radical Christians use bumper stickers, both having a strong desire to preach at strangers.
Also liberals are so full of hate that they would probably slash my tires and I always buy good tires.
Public Option's Doing Swell
September 23rd, 2009
1:28 pm
Boy are the stupid comments flowing. The Clintons didn’t pass anything to help insurance companies in 1994. Get mommy to read from the history books.
So it’s the evil health insurance companies that strangely enough gained almost unlimited power the last time the dims tried to pass Universal Health Insurance. All the things that the dms are complaining about was granted by the Clintons. Hello Hillary. Helloooooo HMOs. Yes, they had been around since Nixon, but they had never given that kind of power.
Totally false. Where is your documentation of this absurd fiction? The fact is that the Clinton’s did not grant or pass anything as to health care reform and they did not grant insurance companies anything. I would delight in seeing any evidence that the insurance companies “gained almost unlimited power..granted by the Clintons.” Only a drunk child would think a President could issue an executive order to legislate for insurance companies, and Republicans have passed laws to give them the domniant power they have including 94% of the US covered by only two of them in exchange for money outlined in the links I’ve provided.
And the insurance companies have doubled rates in the last ten years, and are projected by Kaiser Family Foundation and Healthcare America Now to triple rates in the next 10 years and in a rush to raise premiums because they fear their whores on Senate Finance won’t come through for them (correct) in 5 states insurance companies have raised premiums in the past 3 weeks from 22% in Michigan to 30% in 4 other states.
The insurance companies will drop 430 Georgians today this afternoon before 5PM and 14,000 Americans, because they got very sick. They have as much as doubled and tripled rates for patients with minor pre-existing conditions, sometimes as innocuous as acne.
Only a child thinks the Clintons “granted [a damn thing].” President’s don’t grant insurance companies breaks, although Rahm Emanuel has tried.
Congress passes the laws. Insurance companies operate with congress in a relationship best termed whore-john. The john (insurance company) pays the whore for services. It’s been called the world’s oldest profession, and the dynamic or platform or paradigm is alive and well in Congress, and particularly at the Senate Finance Committee during the past ten years and particularly during this summer–specifically money to Republicans and Blue Dogs.
If you want to see tangible evidence of payment for the granting of services (and the turning of the trick is being defeated right now in Senate Finance by Democrats) turn on your TV. The payments by insurance companies for carte blanche to do what the want is catalogued at
http://www.opensecrets.org
http://www.campaignmoney.org/threevotes
Cherokee
September 23rd, 2009
1:29 pm
I called Dr. Price’s office and got the same runaround I get when I write him. Along the lines of “thank you so much for your input.” Public Option, you’re so right…
Price is a moron…
Public Option's Doing Swell
September 23rd, 2009
1:29 pm
The italicized words above were the complete fiction from Nothing is Free for whom something must be free because he sits home while the rest of us work.
Paul
September 23rd, 2009
1:30 pm
Mrs. Godzilla 1:24
Glad you didn’t include Denmark. VisitDenmark had a whacky tourism commercial where they had a good looking woman holding a baby, saying she wanted to find the baby’s tourist father. She’d had a one night stand and couldn’t remember his name, but if he remembered her could he please get in touch?
They’ve pulled the commercial, to much ridicule.
Danes need to get with the safe sex program.
And the advertising with brains program.
Nothing is Free
September 23rd, 2009
1:33 pm
Public Option’s Doing Swell
So you know that I am home.
Can you see me right now? Can you see what I am thinking? Can you see what I am doing with my middle finger?
Mrs. Godzilla
September 23rd, 2009
1:33 pm
NiF
……you ARE the sign.
Matilda
September 23rd, 2009
1:34 pm
These “Representatives” only care what we think if (a) we attach a big fat campaign check to our opinion, or (b) promise to deliver the votes/support of a large professional or civic organization or church congregation. Individuals, small organizations, and unions will be ignored. Dr. Prices’s office will be happy to confirm this.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 23rd, 2009
1:34 pm
NiF
Please pull that out of there!
POP!
Bosch
September 23rd, 2009
1:34 pm
Public Option –
I used the word cocktails this weekend, in a very short post and it got moderated – that was the only thing I could see that would do it.
NIF,
“If corporations would make much more profit by paying the fines and dumping health care coverage, why would they not do that?”
I think it would be stupid for them not to. I don’t have a problem with that.
“And if they did, what would that mean to the insurance companies and the drug companies? ”
Hopefully health insurance companies would become non-existant, or have to re-group to sell supplemental coverage. Drug companies? Got me.
Jay
September 23rd, 2009
1:35 pm
Normal, I have no idea. Maybe the automated bluenose doesn’t like Latin. In any event, it’s now free.
