Why a Conservative Supports Long Term Unemployment Benefits

Is it possible? Can someone be a dyed-in-the-wool conservative and support long term unemployment benefits? Well, apparently so, because I am - and I do. And I suspect I'm not the only one out there these days.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I am unemployed and, yes, I am receiving long-term unemployment benefits. Or, that is, I was, until my benefits were cut off when the Senate failed to pass the Unemployment Benefits Extension in HR-4213, the "Extenders" bill.

You might, then, be inclined to discount my point of view as I clearly do have some pretty serious "skin in the game". But I hope you'll hear me out. For although I obviously speak from a perspective contaminated by self-interest, I also speak from the perspective of someone who cares very deeply about this country and who wants no part in doing anything, ANYTHING, to damage it - even if it were to save my own life.

Let me start by saying, too, that had I not been laid off and found myself unable to find a job for over 20 months now, I might not be as sympathetic to the plight of my fellow citizens needing long term unemployment benefits as I am today. I remember, in fact, not that long ago, having a difficult time understanding how a friend's husband could be unemployed as long as he was or why this acquaintance or that didn't just take a lower paying job than what they really wanted but just get their be-hinds back to work. Does that sound harsh? Or does it, perhaps, sound familiar? Perhaps you've felt that way about the unemployed in the past. Perhaps you feel that way now.

The difference for me, though, is that the unemployed people I secretly judged in the past were unemployed back in the good ole days of a more "normal" economy, when jobs were available and there weren't hundreds of applicants for every position. I left jobs and found new ones back then and I never took unemployment. Never. The notion was so foreign to me. I am independent and capable and willing to struggle to make it. The thought of taking "a handout" like unemployment benefits never crossed my mind.

But then along came this recession. I've heard it said that back in the Great Depression they used to say, "If you have a job, it's a recession. If you don't have a job, it's a Depression." How true. How horribly, painfully true.

Few of us living today were alive for the Great Depression, but I'm sure we've all seen the pictures. The soup lines, the men gathered early in the morning hoping to be picked for day labor jobs, the families living in boxes and gathered around barrels of burning garbage for warmth. Go rent "Sea Biscuit" or "Cinderella Man" if you can't remember. Take a look at the family with the lovely home sitting around their dinner table discussing literature who bought the horse for their son. And watch that family, middle class to upper middle class at the least, who lost everything - everything - and became homeless like millions of other Americans at that time; to the point of even having to send their child away to make sure he would have a roof over his head and food on his plate.

Two years ago when I watched these movies, I thought something like that could never happen in my America again. But I was wrong. It can happen - it is happening - right now. We just aren't seeing it quite yet.

And why not? Well, because this time we have - long term unemployment benefits. That's right. A "hand-out"? A "safety-net"? Maybe. But consider what is happening in our country right now -

We don't suddenly have nearly 25 million unemployed or underemployed people because 25 million hard working Americans just suddenly decided to stop working and ask for a hand out. Nor do we suddenly have upwards of 25 million unemployed or underemployed people because they're all too proud to take a job making less than their last one.

There are 25 million unemployed or underemployed Americans because there are not enough jobs for them to go to. Whether at their old wage or half of it or a quarter of it part time, there simply aren't enough employers hiring. I know this because I've applied for hundreds of jobs, trying week after week after week since I was laid off. Good jobs, silly jobs, jobs I'm under-qualified for, jobs I'm overqualified for, part time, full time, permanent and temporary. I've developed several dozen different resumes accentuating different parts of my experience for different positions. I've written impressive and professional cover letters. I've schmoozed. I've begged. But no matter what I do, the answer has been the same. No. Over the past six months I generally hear nothing back at all.

And I read the blogs and forums and comments left by thousands of my fellow unemployed Americans. I've heard of a handful, maybe a dozen tops, that seem to me to be "milking the system". But not most of us. Not the great, tortured majority of us. We are doing everything we can and are beside ourselves with worry and sadness - For the loss of our homes, our cars, our credit, our treasured possessions, everything we've worked for and accumulated over our lifetimes when things were "normal" and we had a chance. Perhaps many of us, like me, have lost ourselves a little in the process, too; not sure what our worth is anymore, having a hard time remembering what it felt like to be self-sufficient and productive and even respected. We wonder what good our educations were. What good all the saving and struggling and building of our lives was for. But more so, much, much more so, we are worried and sad for our children. How will we feed them? How will we clothe them? Where will they sleep when we're thrown out of our homes? How will we keep them warm and safe? What does it do to them to see us cry?

