You guy's really need to take the blinders off, the unemployed aren't getting screwed by the R's, let's face it, they are getting screwed by both the D's and the R's. The D's are no more willing to pass the R's proposal to extend benefits than the R's are to pass the D's!! Here's what the R's had to say on the issue, which in turn was shot down by the D's:

Press Releases
Jun 24 2010
Extending Benefits Without Extending the Debt
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement Thursday regarding a short-term extension of unemployment Insurance benefits, COBRA subsidy, flood insurance program, small business lending program, and 2009 poverty guidelines:

“The Majority Leader wants to make this debate about Republicans opposing something.
“The only thing Republicans have opposed in this debate are job-killing taxes and adding to the national debt.
“We’ve offered ways of paying for these programs, and we’ve been eager to approve them.
“What we’re not willing to do is use worthwhile programs as an excuse to burden our children and our grandchildren with an even bigger national debt than we’ve already got.
“So the biggest reason the cloture vote we just had failed is because Democrats simply refuse to pass a bill that doesn’t add to the debt.
“That’s the principle they’re really fighting for in this debate.
“I’ll even prove it.

“In a moment, I’ll offer a one-month extension of the expired Unemployment Insurance benefits, COBRA subsidy, flood insurance program, small business lending program, and 2009 poverty guidelines.

“This extension would be fully paid using the very same stimulus funds that Democrats just voted — almost unanimously — to redirect for these purposes. Let me repeat that: we would pay for this extension with a Democrat-approved stimulus offset.

“If the Democrats object to extending these programs using their own stimulus offset to pay for them, then they'll be saying loud and clear that their commitment to deficit spending trumps their desire to help the unemployed.

“So let’s be clear about the principle that’s really at stake here.

“Are Democrats willing to extend these programs without adding to the debt? That’s the real question in this debate.”

So what happens, the D's shoot it down because it was an R proposal.

Let's face it, THE SYSTEM IS BROKE and you can point all the fingers you want, but the cause of it being broke is coming from BOTH sides!!!

I would love nothing more than to do away with the R and the D in front of a candidates name ..... no parties ...... run on your merits and may the best person win ( I know it's a pipe dream that will NEVER happen) and if you don't do what's best for the PEOPLE, we will vote your arse out too!

Maybe this attempt to extend unemployment assistance will gain traction, being that is proposed by another R does it have a chance?

NewsHome / Newsroom / News Jun 30 2010
Brown Offers Bill To Break Logjam On Funding For State Programs Without Raising Taxes Or Increasing National Debt
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) will introduce the Fiscally Responsible Relief For Our States Act of 2010. This bill would break the logjam on funding for unemployment assistance, FMAP and summer jobs without raising taxes or adding to the national debt.

The bill would be fully paid for by using unspent and unobligated funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and by cutting wasteful and unnecessary federal spending in other areas.

Hey, is that the same American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that the Rs fought tooth and nail against? The one they said wouldn't help out Americans?

Go figure.

And the first attempt by the R's to utilize funds from it to extend unemployment assistance was shot down by the D's ........ go figure!

Job report coming out soon will tell the story. Huge portion of the job increases lately were census workers and subtract them the last quarter gain was small.

This is the catch 22. You can continue to try and prop up state and local governments that have stretched themselves out rather than cut. Or redirect federal & state spending toward working folks from the private sector that have been hammered and suspend non critical federal and state programs. Then you have have targeted tax increases and reductions aimed at economic targets and job growth. Which is what this last trillion stimulus was NOT.

It is going to happen sooner or later anyway but later I think. What makes me wonder though is the blue dog D's, they appear to be saying enough is enough to BOTH sides. We can only hope that the moderates of both parties can come together and force the issue both ways. Give the blue dog D's credit they hit first but they have to get through the next election cycle and that looks tough.

You dont call it a "stimulus" bill anymore. Remember hank.....it is now the "American recovery and reinvestment act". Kind of like changing the name of a "turd" to an "instant wieght loss, relief of stomach pains, great for fertilizer, happy happy fun biscuit".

It's all in the presentation.

Why does it matter if the jobs are government? Don't gov't employees spend their money around town just like everyone else? The bottom line is: the more people spending money, the better the economy becomes.

Just imagine how many more jobs would have been lost without the stimulus. Most notable economists have said the stimulus brought us back from the brink of financial ruin. Many even claim that the real problem is that the stimulus wasn't big enough.

What the - HOLY SH!T!

Jesus Christ.............Red I am going back to drinking. What does it matter if they are goverment employees..............

No, really. For the sake of turning the economy around, why does it matter who signs your paycheck? It's still basic economics: the more people that spend money buying things, the more demand for products. The more demand for products, the more jobs. The more jobs, the more people with money to buy things.

[rant]
The problem most people have with government employees is that it's your tax dollars going to pay them to buy things. Them being people like cops, firefighters, EMT personnel, military, school teachers, etc. All middle class kind of folks. But those same people won't bat an eye going into the local Home Depot to buy some widget that's been marked up 300%. That mark up? CEO tax. People don't seem to care that the money they spend on many things has an inherent tax that puts the CEO in the upper 1%, PLUS dividends to other 1%'ers.

I know, I know; you choose to buy that widget, you don't choose to pay the salary of public employees. So it all boils down to an "all about me" control issue. Some just can't stand the thought of someone else telling them they need to pay to support so-and-so.

