Filed under: News, The Economy
Because the average person collecting unemployment gets a paltry $300 a week, it's fair to say nobody's getting rich or stashing this money away for a rainy day. On the contrary, most collecting unemployment spend it immediately on the aforementioned necessities. This of course helps our struggling economy tremendously.
None of this logic seems to matter to those on Capitol Hill, however. We've watched for weeks as Democrats who still had a majority in both the House and Senate at the time allowed Republicans to hold the benefits of formerly-employed Americans hostage. The GOP has repeatedly held up the extension of benefits, whining about their insistence on paying for them with budget cuts rather than borrowing money.
There is also the looming issue of the expiring Bush-era tax cuts for the rich. The GOP is essentially refusing to provide vital cash for struggling Americans unless these tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans are preserved. In the middle of this cluster is President Obama who talks softly and carries no stick at all, as he simply refuses to force the issue, all in the name of some mythical concept of bipartisanship which will never come to fruition.
Sadly, if you're one of the millions actually depending on unemployment benefits to help you make it through the holidays, you are simply out of luck. I've long pondered just when people whose lives are being treated as political footballs would finally get angry and speak up. That time seems to be near:
As Democrats and Republicans wrangled over tax cuts for the richest Americans, time ran out for millions of people who have been unemployed for up to 99 weeks. Congress has failed to agree on how to extend benefits for the long-term unemployed and some 2 million people who have been out of work for 6 months or longer face being cut off before Christmas, NPR reports. Tempers and protests are beginning to flare over the pending crunch. Unemployed New Yorkers in Santa hats protested the benefit cut-off at the Rockefeller Center tree-lighting ceremony.
The parties blame each other for the failure to reach agreement on extending benefits. Democrats accuse Republicans of ignoring the plight of the unemployed, while the GOP says it would be happy to vote for an extension of benefits, as long as the money comes from budget cuts elsewhere.
In a separate, but equally sad story, elsewhere:
Tempers flared at an unemployment office in Louisville, Ky. as the end nears for federally-funded extended jobless benefits. Local CBS affiliate WLKY captured a bit of the scene on Monday -- amid some commotion, a man can be heard saying in a raised voice, "What did you just say to me?" WLKY reported that "at least two people were escorted out" of the office. With the threat of benefits expiring for 100,000 Kentuckians, WLKY reported, "tempers are flaring."
It's the type of scene that contributed to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development's decision to add armed guards to each of its 36 field offices where workers can file unemployment claims (previously only some of the offices had armed security).
It is truly a sad day when elected officials are either so selfish or so timid that they fail to ensure the basic welfare of the very constituents who pay their salaries and send them to office. Perhaps reducing Congressional salaries to $300/week would give these folks a new perspective on life outside Capitol Hill. The rage over this clear injustice is starting to build. Let's hope it takes our country to a more equitable place.
Merry Christmas, America. Stay warm if you can. And if you are finally ready to speak up and fight for your rights, there are organized ways to demand what you need.