Merry Christmas from the GOP: 3 Million Stand to Lose Unemployment Benefits

The Republican Party seems Hell bent on proving that it is an uncaring, hypocritical party of the very wealthy. The latest example is the game being played over the extension of the payroll tax cut and the related issue of unemployment benefits. If a plan is not approved soon, the average family will see a $1,000 tax increase as will small business. As icing on the cake, up to 3 million of the unemployed will lose benefits. Meanwhile, the Republicans are fighting tooth and claw to block any tax increase on those with incomes of over $1 million a year. Merry Christmas GOP style. What's dumbfounding is that the lunatics in the Tea Party somehow continue to believe that their Republican elected officials give a rat's ass as to what happens to the average Tea Party supporter. I guess the only explanation is that since about 85% of the Tea Party crowd also identify themselves as conservative Christians - members of the Christian Right if you will - we are seeing another display of the rejection of objective reality and the embracing of ignorance. Here are highlights from a New York Times story on the ass backwards GOP values:

More than three million people stand to lose unemployment insurance benefits in the near future because of an impasse in Congress over how to extend the aid and how to offset the cost.

Jobless benefits have been overshadowed by debate on a payroll tax cut, but have become a huge sticking point in negotiations on a bill that deals with both issues. Republicans would continue aid for some of the unemployed, but would sharply reduce the maximum duration of benefits and impose strict new requirements on people seeking or receiving aid.

Democrats said these changes made no sense at a time when 45 percent of jobless workers had been unemployed for more than half a year and the average duration of unemployment — 41 weeks — was higher than at any time in 60 years.

They are toying with people’s lives. I’m getting really scared and nervous.” Mr. Grandstaff said he was making $43,000 a year when he was laid off in March from the collections department of a major cellphone company. Now he is working at a part-time job for $8 an hour and hoping the position will lead to full-time work.

Brenda G. Crosier, 52, of Northglenn, Colo., outside Denver, is also at risk of losing extended unemployment benefits. She said she applied for five to eight jobs a week but rarely received responses . . . .

Major provisions of the federal unemployment insurance program begin expiring in the first week of January, and people would begin to feel the effects over the next several months. By mid-February, the Labor Department estimates, 2.2 million workers would have lost jobless benefits, and by the end of March, 3.6 million will be affected. People in states with the highest unemployment rates would be among the hardest hit.

Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, said: “I don’t see why you have to go more than 59 weeks. In fact, we need some incentives for people to get back to work. A lot of these people don’t want to work unless they get really high-paying jobs, and they’re not going to get them ever. So they just stay home and watch television. I don’t mean to malign people, but far too many are doing that.”

Representative Jim McDermott, Democrat of Washington, said the Republican proposals amounted to “the most drastic attack on the unemployment system” in 75 years.

Democrats say the program has reduced poverty and helped stabilize the economy, reducing the depth of the last recession. Republicans say the benefits have led some people to reduce their efforts to find new jobs. Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, said: “The problem is not a lack of effort for those seeking a job. The problem is a lack of jobs.”

The fact that those receiving unemployment are real people with real families to support seems lost on most Republicans in Congress. Apparently, if one doesn't have the means to write a fat campaign contribution check, you no longer count in the GOP's increasingly sick world view. I know a number of people currently seeking jobs and sadly, the jobs aren't there.

Message to the GOP: Stop Punishing the Unemployed

I know a number of individuals who lost their jobs in connection with the on going economic meltdown and who after months of job seeking are still unemployed. Now they either have losted their unemployment benefits or are faced with their unemployment benefits ceasing. Why? Because the GOP has repeatedly killed the extension of unemployment benefits citing the need for fiscal responsibility and fighting the deficit. Pork for pet projects and throwing billions of dollars (and thousands of US lives) down the toilet in Iraq and Afghanistan doesn't count and isn't even on the table for discussion. Truth be told, Republicans seem to care nothing about the unemployed and seem to have a mindset that anyone unemployed is in that status through their own fault. As for the Christianists in the GOP base, they conveniently ignore the Gospel message to help the poor and feed the hungry. Instead they chant a no tax mantra and prefer to leave the unemployed to wither and die. Thus, the "party of family values" cares nothing about financially desperate families - nor do self-congratulatory, self-anointed Christians who care only about themselves. Paul Krugman has a column in Sunday's New York Times that properly takes the GOP to task for its hypocritical and heartless mindset. Here are some highlights:
*
There was a time when everyone took it for granted that unemployment insurance, which normally terminates after 26 weeks, would be extended in times of persistent joblessness. It was, most people agreed, the decent thing to do.
*
But that was then. Today, American workers face the worst job market since the Great Depression, with five job seekers for every job opening, with the average spell of unemployment now at 35 weeks. Yet the Senate went home for the holiday weekend without extending benefits. How was that possible?
*
The answer is that we’re facing a coalition of the heartless, the clueless and the confused. Nothing can be done about the first group, and probably not much about the second. But maybe it’s possible to clear up some of the confusion.
*
By the heartless, I mean Republicans who have made the cynical calculation that blocking anything President Obama tries to do — including, or perhaps especially, anything that might alleviate the nation’s economic pain — improves their chances in the midterm elections. Don’t pretend to be shocked: you know they’re out there, and make up a large share of the G.O.P. caucus.
*
By the clueless I mean people like Sharron Angle, the Republican candidate for senator from Nevada, who has repeatedly insisted that the unemployed are deliberately choosing to stay jobless, so that they can keep collecting benefits. . .One doubts, however, that any amount of evidence could change Ms. Angle’s view of the world — and there are, unfortunately, a lot of people in our political class just like her.
*
[A]s you may have noticed, right now the economy isn’t booming — again, there are five unemployed workers for every job opening. Cutting off benefits to the unemployed will make them even more desperate for work — but they can’t take jobs that aren’t there.
*
[A]id to the unemployed creates jobs quickly — while allowing that aid to lapse, which is what is happening right now, is a recipe for even weaker job growth, not in the distant future but over the next few months.
*
is there any chance that these arguments will get through? Not, I fear, to Republicans: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something,” said Upton Sinclair, “when his salary” — or, in this case, his hope of retaking Congress — “depends upon his not understanding it.” But there are also centrist Democrats who have bought into the arguments against helping the unemployed. It’s up to them to step back, realize that they have been misled — and do the right thing by passing extended benefits.

