North Carolina First State To Eliminate Federal Unemployment Benefits

[AnotherMcIntosh]

"The North Carolina General Assembly recently decided to implement cuts to unemployment benefits as well as the maximum number of weeks one can receive unemployment funds. But altering unemployment benefits before the end of 2013 means North Carolina has been disqualified from receiving federal unemployment funding.

"This makes North Carolina the first state in the nation to be denied federal unemployment benefits. Today on The State of Things, host Frank Stasio talks with Laura Leslie, the capitol bureau chief for WRAL; Mitch Kokai, the director of communications at the John Locke Foundation; and Bill Rowe, the general counsel and director of advocacy at the North Carolina Justice Center.

http://wunc.org/post/north-carolina-first-state-eliminate-federal-unemployment-benefits

No one should be surprised if North Carolina adopts the Hawaiian solution of buying one-way tickets to leave the State for those in need of financial help.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/07/31/hawaii-offers-homeless-one-way-tickets-out-of-state/

[diabeticman]

1. This is going to be interesting to watch...

[BeyondGeography]

2. The crazy is on the loose down there

People will get hurt, ffs.

[SummerSnow]

3. Amazing...I will be paying close attention to this.

Ok so if you lose your job ...what? This should make baggers happy this is what they wanted. Expect a mass exodus of NC citizens leaving .

[AnotherMcIntosh]

5. Yes, they want a mass exodus.

[Wednesdays]

11. Yup, that's exactly the plan

Exodus of poor and minorities = fewer Democratic voters.

[GlashFordan]

22. Use the exodus wisely

The migration of Democratic voters to Virginia and possibly Georgia or Florida might bring a couple more purple states onboard.

IMHO, if people don't like state they live in, then move. Progressives in Arizona should move to California, conservatives in California should go to Idaho.

[warrior1]

4. so do they think that this only hurts minorities?

It sounds like they are driving a stake into their own state. This will be devastating over all.

What a bunch of maroons.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

6. Unlikely.

[zazen]

7. some North Carolinians will die as a result of their policies

I keep saying this: it's ethnic cleansing. I grew up in a NC town infamous for its racism. I know how these people think.

They HATE poor black people on welfare. They imagine there are some hippy havens where white people are living off the public dole too, and they hate the urban intellectuals (and the local sustainable ag growing up around the urban centers), but it's mostly black people whom they think are lazy and violent and have too many babies they can't support--who are, to them, subhuman, and thus can and should be treated as such.

They turned away Medicaid dollars that would have covered 500,000 more people.

I wouldn't be surprised if there start to be suicides on the steps of the legislature or in front of the Governor's Mansion. They're f-ing monsters.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

10. While poverty is increasing, they also hate poor White people as well. With respect to welfare:

In 1996, ... After reforms, which President Clinton said would "end Welfare as we know it",[43][dead link] amounts from the federal government were given out in a flat rate per state based on population.[44][dead link] Each state must meet certain criteria to ensure recipients are being encouraged to work themselves out of Welfare. The new program is called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).[45][46] It encourages states to require some sort of employment search in exchange for providing funds to individuals, and imposes a five-year lifetime limit on cash assistance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare#United_States

[RC]

8. Yeah, but building a mote around the state to make it an island going to create too many jobs?

No one should be surprised if North Carolina adopts the Hawaiian solution of buying one-way tickets to leave the State for those in need of financial help.

[CrispyQ]

9. It's "Shock Doctrine" state by state. --nt

[leftyohiolib]

12. at some point you'd think the feds would have to seize n.c. b/c it just doesnt resemble america

[AnotherMcIntosh]

15. Does it have oil?

[billh58]

13. For clarification,

"the Hawaiian solution" is strictly voluntary, and well-supervised. Anyone who wants to take advantage of the program must have proof of an established support system in place and available at their destination. There are homeless people who are trapped in Hawaii with absolutely no way to get home, as hitchhiking to Arizona from here is difficult to say the least. All Hawaii is doing is providing a means to travel if people wish to return to their families.

Hawaii has excellent unemployment insurance coverage, medical assistance, and actually cares for its people, including the homeless. North Carolina -- not so much, so comparing the two states is disingenuous at best.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

16. Strictly voluntary? If you know the history of the cities that adopted this "voluntary" relocation

scheme, with cops who help the impoverished to decide to "voluntarily" relocate, you should not expect this.

See, e.g., Hawaii Buys One-Way Tickets For the Impoverished. Expect Cops to Help "Run Them Out of Town"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023385311

"If you’re a state with the highest rate of homelessness in the country, you’ve got a number of options. You could build more shelters. You could enact new tax credits for the working poor. Maybe provide more counseling and other services.

"Or you could take the route lawmakers in Hawaii did: offer homeless residents a one-way ticket out of the state.

