Hillary Rodham Clinton: Helping the Jobless

The New York Times ^ | 09/20/2002 | HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON

[Pokey78]

WASHINGTON — For 23 years, Felix Batista rode the elevator up 106 floors to work as a member of the wait staff at the Windows on the World restaurant. On Sept. 11, everything changed. Mr. Batista was on vacation with his family, and that decision saved his life. That day, he lost 73 coworkers and his job.

While the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks has come and gone, in New York the needs born out of that tragedy remain. Each step that we take — whether it is investing $20.9 billion for cleanup and recovery or financing programs to track the health of rescue workers and volunteers at ground zero — will bring New York closer to recovery.

But today, the city's unemployment rate has skyrocketed to 8 percent. Across the state, 553,000 New Yorkers are out of work, with company layoffs and plant closings happening everywhere from Niagara Falls to Rochester. Now 135,000 New Yorkers like Mr. Batista have exhausted their unemployment benefits and are struggling to pay their bills.

At this time last year, 800,000 Americans had been out of work for six months or longer. That number has nearly doubled to 1.5 million and it is expected to increase to more than 2 million by December.

Congress must act quickly to extend unemployment insurance and disaster unemployment assistance, each for an additional 13 weeks. With more people losing their benefits every day, these extensions have to be passed before Congress adjourns.

During the recession of the early 90's, Congress extended temporary benefits five times. This year, even in the wake of massive terrorist attacks on our own soil, we have extended benefits only once, and once is not enough.

The economy was already in a recession on Sept. 10. It was devastated on Sept. 11, and is stalled now. Some forecasters say we are experiencing a "jobless recovery" — one in which stockbrokers, electricians, insurance agents, computer technicians, textile workers and restaurant workers have formed lines many blocks long to attend job fairs. New revelations about corporate irresponsibility and illegality have added more doubt to an already weakened economy.

Extending unemployment insurance would put money into the hands of the very people who will turn right around and put it back into our economy. In 1999, the Department of Labor found that when unemployment insurance is extended, every dollar in benefits generates $2.15 in gross domestic product. Giving more purchasing power to the more than 8 million Americans who are currently unemployed would be a powerful stimulus for our economy.

After Sept. 11, it was clear we needed a serious push for homeland security. Now we need to restore a measure of economic security to all Americans, and extending unemployment benefits is a responsible and affordable way to do so.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is a Democratic senator from New York.

[fineright]

I remember someone said something about a broken clock....

[Mulder]

The high unemployment rates are caused directly by the confiscatory and regulating policies of the bureucrats like Hitlery. Now they propose an ever bigger expansion of gov't to solve the problems they created in the first place.

It's all about problem.... reaction.... solution.

The forces of tyranny create the problem, then manipulate the reaction using their stooges in the media, and finally propose a solution which eventually creates an even bigger problem, and the cycle repeats.

[hole_n_one]

Clinton uses the tragic events of 9/11/01 as a backdrop in her efforts to garner petty political points for the uninspiring issue of unemployment insurance.

What a sleazebag!

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Shouldn't this say "paid advertisement"? Or is the NY Times now printing pure propaganda without any pretense of professionalism?

The Decline of American Journalism, NY Times, 1800s.

[diamond6]

Gag me! It has been one year and these people still need money to be on the dole? The money they get from unemployment will be trivial for most of the people she wants to help. Anybody with a decent job could not live on unemployment benefits. If it were me, and I didn't have a job after a year, I'd find another location in the country to work. Why do we need to establish one more welfare program? I have another question, what happen to the hundreds of millions of dollars that were donated to Red Cross and other organizations?!

[A CA Guy]

And so the race for President in 2008 has begun.

[cicada]

I would almost be in favor of giving these people in NYC and Washington a six month exemption from federal income taxes to help them get back on their feet, rather than a direct payout. Give them a taste of freedom and see what happens!
I am one compassionate SOB.

[diamond6]

And so the race for President in 2008 has begun.

I don't think she'll be getting the New York vote, based upon the reception she received at the post- 9/11 events in New York, immediately after 9/11.

[diamond6]

There you go! That's a much more creative approach, and it actually encourages them to get jobs on their own.

[A CA Guy]

There are a lot of liberals who would elect a ham sandwich if it was a Democrat and a Clinton has become an icon to them. THE PEOPLE WHO GOT AWAY WITH ANYTHING.

[cicada]

I'm just waiting to be appointed King.

[BulletBrasDotNet]

Well, let's think about this, my great-great-great-great-great-great-grand-father who was a Welsh man. And, he was speared (no fire arms back then). Now I want reparations. I'm really upset that I cnnot resolve this issue. Does anyone have any ideas? Is Mrs. Clinton the best resource? I'm thinking probably so since she has a lot o money, around $12,000,000 and knows a lot about "The Children."

Cheers from a normal family.

[hosepipe]

"I would think that if you understood what Communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees, that we would someday become communists."
-Jane "Hanoi" Fonda, Michigan State University, 1970

I know it's about Hiterly, but is their a difference. Only that Hiterly is much more dangerous than Jane.

[tjg]

What makes you think she will wait for '08?

[BushMeister]

Hillary Clinton: Jobbing the Helpless

[A CA Guy]

People need longer to let her bad deeds fade from their minds.
Plus over that time she could build a record for the purpose of running - for the children of course.

That's just what I think.

[ikka]

Looks like an "in-kind" political donation by the NYT to me.

[Joy Angela]

Hillary Clinton: Jobbing the Helpless

Hey, that's what my eyes read too!

[johnny7]

Move to MA. We make a business of it.