Posted on 12/28/2002 5:19:43 AM PST by GailA
800,000 Jobless Americans to Lose Aid 800,000 Jobless Americans Set to Lose Aid After Congress Ends Year Without Extending Benefits
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON Dec. 28 — Already facing a sputtering economy and slow hiring, nearly 800,000 unemployed Americans face a new woe Saturday when their federal unemployment benefits end.
Democrats and labor unions, sensing political opportunity, are blaming the cuts on President Bush and Republicans in Congress. Bush, in a late show of support for an extension, urged Congress last week to get it done when lawmakers return to work next month.
"Regrettably, the House Republican leadership turned their backs on these families and refused to act, and the administration chose not to intervene before Congress adjourned," Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said Friday. "This inaction by Republicans was unconscionable then and it is even more so now."
Congress left for the year without extending the federal benefits, meaning that 750,000 to 800,000 unemployed workers will get cut off Saturday. Another 95,000 jobless workers will exhaust their state benefits each week afterward. Already, 1 million people have exhausted all of their benefits.
There were two competing bills that languished: A $5 billion plan from the Democrat-controlled Senate that would have extended benefits 13 weeks for people now receiving them or who were newly eligible, and a $900 million plan from the GOP-led House for five extra weeks for workers in a few states with high unemployment rates.
"It's unfortunate that the Senate didn't pick up our unemployment package and pass it," said John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.
Bush has now sent a "very strong message" to Congress to extend the benefits and make them retroactive, said Labor Department spokeswoman Kathleen Harrington. The agency is confident that benefits will be extended, she said, and has been relaying that to many governors who are calling with questions.
Some states will continue to process claims for benefits and at least one state, Idaho, will keep paying them with the expectation that funding will be available early next year, she said.
Democratic lawmakers rallied Friday in New York to put pressure on their Republican colleagues. Also, the AFL-CIO arranged a news conference in New York City featuring several unemployed workers whose benefits are being cut off.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Sounds great in principle. In practice, workers who earned a high wage but got laid off in hard times will be passed over for these low paying jobs, because the employers know these workers will quit as soon as times get better or otherwise do find that elusive high paying job. It's called being overqualified. This can't be fixed without making it illegal to discriminate in hiring based on being overqualified.
Whatever Uncle Sam does, unemployment benefits at the state level are conducted as an insurance program not a general tax funded dole. The payments max out well below the poverty level, and to get benefits the beneficiary must be available for work and documentably looking for work. If these benefits go away then the recipients will fall on welfare which is even worse.
Should have been doing that when they had a job-- wanna bet prayer came only afterwards for most of them?
" The Dems have defined the argument, and the spineless GOP was sucked right in. It's win-win for dems and the welfare queens; and nothing but losses for Conservatives and productive Americans. "
You: Should have been doing that when they had a job-- wanna bet prayer came only afterwards for most of them?
Me: Didn't I say that? LOL!
If your under 35 and can't find a job, there is always the military. I am sure they are hiring these days. I would say give a hand virsus expecting a handout.
When would it be OK with you to stop these extensions?
Business is back now, and I never had to depend on ANY government welfare in the meantime. (still have the waiting job 1 or 2 days per week)
Bush is just paying lip service to this, the extension is not going to happen.
A full time shift at Mcdonalds pays the same weekly as the max weekly unemployment benefit. People will have to get a job is all.
This is a non-issue to everybody except the stupid rats and their partners in crime in the press.
Joblessness and falling salaries, home foreclosures might be a non-issue to some ----but it's not a non-issue to those in that spot and the Republicans better realize it if they want to win the next election. I know the democrats are only liars but when you get desperate and gullible voters, the results could be terrible.
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