"State legislators passed funding this year for a new program to offer one-way flights to any of the state’s estimated 17,000 homeless persons. Lawmakers appropriated $100,000 over the next two years for the “return-to-home” program, but that funding could increase if the initiative is viewed as a success.
...
"The problem is that in many cities that have implemented similar programs, like New York, San Francisco, and Baton Rouge, “voluntary” doesn’t always mean voluntary, particularly when a city’s police department gets involved. When a homeless person has a run-in with the law, they are often presented with a choice: go to jail or “volunteer” for a one-way ticket. In addition, there is little verification that the person using the one-way ticket will have any better opportunity at their destination, because at that point Hawaii has shed its responsibility for providing care and services.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/07/29/2371121/hawaii-homeless/

[billh58]

18. It's very

convincing when you link your own OP, and a poorly-researched piece from ThinkProgress. This program is strictly voluntary with stipulations that are designed to prevent abuse by law enforcement AND the homeless. I have personally helped homeless people on Maui who wanted nothing more than to return to their families on the Mainland, so I am very familiar with the problem.

Some people come here in hopes of settling in and making a home for themselves in "paradise," and spend their last few dollars on the gamble that "things will work out." When that doesn't happen and they can't find jobs, they become homeless, and it is truly heartbreaking. That is when the Aloha Spirit kicks in, and Hawaii people try to help if they can. Hawaii has always been like this.

The "Mainland Mentality" does exist in a few places in Hawaii, but mainly in those resort pockets which have been occupied by Mainlanders. Hawaii is as different from anyplace on the Mainland as is possible, and we're trying to keep it that way.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

20. No. The logic is that there is a history of police "helping" the destitute decide to "voluntarily"

relocate elsewhere.

Disregarding such history and such logic does not justify you saying that the ThinkProgress piece is poorly-researched.

Your I've-got-my-Hawaii-and-now-the-ladder-should-be-pulled-up attitude is showing.

[billh58]

23. Actually, I have been

here since before Hawaii was a state, so I've seen the damage that the Mainland Mentality has done. I can assure you that the police in Hawaii do not "harass" the homeless unless they break the law.

As far as pulling up the ladder, I admit I had that attitude when I was a young buck, but have long since lost it. You can disparage the Hawaii police all you want, but I highly suspect that you have no first hand knowledge of what you're railing against. In small communities like Hawaii, the police are our neighbors, friends, and relatives so we know them pretty well. Do we have occasional bad apples? Of course we do, but SHOPO and the various county Chiefs of Police are very good at house cleaning when its necessary.

The pilot project to assist the homeless who want to return to the Mainland, and can prove that they have a support system in place at their destination, will by-and-large be successful. It will also take the pressure off of the limited resources available for the caring of these individuals in Hawaii.

[Brigid]

14. Let me go get my copy of Dante . . .

There must be a special circle of hell reserved for the NC General Assembly.

ETA: Circle 8, Bolgia 5. Corrupt Politicians go there.

[MadrasT]

17. If secession isn't an option, can we evict them from the Union?

It seems increasingly like some of these state legislatures full-o-teabaggers are pure evil incarnate.

How does the state of NC benefit from doing this? Specifically what group of people are benefitting from this decision? I don't understand.

(runs off to the Googlez....)

[zazen]

21. haters benefit--like Medicaid cuts and sales tax increases, this HURTS business

That unemployment money would have been immediately spent in our NC economy. This will INCREASE our unemployment rate, since it'll throw some more people out of work.

It's spite. They want the satisfaction of knowing they're making the poor, esp those who've voted Democratic, suffer.

We're enjoying our last tax-free shopping weekend starting tomorrow (Repubs just ended that too)--the one where middle to lower income families might save 50-150 dollars when buying a low-end laptops and school supplies and clothes.

Whom does this hurt? Retailers.

Fools.

[Dwayne Hicks]

19. When are the NC elections?

I can't possible see how people can vote these tea party extremists back into the NC legislature. But then again it is NC. I will be following NC closely.

[okieinpain]

25. lol, idoicracy at its finest. when people leave in mass

They wont have enough workers and customers. So their dearly beloved companies will show the baggers how much loyalty they have by closing down and moving to the states that everyone has moved too.

They will then have to spend millions trying to get people to move back. Lol.

[onethatcares]

24. one nation, under Gaud

except for you poor fuckers that lost your jobs.

Go fuck yourselves and starve.

North Carolina, I gotta get my grandson outa there, even Floriduh hasn't gone that batshit crazy yet.

[mick063]

26. So then the Republican legislature

will lower taxes to lure business, and when business relocates there, will complain there is a shortage of skilled workers.

States compete for "race to the bottom" and the American worker will be expected to be migrants, following them to whatever state offers the sweetest deal.

In the case of Walmart, new streets with lighting and turn signals will be offered. Not a sweetener that the mom and pop shops will ever realize.

[burnodo]

27. Sounds good

How about no more federal funds of any kind for North Carolina

[Initech]

28. I'm normally for freedom of speech...

But I honestly wouldn't mind if we rounded up every copy of Atlas Shrugged and threw them in a massive bonfire. Fuck this anti worker Ayn Rand garbage.:get: