Saturday, December 19, 2009
Congress has invented the Perpetual Motion Machine:News: The Senate passed another extension of unemployment benefits and Cobra insurance premiums this morning as part of the Defense spending bill. This bill had already passed the House.
In addition to the defense spending, the bill contained an extension of the date for qualification for existing tiers of unemployment benefits to Feb. 28th 2010 (previously only those losing benefits by Dec 31, 2009 qualified). Also the Cobra insurance premium subsidy was extended for two months.
This issue will be revisited early next year for those losing benefits after February. This thing never stops!
posted by Quiddity at 12/19/2009 09:11:00 AM
9 comments
those subsidized cobra insurance premiums are outrageously high. i heard one house member argue it would be cheaper to enroll the unemployed into medicaid. i didn't even recognize this provision as corporate welfare until he pointed this out.
I predict that everyone receiving unemployment benefits now will be receiving them through November 2010.
In the next year, millions and millions of Americans, largely blue-state democrats, will lose their jobs as the economy crashes falls deeper and deeper into depression.
The only way for Obama and the Democrats to survive politically in November 2010 is to continue paying off the unemployed voters to vote Democrat again.
Thus, perpetual unemployment benefits are the new welfare.
So if you're currently unemployed, and surviving on your unemployment check, why even bother looking for work for the next 11 months? Take a year off. Obama has you covered.
nah, the phase 2 of the stim package kicks in with infrastructure projects. there will be campaign video of men put back to work building bridges, train projects, transmission lines, rural and urban medical centers, windmill farms, installing solar panels, etc.
how are republicans going to compete against visuals of how democrats put people back to work?
rightwing obstructionism & negativity wont be able to compete against those visuals.
midterm politics will also highlight the hypocrisy of republicans in washington railing against the stimulus. yet, once back home in their district, are handing out giant checks for projects. where did the money come from? the stimulus package.
can't wait to see the footage!
how are republicans going to compete against visuals of how democrats put people back to work?
Because those jobs are not going to unemployed workers -- they are going to politically connected union workers who have jobs and benefits already.
The stimulus is warmed-over trickle-down economics. Except that instead of government giving the stimulus to rich people, and letting the money trickle down in the form of rich people creating jobs, it is being given to the government, in the hopes that the government will hire more workers.
In fact, the state governments are using the money not to create new jobs, but to make the existing jobs even more lavish with cost of living increases and pension payouts.
So on one hand, we have a couple of hundred thousand new government jobs that will only last a few months at the most, while at the same time millions of voters not only lose their jobs, but have it rubbed in their faces with campaign videos of smiling union workers burning up their tax dollars on wasteful government projects while they search for ever-disappearing jobs and the unemployment rate rises and rises.
It will backfire. And greedy Republican lawmakers will bear the brunt as well.
With a close margin in the house and Senate, it would be quite easy for a new Tea party to capture just enough seats to force the Republicans to form a coalition government with them. This would reduce the power of the corrupted, entrenched Republicans.
At any rate, what you are seeing right now is the high water mark of Progressivism. Enjoy it before it's gone.
Yes, it's certainly a national disgrace that we're providing extended unemployment benefits to unemployed people during the worst recession in any of our lifetimes.
In the name of personal responsibility, and with an eye toward fiscal responsibility, I believe we should end all unemployment benefits--including COBRA--immediately. Additionally, anyone who has ever accepted unemployment dollars should be required to pay them back, with interest.
Because the only possible way America can prosper again is if we drive at least 30% of the population into endless grinding poverty. When a third of all households have no money to spend on anything, THEN we can see a demand-driven rebound.
or something
Because those jobs are not going to unemployed workers
this is similiar to another complaint i hear from teabaggers. they complain the stimulus is going to blue states. (chalk this up to projection because that's how rightwingers roll. they punish blue states while they're in power.) but the record shows texas as the second biggest benefactor of stim money. texas isn't exactly known for being a big, pro-union state.
make that "beneficiary" instead of benefactor.
teabaggers have invented a lot of conspiracy theories not supported by facts regarding the stimulus package.
> the record shows Texas as the second biggest benefactor of stimulus money
More liberal dishonesty. Texas is the "second biggest beneficiary" only because of its large population. Actually, Texas received the 4th lowest stimulus funds per-capita in the United States.
i was going by that den of commie marxists, the wall street journal:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-STIMULUS0109.html
a more current reading shows that texas still remains the 2nd biggest beneficiary, having been awarded with even more money than earlier estimates:
http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/home.aspx
nevermind what the facts show, crybaby wingers will continue to insist that evil liberals are punishing red states and are cheating them out of a chance at economic recovery.
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