It's called society for a reason. [/rant]

Well if you are in the Army then you need to take advantage of their physiological counseling because frankly your brain has a severe malfunction that normal processes will not resolve for you. If your not military get help someplace...........................

All wingnuts have is insults... 'cause facts continually elude them.

Guess that makes KK the king of all wingnuts

KK, how does it feel to be such a Drunk loser ? It must be real painfull to look at yourself in the mirror. You epitomize the angry Left, and are nothing but a coward. You would do yourself a big favor if you would seek the help you sorely need.

Obama on the stimulus: Hey, at least unemployment’s not at 15%


Remember back before he was sworn in, when his economic team was pushing that chart that showed unemployment topping out at eight percent or so if we gave him whatever moneybomb he asked for? Those days are looooong gone; now, instead of talking about how much higher the unemployment rate is than he thought it’d be, we’re talking about how much higher it could have been without that $787 billion bomb. And the nice thing about that, of course, is that he can slap any horrifying figure he wants on his worst-case scenario to make the current figures look rosy. For the moment he’s restricting himself to “12 or 13 or 15 percent,” but if he’s staring at a giant Republican wave come October, I bet that estimate will bump up to 20 or 25 percent in no time. Keep moving those goalposts, champ.
Oh, by the way: Not only is it entirely untrue that “every economist who’s looked at it said that the recovery [act] did its job,” but not even every Keynesian who’s looked at said it did its job. Click the image to watch....


http://hotair.com/archives/2010/06/30/obama-on-the-stimulus-hey-at-least-unemployments-not-at-15/

Harry Reid Blocks Bill to Extend Unemployment Benefits with Unspent Stimulus Funds]

The Senate failed once again late Wednesday to advance a plan to restore jobless benefits for people out of work more than six months, leaving millions of unemployed workers in limbo until after the July 4 recess.

The measure fell one vote shy of the 60 needed to end a Republican filibuster. Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) said he was prepared to provide that vote, but that Democrats had rejected his request to pay for at least half of the $34 billion measure with unspent funds from last year's stimulus package.

"Democrats are more interested in having this issue to demagogue for political gamesmanship than they are in simply passing the benefits extension," Voinovich, who is retiring, said in a statement. "I came to the table with a fair compromise and the ball is in their court."

Mitch McConnell asked for the Senate's consent to pass a two-month extension of unemployment benefits that would be paid for with unspent stimulus funds. And Senate Democrats, led by Harry Reid, objected. They wouldn't even meet Voinovich halfway. Why not? If there's a better explanation than Voinovich's claim that they ....
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/harr...-stimulus-funds

Is there anything in these extensions that starts to lower the payment? Seems to me that if someone can't get a job in a year or more, that it becomes more and more likely that a lower paying job and lifestyle is in the future. Wouldn't it be smarter to continue the payments but at lower and lower rates, maybe with provisions to subsidize any lower paying job to encourage people to be able to contribute to the economy, if possible.

What needs to be done is quit giving extensions! If these people are cut off without a goddamn dime, I think starvation will be a great motivator for finding a job. I have a neighbor who just had his truck and boat repoed, house is next, because he refuses to take a job that pays less than he previously made, which ironically pays more than his unemployment. He's in Real Estate and won't even consider a job in another field. He used to be a software engineer/developer for Intel. The guy is obviously lazy and full of excuses, unfortunately he's taking his family down with him.

Contrary to right-wing mythology... nobody, and I mean NOBODY can actually live off of unemployment for any extended period of time. The cap here in WA is $600 a week I believe? And to make that, you have to have been earning more than 50k a year. The national average of unemployment benefits being paid out is about $200 a week. Yeah boy... them lazy deadbeats are livin' it up for sure on that fat stack!

Unemployment isn't some welfare giveaway either. The money for it has been paid into a fund by the employee and the employer. It's called Unemployment INSURANCE after all.

The thing that continually amazes and saddens me about the right-wingers is that they ALWAYS think their fellow poor and middle-class citizens are tryin' to get one over on them. Yet they continually allow those who really ARE gettin' over on them to keep them distracted and angry at the wrong people? They happily go through life as political and corporate dupes and I just don't get it?

Why do war supplementals have to increase the deficit Hank?

Why do corporate tax giveaways have to increase the deficit Hank?

The Stimulus money has already been specifically allocated... and you republitards would be screamin' even more bloody murder if the Dems took money away to pay for something else.

A LOT of hard-working Americans are still in dire financial straights thanks to 30 years of Reaganomics. WHY can't you wingnuts put the hate aside for just a little while for the good of your fellow working-class citizens and the country as a whole?

If unemployment benefits help to stimulate the economy, why won't the Deems use unspent "stimulus" money to finance those extensions? Why does it have to increase the deficit?


Sitting down Hankster?

I agree.

But here's the thing. When Obama took over we were losing jobs at a truly scary pace. I don't know-no one knows - what would have happened if we hadn't done the bailouts and passed the stimulus. (Remember at the time of the bailouts the Rs were fully on board. In fact, Bush asked for no strings on his massive plan.) We might have had a truly awful outcome, possibly even worse than the great depression, had we done nothing.
The scary thing is we may just get to see what happens when we stop the stimulus money. I can’t see things getting better, but time will tell. I think we are at a truly worrisome crossroads. If we do nothing I expect a second perhaps even worse recession. If we pour money on it we will be pouring gasoline on the conflagration that is our national debt. What do you think we should do?