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 ...
Last I heard he was going to start including people in Mexico in on the Social Security system ---that will lead to a huge Social Security tax increast to American citizens and probably a cutting of benefits.
I think he loses this election when he gives our Social Security program to Fox and cuts Americans off unemployment benefits.
I think you have this concept all wrong. From what a can tell, people of various ethnic heritages are doing work and running businesses that Americans don't want to be bothered with.. Now the economy isn't so good and people are looking for excuses.
You got that right. Check out monster.com for Maine. Looks like someone's hiring:
http://jobsearch.monster.com/jobsearch.asp?cy=US&re=14&brd=1%2C1862%2C1863&lid=464&fn=&q=&sort=rv&vw=b
I got downsized 10 years ago. Nobody gave a sh@t back then. Nobody came to my defense and handed me a job. After 5 months of getting the layoff notice, I got a new job at about 2/3 of the pay of my previous job. It is a total waste of time to complain about being laid off. People that are laid off shouldn't be b#tching and moaning on FR. They should be directing their efforts at job hunting. Maybe JR should put up a job search catagory.
In Oregon, if you go to school, you are not available for work. End of your unemployment benefits as income. A counselor at the employment office kindly warns people filing for benefits of this tidbit.
A great incentive to go to school.
Personal example: I am in a VERY competitive field. As a conservative, 90% of the deck is stacked against me in academics. As a white, I automatically cannot even teach 2/3s of the courses offered/hired for. I came out with 10 other people (Ph.D.s), virtually all of them smarter than me. Many had "bigger name" advisors. One guy had even been on the cover of people for his "research" (actually, a woman gave him a trunk with some of Washington's personal letters in it!).
This is not to brag, but to make a point: I was the only one of all those people (as far as I know, and I watch the faculty rosters) to get a full time tenured job.
What did I do? First, I was willing to move, immediately, wherever. I taught at a TINY school in the Wisconsin system just to get a "university" job. Second, I took part-time or non-tenured work, just to get my foot in the door. First time I did that, the faculty (almost all liberals) gave me a tenure track job, and I was tenured in record time, then promoted in record time.
Third, I outworked everyone. I published more than the rest of the department, put togehter; I taught GOOD classes, and I wrote outside of academia whenever I could.
Again, this is not to beat my drum, but to show you that if I---in a field as set against white conservatives as you can possibly get---can beat out better-qualified, smarter people, mainly by hard work and a willingness to do what it takes, I have trouble believing that in ANY other field it can be harder.
I always viewed "my" job as MY JOB. I had to make myself so valuable that no one could let me go. Too many people take their job for granted---not that they aren't happy to have it, but that they don't understand that THEY are responsible for ensuring their own continued employment.
Your one of the lucky ones, and I commend you for it!!! I am just thankful that DFAS moved into the old Loring Air Force Base and so thankful that my husband landed a job there! He has three years to go before retirement, so hopefully, DFAS will be here at least that long! The economy is so bad! Darlene
This is my point: if you (and not you personally!) REALLY want work, you will go wherever it requires, and take whatever job will get you the most money. You will not, as Randy Quaid ("cousin Eddie" in Christmas Vacation) says, "hold out for a management position."
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