Sunday Reflections

While it started out beautiful and sunny this morning, as the day has progressed, the weather has taken on a threatening soon to rain look. It somewhat matches my emotions. I met my two daughters for brunch in the heart of the Great Neck area of Virginia Beach where I lived for just shy of 20 years. We had a nice time and talked about my oldest daughter’s job (she graduated with her Masters in December and has been working at a Virginia Beach high school since then), my younger daughter’s college courses and latest boy interest, my son's idea of hiking the entire Appalachian Trail, and of course politics. My oldest was at the Obama rally on February 10th and surprisingly reports that Obama seems to have support among a number of parents in her school’s district which encompasses some of the most Republican areas of Virginia Beach. All in all it was a pleasant time. I am very proud of both of my girls - smart, beautiful and nice individuals.

After brunch, I went by the cemetery where my sister and dad are buried since it is a short distance from the restaurant where we met. I rarely go there because (1) I believe once you die your soul is gone and the person is no longer there and (2) the cemetery is not far from my former neighborhood and I generally do not venture into that part of Virginia Beach very often. Since so many of my former “friends” who turned their backs on me when I came out of the closet live in that area of the city, I really have no desire to encounter the phony hypocrites. In any event, being at the cemetery made me think about a lot of things – how I wish I had been closer to my sister – keeping the “glass wall” between myself and others to protect “my secret,” I never shared as many thoughts and feelings with my sister as I should have. She was a class act and I wish she had lived long enough to know who I really am. Fortunately, my dad did get to know the real me and accepted and embraced that person.

After the cemetery and on the way back to Norfolk, I drove past my parents’ former homes – one they lived in for about two years when first moving to Virginia Beach and the other (about two blocks from the first) they owned for nearly 30 years. Happily, their house looked pretty much the same from the road, although the new owners have built a garage and redone some of the back yard which backs up to a lake where we used to canoe and water ski. Across the street from their last house, the home of a former neighbor who died about year ago had been totally replaced with a very large “McMansion” style house. Further down the street on the lake two other of the 1950’s vintage homes have been leveled and huge new homes are going up. I suspect that my parents’ home will survive the up scaling of the neighborhood since it a large house with graceful lines and a classic southern style pillared portico. Obviously, being in the neighborhood also brought back a flood of memories of all sorts, including past family gatherings and weddings (two of my sisters had their receptions at my parents' home), and even secret crushes from the past.

Sunday Evening Thoughts

I have decided that I will go to Charlottesville for Christmas and the staff and I decided we’d have the office closed tomorrow. They stayed late yesterday and got as much done as possible Friday rather than come in tomorrow. Hence, I should be able to get out of town fairly early after running a couple errands I could not do on the weekend. I will leave Bandit, my dog with Matt and Rob who spoil him when I am out of town by letting him sleep with them at night – sleeping on the bed at night is the most wonderful thing to my crazy dog. The ex-wife and my daughters went to New York City to visit my ex-in-laws (if my ears are burning, I will know why). My son is staying in town and has plans with his girlfriend.

A bunch of us went and saw the new National Treasure movie last night at the Commodore – a 1945 vintage theater that has been restored and which serves dinner at tables with plush armchairs. I enjoyed the movie and then we ended up back at Martin and Christopher’s place where Christopher made his wicked rum and vodka punch and some of us over did it (yep, I have been a bit sluggish all day). Therefore, I have spent the day today by going to church – I am back at First Lutheran for now and made it to the late service – then visiting my 92 year old aunt who has moved into an assisted living complex. Mentally, my aunt is still sharp as can be and we talked about things ranging from the state of the economy to our respective thoughts on the presidential candidates. Sadly, physically, she is not in the best of shape which is why she finally gave up her own place and recently made the move.

She is not very happy and I can well understand why. So many of the other residents (even though many are considerably younger than her) are un-talking, zombie like bumps on a log as they sit in the commons area and just stare blankly. While my aunt goes down for meals, she general retreats back to her apartment. She rightly says that it’s not like she can linger and strike up a conversation with most of the other residents. She says she feels that people are living too long. Life spans are extended, but for what if one is going to be warehoused away. I suspect that there are so many elderly across the country in similar settings. My sister who is local and I, as well as my ex-wife who my aunt has remained close with my aunt (my aunt stayed neutral somehow throughout the divorce wars), are going to make a determined effort to visit my aunt as frequently as possible.

The downside of going to visit my mom is that I will have to go to Catholic Church with her for Christmas. As most readers know, I do NOT hold the Catholic Church in high esteem. I think I need someone to get me a black t-shirt like Justin has in the opening credits of Queer as Folk that says on it “God Made Me Gay” for when I attend Catholic services. Yes, I can be perverse. Other than that “penance” the trip should be nice with my sister in Charlottesville hosting dinner at her place on Christmas day.

I will try to post some while I am gone, but make no guarantees. I wish all of you a wonderful Holiday and want to thank you for reading this blog and some of you for taking the time to become friends during the last 8 months.