This is the 8th time the Republicant’s have blocked a vote. Big of them. Thune must be saying screw you to all the people who have been looking for a job for months and months and have found nothing. I gather everyone in SoDak is employed and Thune and the others just don’t give a shit about anyone else.
And they say they are sick of the partisanship. They are indeed the party of NO.
Republicans kill Senate jobless aid measureBy ANDREW TAYLOR (AP) – 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON — Republicans in the Senate have defeated an election-year bill to continue weekly jobless benefits for millions of long-term unemployed workers.
The 57-41 loss was a major blow for President Barack Obama and Democrats. They needed three more votes — for a total of 60 — to stop a GOP filibuster.
The rejected bill would also have provided billions of dollars in new aid, protecting the jobs of tens of thousands of state and local government workers as the country begins to emerge from the worst recession in seven decades.
Democrats have been trying to advance the measure for months as an insurance policy against a double-dip recession.
Despite another round of cuts to the measure aimed at pacifying GOP deficit concerns, not a single Republican broke with party leaders determined to kill the measure for adding more than $30 billion to the deficit.
I would like to think they did it because we don’t have the money and were trying to be responsible, but I know better.
The government doesn’t have the money for a lot of things, but since employees and employers have paid into unemployment, they deserve it. Otherwise just get rid of the program all together.
“I got mine! Screw you!”
So how long should they continue to pay people unemployement?
Should they just continue to extend the benefits time and time again so people never have the need to go back to work or to accept a job they feel is ‘below’ them?
The fact is, unemployment is designed to be TEMPORARY, and the Dems (in a desire to earn a few more pity votes) continue to want to extend these benefits indefinitely…. and like it or not that is an unsustainable position.
Another fact (which has been proven time and time again in study after study) is that people simply don’t go back to work until their unemployment benefits are about to expire. Thus, but extending these unemployment benefits time and time again, we are actually keeping unemployment artificially high.
Now I realize there are people out there who are really struggling and cannot find a job in their area, but I’d argue that is the minority – and when you draft legislation you do so for the masses. Thus for every legitimate person you help, you are probably dragging along another 20 who could be out there working but (for lack of a better term) choose not to.
So now when someone realizes their unemployment is about to expire they might actually be willing to go work in a call center making $28k a year instead of holding out for that $57k a year management job like they lost. Cry me a river – life is full of pitfalls and hard choices.
Keep in mind unemployment is like an insurance policy. It can help act as a buffer but it was never meant to be the only solution. People are supposed to actually have savings to rely upon when they lose their jobs… but I fully realize that is no longer the American way. The new American way is to rely upon the government to pay for your mortgage and send you an EBT card for your food and then buy your old clunker so you can get a newer car and then mail you a tax refund when you never actually paid any taxes.
And suddenly the Republicans are evil because they actually expect the government to stop just tossing money at a problem thinking it will fix the issue?
Only in America.
“And suddenly the Republicans are evil because they actually expect the government to stop just tossing money at a problem thinking it will fix the issue?”
Yet they keep throwing money at Iraq and Afghanistan.
Well I don’t agree with them on that point… but it seems the Dems are just as guilty when it comes to funding wars. Obama campaigned with the idea we could bring our troops home – too bad he forgot to mention their arrival could be after he has his own Presidential Library.
Either way – I don’t condone most of the spending done by those in Washington, and it is long past the time when we need to pay for things. Spending more than we bring in is unsustainable and eventually we won’t even be able to make the interest payments with our tax receipts. I’m not about to fault the GOP for holding back on yet another $30 Billion. It was just the right thing to do.
Scott, how many years should unemployment benefits last?
Not that it has anything to do with everlasting unemployment benefits, but I’ll comment on the war spending since you brought it up. Democrats have been in control of Congress since January of 2007. We’ve appropriated about $650 billion for the wars since then. Remember, Congress appropriates all funds, the President simply signs off on the budget that they send him. Both party’s are the problem, not just Republicans.
Nice that congress voted to continue the $35 billion tax subsidies for the big oil companies June 15, 2010. Wouldn’t want those poor babies to lose any money or their bonuses. The CIA found $100 million for another contract for Blackwater today, the company with a checkered past. Which follows up after the US State Dept. gave them a contract for $120 million. But when it comes to Americans who can’t find a job to hell with them. No help for them. The republicans just love filibuster. It is their answer for everything.
I heard that 1 in 7 in SD is below the poverty line. What is Thune doing for the state of SD? Guess he is just building up his $6 million war chest.
What are any of the republican senators doing for the people of their states? Nothing.
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/06/16/welch-tax-expenditures/
If Congress is really so worried about money they could give up their most recent pay raises. They wouldn’t vote for a $250 bonus for seniors and disabled people on social security because of budget concerns, but they didn’t give up their yearly raise. As unemployment goes, I know people that have been unemployed for more than a year, and they have applied at fast food places, retail, etc. and haven’t been hired. The problem is there are more people looking for work than there are jobs. What are these people supposed to do when their unemployment runs out and they still haven’t found a job?
Red is right. There is approximately 1 job available for every 5 people looking. I lost my full-time job almost a year ago, and still haven’t found anything. There is nothing out there, and the job interviews I did go to had 40-50 applicants, not to mention it is an employers market (they can pay what they want). I chose not to take unemployment because I can’t really live off of it, and I would prefer to be working, even though it is not a job in my field. I just chuckle when people piss and moan about someone getting welfare or unemployment bennies (something they paid into) but don’t think twice about Trillion dollar wars and oil spills.
Never ceases to amaze me when people say things like “the gov’t. doesn’t have the money”….. Haley Carp, who exactly do you think ALL the money belongs to? Look on a dollar bill sometime – the owner’s name is all over it. And aren’t these the same people that compalin about the government “just printing more” money whenever they need it. The whole set of “money/economy issues” (debt, deficit, taxation, etc.) are designed for consumption by the ignoranyt as a diversion. Similar the “stock market” being trotted out as if IT were THE ECONOMY.