I don't mean to tell you a sob story just to gain your sympathy. I'm hoping to get you to understand. And I'm not sure you do. You see, we are just you ... on another day. Regular folks that live or lived next door. Hard working. Families. Singles. Men. Women. Some perfectly healthy. Some with health problems. We lost our jobs, good jobs, good careers, with good pay and often good benefits, through no fault of our own. Heck, I was one of the first to go because I was one of the highest paid. We are not lazy. We are not "shirkers". And Mr. Hatch - with all due respect, Sir - most of us are certainly not drug addicts.

Do you understand that all that's kept America from looking like the Great Depression, with our own tent-cities and Obamavilles and bread lines and homeless people everywhere - are long term unemployment benefits? Do you understand what will happen if Congress doesn't reinstate those long term unemployment benefits soon? Already over a million people have been cut off, myself included. Without long term unemployment benefits, several hundred thousand more will run out of benefits every week from here. It is only a matter of time before our landlords and mortgage holders will have to throw us out; until our cars will be towed away, until we run out of places to stay. Rather than unemployment benefits, the government will instead have to increase welfare benefits.
(Read: "Five Reasons Benefits Should Be Extended") Did you realize that of all the foley of the so-called, "stimulus" bill, one of the few parts of that bill that actually had an economy stimulating effect was the unemployment benefits extension money. According to the CBO, unemployment benefits help the economy by $1.93 for every dollar given to the unemployed.

I know it hurts to think your taxes are going to someone who isn't working. I don't want to have to take your money. I want to make my own. But consider, too, that if millions of people stop paying mortgages and rent and utilities and car payments and for gas and groceries, a fresh tsunami of foreclosures will ensue, more bankruptcies, more repossessions, and more businesses will have to lay off or close. They you may be the one who winds up joining us. Another American who loses his chair when the music stops. Unfortunately, you know, the game's not over. Not by a long shot.

So, yes, this conservative believes in long term unemployment benefits - for the current economic situation that America is in. I believe in it for me and my child, because I'm a normal, selfish, self-interested human being. But I also believe in it for you, my employed friends, and for my country as well. I don't want you to end up like me. I don't want your home value to drop further. I don't want you to lose your job. I don't want you to lose everything you have. I don't want you to have to feel the worry and the sadness and the hopelessness that I, and so very many of our fellow Americans, are feeling.

Please remember that unemployed Americans didn't do this to the economy or even to ourselves. Politicians did. Our government did. And our government is now continuing to take us on a death spiral which may bring down our entire economy and create anarchy much like that we've seen recently in Greece.

Please support long term unemployment benefits for the sake of the unemployed, for your sake and for the sake of the country. Contrary to what many seem to believe, jobs will not suddenly appear when our unemployment benefits are taken away. Quite the opposite is likely.

And then please, please take a look - dig deeper - into what your elected officials are doing and why. I am saddened - and terrified - that the Senate was not able to pass HR-4213, the Unemployment Benefits "Extenders" bill, but I did not support the Democrats' version of the bill which would add billions of dollars to the deficit. We need to support those that are trying to provide us with long term unemployment benefits without further damaging our economy and adding to the debt. Senator John Thune (R-S. Dak) and the Republicans had presented an amendment to that bill that did just that, but the Democrats turned it down. It would have fully paid for all of the provisions of the bill, unemployment benefits included, and would have actually reduced the deficit by $68 billion. That's the kind of leadership we need. Public servants that take care of the needs of all of us, not just one group or another. (To learn more about Sen Thune's proposal, click here.)

Jobs will be created and this economy turned around when we stop straining the resources of the private sector and free it up to produce again. Be ready to vote for real,positive change in November - and in 2012. We need to all stand together to make it through this very difficult time.

Thank you for listening. God Bless.