Senate Makes Changes to Bill that Would Extend Unemployment Benefits
HR 4213 Undergoes Some Changes in Response to Its Defeat in the Senate Yesterday
What changes will affect the unemployed?
The big change in the revised version of HR4213 will be to cut $25 a week from unemployment benefits. The Federal Additional Compensation (FAC) Program provided an extra $25 a week in jobless benefits as part of President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. But will cutting the FAC program help the deficit or just make HR 4213 more appealing to Republicans and more fiscally conservative Democrats? Larry Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute is quoted by US News and World Report as saying "The fruitlessness of cutting $25 a week out of unemployment benefits in order to feel fiscally conservative ... is to hurt the unemployed almost for symbolic purposes."
The COBRA subsidy was dropped from HR 4213 while it was being debated in the House of Representatives.
Why extending unemployment benefits is important
Gregg Rose is the Director of Advocacy For the Long Term Unemployed (AFLTU). He says not extending benefits would have a negative domino effect on the economy. "We will continue seeing headlines that read; disappointing jobs report sends stocks tumbling, Consumer spending posts weak reading, Retail sales drop, Foreclosure rate on the rise, and on and on...if we don't take continued action, this economic epidemic will spread and we will never see jobs return."
Rose says the unemployed need to be proactive in preserving their benefits. He encourages the jobless in America to take action: sending faxes to their elected officials, making phone calls, and being an active participant in websites for the jobless. "I wish that the silent portion of the unemployed would stop feeling sorry for themselves, and stop asking why me? Rather ask, why not me? and be the one to make the difference."
To read more about why extending unemployment benefits is good for America, read my op ed piece here on Associated Content. The current rate of unemployment in America is 9.7% according to the US Department of Labor.
Sources:
Faler, Brian Democrats Slim Down Jobs Proposal to Address Deficit Concerns, Bloomberg Businessweek, June 17, 2010
Faler, Brian Jobs Bill Blocked in Senate Amid Complaints Over Cost (Update2), Bloomberg Businessweek, June 16, 2010
Wolgemuth, Liz 5 Things to Know About the Newest Jobs Bill, US News and World Report, June 17, 2010
Email conversation with Gregg Rose of AFLTU June 16-17, 2010
Published by J Budd, RN - Featured Contributor in Health & Wellness
I am a registered nurse and former radio broadcast journalist in the NYC/NJ area for over a decade. Some of the stations I have worked with include Bloomberg News Radio, Sirius Satellite Radio, Fox News Rad... View profile
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42 Comments
Post a CommentHere is a list of who else isn't getting paid...
Geico
Rent
New Mexico Student Loans
US Department of Education
Indianapolis Power and Light
Vonage
Citibank
Capital One
The Doctor's Office
I have had one count em ONE interview in almost two years of looking. It may be promising but I won't even know until at least two weeks from now.
I could sure use a job now. I have not
been able to make ends meet. Someday's
I don't have enough money for food! Housing in California takes all my money!
I have been unemployed since, 11/08, unable to find work in a very bad California economy, which has yet to recover the down-turn. I need my unemployment benefits to be extended now
again.
Good article, Jennifer!
after less than a week (posted June 17th) we now have 798 signatures on the petition!
for anyone who has not seen and signed the new petition for: 2010 Unemployment Benefits Extension sorely needed for anxious Americans, it is at: change.org http://www.change.org/petitions/view/2010_unemployment_benefits_extension_is_sorely_ needed_by_anxious_americans
For those that have voted nay, and for the four
Senators who have abstained, I pray for your soul if you don't have the
moral courage to act on behalf of those American individuals and families
who are suffering through the unemployment, through the loss of unemployment
benefits for the past several weeks. If you can't get your act together on
this, then I think it is no wonder that the vast number of Americans have
lost faith in their elected leaders, lost faith in Congress. It is a
failure to lead, a failure to govern, a failure to act responsibly on behalf
of your constituents. Now is not the time to be concerned and preaching
about the deficit -- with regards to the issue of the extension of federal
unemployment benefits. Yes, you have created a mega-trillion national debt.
Don't punish the unemployed for your mistakes. Don't punish the unemployed
for your creation of a mega-trillion debt for future generations of America.
Shame on you.
You
passed mega spending bills to bail out Wall Street, you passed mega spending
bills to bail out the banks, you passed mega spending bills to bail out the
GM automobile company, you passed mega spending bills to benefit those for
whom those fantastic backroom deals were made... yet you don't have the
moral conscience to pass the bill to extend federal unemployment benefits
for the unemployed who were laid off. They didn't quit. They were laid
off. Get it!? That is the requirement for them to receive unemployment
benefits in the first place! They don't give unemployment benefits for
those that quit or voluntarily separate from an employer. So, it is about
time that the U.S. Senate gets its act together and act like they give a
care about the Americans who are unemployed and have been continually
searching for employment when the economy is in the tank, and jobless
numbers are astronomical. For those that have voted nay, and for the four
Senators who have abstained, I pray for y
I am one in a Million... there are apparently about a Million Americans who
have run out of unemployment benefits or are about to run out of benefits.
How many U.S. Senators voted for the mega-trillion Obama healthcare bill,
creating untold debt for future generations... yet, when it comes to
extending federal unemployment benefits when the unemployment rate is over
10%, over 15%... the U.S. does not have enough votes to pass legislation to
allow the proposed extension of unemployment benefits. THIS IS A GREAT TIME
TO GROW A CONSCIENCE... AFTER YOU HAVE PASSED TRULY MASSIVE SPENDING BILLS
UNDER OBAMA'S PRESIDENCY, DESPITE THE WISHES OF A VAST MULTITUDE OF
AMERICANS. And now, with the vast numbers of Americans whose unemployment
benefits have been exhausted, you cannot find the courage to vote in the
affirmative to extend the federal unemployment benefits for a Million or
more Americans who are out of work THROUGH NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN. You
passed mega spending bills to bail out Wall
re: just a thought (and others)
Perhaps you think your clever. You made a quip, an observation about unemployed people having the internet. Well, many people who are unemployed use their local library's internet service and, oh by the way, to file unemployment insurance claims, one must have internet access. To apply for jobs, one must have internet service. It is your kind of unproductive and assbackward commentary that the unemployed don't need. We are being challenged enough. Should we not have internet? telephone service? Automobiles? The people who are unemployed are not the cleaning ladies of the world but the information workers, the white collar professionals who have contributed all of their working lives to this so called American dream. Unemployment insurance is just that, insurance. It is not welfare.
I cannot fathom the callousness of some of the people I run across on these message boards. You all must have fallen out of Ayn Rand's womb. You've done it all yourselves.
In all honesty, to set a definate number of weeks is detrimental. It should be that the unemployment insurance is available until a state reaches a certain level of unemployment, and then at that time it can be put on a weekly count down for those that reside in that state and are on benefits. This issues is very large and to say that 99 weeks will cover you through it is not working right now. Extending deadlines to be qualified to receive is nice but it will not help those that have gone past it. And this would be a different story IF there were actual jobs to take, but there just aren't any around. When you have applied everywhere, even sent your resume and applied for jobs out of state, just to find any kind of work, and you don't get calls, you don't get emailed back, what do you do? The people are being held in the middle of a mess that they did no create or ask to be a part of. It's up to those that do control our resources to do whatever is needed to keep us in our homes and fo
It is crazy how many unemployed people can afford their internet still....