Posted on 01/07/2014 1:56:28 PM PST by lbryce
President Obama on Tuesday praised senators for advancing emergency legislation to extend unemployment insurance benefits and urged lawmakers to approve the measure and send it to him quickly.
Speaking at an event in the East Room of the White House just moments after the 60-37 vote in the Senate, Mr. Obama said that the legislation would restore benefits to millions of people who are struggling to find work in an economy that is still recovering from a deep recession.
If this doesnt get fixed, it will hurt about 14 million Americans over the course of this year, Mr. Obama said. Congress should pass this bipartisan plan right away and I will sign it right away.
The president spoke in front of a group of unemployed people who had stopped receiving government support when the emergency insurance program expired just after Christmas. Mr. Obama rejected the argument made by some Republicans that extending the benefits would remove the incentive to keep looking for a job.
Related NYT:January 8, 2014:Jobless Benefits Extension Clears One Hurdle, but More Remain
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Aye. It is the Christian thing to do for people to use their own money to help those in need. That is Charity. Taking money at gunpoint to help others is not Charity, it is thievery.
I have heard of people refusing a job so they can wait until their benefits expire. (I have a friend who thinks she can conjure up a $36k/yr job the moment her benefits expire in a couple of months despite not having any education beyond high school with no computer skills.)
They should be required to submit proof of actively looking for employment and cannot turn down a job so they can wait until their benefits expire or if it is a job that they ‘don’t like’- which I have also heard of.
And so far as my friend, I was going to help her out with bills and food but changed my mind. My taxes are helping her enough.
If we had the money and could afford it, then I would be for it too. We do not have the money and this will only increase our debt to our future generations of Americans, increase our debt to china and other foreign powers, depress the seeking of jobs (this was proved in the 1996 Welfare Reform Act) and increase the odds that America will default and find itself insolvent. You get an agreement that cancels 1 dollar of current spending for every dollar of unemployment benefits and I will gladly sign on to it.
It’s the demonrat way!
How many billions have the King and Queen’s socializing and their vacations sucked out of the US taxpayers since they took over their Kingdom?
See US Constitution, Article I, Section 7.
Not picking on you, but I am amazed at how many people express the belief that spending bills have to originate in the House.
Does this mean a friend in CT who lost her job and now goes on world cruises, the one who bitched when sequestion reduced her $475/per week unemployment, now eligible to continue collecting?
If I did the math correctly that is 8k for each unemployed person. That is about 2500$ a month.
High praise, indeed!
You are required to submit proof of looking for work. Submit an application to anyplace...and you'll get a nice "not hiring at this time" return. You don't have to submit many, many proofs either...only a couple...
The Republicans should offer to extend unemployement for 3 years if the Democrats will agree to repeal the ACA.
Serious how about a bit of statagy here.
The economy would probably actually really improve if they did this.
There is a big pile of gorrila s*** on the floor!
All this does is helps democrats. It provides cover for their policies which are destroying America.
I thought we were in the throes of an economic recovery and now everybody has free healthcare? My brain hurts!
The large part of the Senate GOP voted against this.
Next time I'm in Church I'll make sure to force someone else to pay when the collection plate comes my way./sarc
At some point, it's not longer helping; It's facilitating sloth.
It also seems to me that 99 weeks is just 5 weeks shy of TWO YEARS. You could finish an Associate Degree and retrain for an in demand job in that length of time.
Zero's comments about how unemployment insurance helps stimulate the economy is literally one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. He would fail a high school economics class if he answered that on an essay about how unemployment affects the economy.
How does the Senate control this when its a spending issue that by law has to originate in the House?
And since when did this administration ever follow the laws of this land? They do what they damn well please and the “house” once again stands by and watches.
That's liberation theology.
Christ did indeed promote charity. However, it was charity of the heart, not the Gov't forcing it upon people who are struggling to get by themselves.
If unemployment insurance is not there, people will find themselves working harder to support themselves. The dole breeds laziness in the majority of people. That's just a fact.
You have to also consider maybe ~moderate rat households, for whom, unemployment benefits and or welfare are the only thing keeping their children and grandchildren from moving back in.
All politics is local.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.