Taxpayer
September 23rd, 2009
1:35 pm
The official unemployment rate in Georgia is 10.2 percent, which means that more than one of 10 Georgians who want a job can’t find one.
Actually, it’s only 5.1%. Let me show you the math.
The devil made me do it. Maybe Mr. Broun can wash that hate-filled vomit right out of my head. Gonna wash that hate right outa my head. Hey, that’s catchy.
Normal
September 23rd, 2009
1:35 pm
NIF, you are a class act…just sayin’
Matilda
September 23rd, 2009
1:35 pm
Ah, Cherokee DID confirm this. Thanks! haha!
Bosch
September 23rd, 2009
1:36 pm
Public Option,
I just put that word in a post and it is now in moderation. Blog God why do you hate me and not Public Option? BLOG GOD!!!
NIF,
I’ll just copy and paste what I wrote instead of recreating:
“If corporations would make much more profit by paying the fines and dumping health care coverage, why would they not do that?”
I think it would be stupid for them not to. I don’t have a problem with that.
“And if they did, what would that mean to the insurance companies and the drug companies? ”
Hopefully health insurance companies would become non-existant, or have to re-group to sell supplemental coverage. Drug companies? Got me.
Normal
September 23rd, 2009
1:36 pm
Jay, thank you
Taxpayer
September 23rd, 2009
1:37 pm
And, to think of all those folks out there that were thinking that life as they knew was going to end on September 23. You see, there is a God after all. He even grants reprieves.
Nothing is Free
September 23rd, 2009
1:37 pm
Mrs. Godzilla
Mind out of the gutter. And maybe you are right. I am the sign of the end of days for this administration.
Biden said yesterday that if the Republicans take back Congress that will be the end of Obama’s plans. So much for bipartisanship. No gross majority by the dims so it can’t be done if half of America has a say-so.
Bosch
September 23rd, 2009
1:38 pm
NIF,
“I have noticed that only radical liberals and radical Christians use bumper stickers”
Not in my neck of the woods. Here you see things like:
“America: Born, July 4, 1776; Died November 8, 2008 – somehow I don’t think the owner of that car was a liberal.
GayGrayGeek
September 23rd, 2009
1:38 pm
Boschie @ 1:36 – BUT THINK OF THE POOR, DOWNTRODDEN INSURANCE EXECUTIVES!!!
Bosch
September 23rd, 2009
1:39 pm
“Can you see what I am doing with my middle finger?”
Keeping it classy with more hate filled vomit.
Paul
September 23rd, 2009
1:40 pm
Bosch
Thanks for the invite. But before I came upstairs… the remark downstairs… sorry… the political calculating long knives came out and all I could think was ‘nice guys finish last.’
Nothing personal, to you or Taxpayer. But like I said, you gotta draw the line somewhere…
Mrs. Godzilla
September 23rd, 2009
1:41 pm
Bosch
….and he accused me of having my mind in the gutter asking him to pull his fingers out of his nose……
Nothing is Free
September 23rd, 2009
1:43 pm
Bosch
**Drug companies? Got me.**
Well that’s a hell of a plan. Turn all of our health care over to the government and stop all medical research that is currently being carried out by the drug companies. That sounds like a great plan for you. But would you mind if I support a system that didn’t turn our lives over to bureaucrats and put a definite end to medical research?
If you want to live in that world, I say go for it.
Bosch
September 23rd, 2009
1:43 pm
Paul,
RE: from downstairs – don’t make me have to challenge you to a dance off. You too Taxpayer – I can shake a groove.
Bosch
September 23rd, 2009
1:45 pm
NIF,
“and stop all medical research that is currently being carried out by the drug companies”
Got drama? That wouldn’t happen. It’s not like drug companies would stop making a profit. And what the hell do you think NIH is? Chopped liver?
Nothing is Free
September 23rd, 2009
1:54 pm
Bosch
**Got drama? That wouldn’t happen.**
Oh I’m sure the drug companies would just do the research for free. You know, like “free” health care. After all, so many advances come from countries with socialized medicine. Like Cuba.
Paul
September 23rd, 2009
1:54 pm
Bosch
I saw DeLay on a commercial for Dancing with Stars – couldn’t change channels fast enough… it was horrible… horrible…. now you give me a visual of you dancing… how will I ever regain sanity? …wait, I know…
Bosch dancing with DeLay!! Yeah, that’s it!
Grumpy
September 23rd, 2009
1:56 pm
JFK 1961 – ask not what your country can do for you…
The American People 2009 – GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME. Cradle to grave baby! Money for nothin’ and your chicks for free!