House passes jobless benefits extension

Rueters ^ | 7/1/10 | Donna Smith

[Kartographer]

The House voted 270-153 to restore benefits for more than 1 million people whose payments ran out in early June. The measure would extend the federal long-term jobless aid program through November and retroactively restore benefits to eligible people.

But the Senate has rejected several attempts to extend jobless benefits amid worries about record budget deficits, and it is not scheduled to address the issue again until mid-July.

[katiedidit1]

A few of the Rino’s are Mary Bono of Calif, Bilbray of Calif, Gus Bilirakis of Fla, Rep Cao of La.
You can check all the votes at project roll call.
http://www.opencongress.org/vote/2010/h/423

[RebelTXRose]

Thanks - grandbaby to be (any day now) will be in Dallas area. Certainly thinking EAST TX - away from the city.

[John D]

You do not think 99 weeks is enough to find a job? How long do you think we need to keep paying you to sit on your butt complaining?
No I have never been unemployed. That is because I always know I could be next and ALWAYS work harder than the person next to me.
WalMart is ALWAYS hiring.

[siamesecats]

Here’s a novel idea folks, and this is what I have done to secure a job after I was laid off.
I was informed last July that I would be laid off in November.
I applied for a particular job in September, secured the position in November, but I had one problem: I wasn’t laid off yet.
I didn’t actually lose my job until February of this year.
Here’s the kicker: I would collect severance pay, so I told my new employer that I would work NO CHARGE until my severance pay ran out.
Then I would be put on the payroll.
And that’s how I got my new job.

[ottbmare]

I don't know how long it will take to find a job. I've been looking for more than a year, and so have most of the people in my office. (More than 500 of us have been laid off in the past six months, but we had plenty of warning and were trying to get training and find new positions starting last summer.) NO ONE in my office over 40 has found a new job. I know the company valued me--I was one of the last half-dozen to be let go before the office closed forever--so my inability to find a new job isn't due to laziness, as you seem to hint.

Walmart already has an application on file from me. Maybe you'd like to call them up for me and ask them why they never asked me in for an interview; their HR office doesn't accept calls from job applicants so I'm in the dark. Or maybe the local Walmart really isn't hiring middle-aged white ladies with no experience at retail work and no ability to lift things.

Save your supercilious lectures. You could be in our shoes, no matter how hard you've worked. Millions of extremely competent, hard-working, focused people have been laid off. I truly believe that people like you who say "it couldn't happen to me, I'm too good" are whistling past the graveyard. You are just hoping it doesn't happen to you, too.

And by the way, so far you haven't been paying me to "sit on [my] butt complaining". I am not sitting on my butt; indeed, I am devoting half my waking hours to searching for a job and the other half to trying to start a business. I have yet to see a dime in unemployment compensation, but when I do it will be a combination of my employer's contributions and my own, per my pay stubs.

You have a rather cold nature, sir. This is not a noble trait. Perhaps your soul would be improved by a spell of hardship.

[dfwgator]

I applied for a particular job in September, secured the position in November, but I had one problem: I wasn’t laid off yet.

That's why you got the job....it's easier to get a job when you already have one.

[Gene Eric]

I’m under the impression the extension is for extended benefits, not the initial unemployment benefits folks normally receive. I don’t think the basic unemployment program was ever in jeopardy. I could be wrong.

[John D]

I am not complaining about people who draw unemployment for a short time. My complaint is that why should it be extended past 99 weeks. I think it was originally set for a max of 13 weeks, then extended to 26, then a year, now it is 99 weeks and they now want to extend that. The extensions are what bothers me.

[hsmomx3]

It is people like you who have no idea what this job market is like and you sound like one of those Republican types who sit in their comfort zone thinking those little people out there—it is their fault for what they are going through.

Sorry, but here in Arizona, jobs are not that easy to find, not even in the fast food places, and not even at Wal-Mart.

Let’s see you try and make a house payment and pay all utilities and auto insurance on $240 per week! I have done it and yep, I have three kids as well.

[hsmomx3]

What you have described is very true not only here in Arizona but also in other parts of the country as I have friends who have friends going through this same exact thing.

[John D]

you sound like one of those Republican types who sit in their comfort zone thinking those little people out there—it is their fault for what they are going through.

Well I an a Republican, (I am not sure about you) and I did live in AZ and had two children. I was in the restaurant business (pizza). The pizza business in the early to mid 80s in both Tucson and Phoenix was becoming very saturated. I saw the end coming, so I moved to GA. Did I really want to move to GA, NO. I took the initiative to start my own business. I did not sit around collecting unemployment feeling sorry for myself.
Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

[Oceander]

[hsmomx3]

I am not feeling sorry for myself. I am however, thankful to God that He has allowed us to have a roof over our heads and food on the table.

Glad you could move as some of us have ZERO dollars and could not do that although I have thought about it. Not to mention, the car would not make it cross-country. Yes, I am a registered Republican as well.

It is hard for people to understand these times and easy to put us all in one basket and label us the same. We have skills and we utilize them, and we look for jobs, and we keep up with it more than you will know.

[hsmomx3]

Could never be done here in AZ as the most anyone can receive is $240 per week!

[Soothesayer9]

I hope you find something soon! Your story is touching, to say the least. And ignore the crankier freepers here who troll and poke fun at the less fortunate. God will deal with them in time.

[Gideon7]

Anyone who was laid off between Sept 1 2008 and May 31 2010 gets a free COBRA ‘subsidy’. Despite what you may have read, this ‘subsidy’ is actually paid by the employer not the govt. That is, the employer pays the COBRA premium directly to the health insurance company. The employer must later file with the IRS to ask to have the amount offset against the employer’s tax return at some later date.