A question for Duers who are on unemployment

[panader0]

Are you unhappy tonight?
Perhaps Obama might have been able to strike a better deal, but there are some positives.

[CitizenLeft]

1. that's the question I wanted to ask.

Ed Schultz was screaming about "WHERE'S THE SACRIFICE???" Are you fucking kidding me? YOU, Ed, YOU sacrifice your goddamn paycheck - for TWO years, asshole - and let's see how that sacrifice tastes as you swallow it down. What the fuck.

[madmax]

4. Ed is on fire, again.

He, Greyson and a few others really get the shit out there in plain English.

[elocs]

7. It's damned easy for those with jobs to call upon the unemployed to sacrifice.

How self righteous.

[CitizenLeft]

12. I totally agree.

Of course there shouldn't have been such a choice - but there it is. It seems an easy choice to me. The rich get richer, and the unemployed get to eat. WTF. I care a lot more that somebody gets that measly lifeline for another year - so they have SOMETHING - than I do about a bunch of selfish fucks getting yet more breaks. I hate it - but I hate the thought of people suffering a lot more. Been there. Know it. Can't even fathom considering the alternative.

[Telly Savalas]

17. Some shithead on TV was really saying that?

What a dick.

[donheld]

25. Ed was NOT talking about your sacrifice, He's talking about the Wealthy and THEIR sacrifice.

[Angry Dragon]

2. I am unemployed for over a year

Giving up your future to live one more day does not make sense.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

3. My Mom Died Two Years Ago

What I wouldn't have given to have her one more minute.

My girlfriend is a 9er. To say she has seventeen weeks to find a job or starve, shocks the conscience.

[Angry Dragon]

10. ..........

If the top cuts go through we will face this same thing in two years and you will not be any better off and maybe worse.
States will be hurting more so either services will be cut or state taxes go up.
There will be no jobs created by this tax cut.
Either the deficit will climb or there will be federal cuts.

[Egnever]

27. What a crock

plenty of economists agree that letting these tax cuts expire right now would crush our economy. The idea that there wont be more jobs because this tax cut was extended is just boldfaced bullshit.

[Angry Dragon]

35. How many jobs will be created due to the tax cuts for the top 3%??

How many jobs would make this successful??

[Egnever]

28. Dupe

[hfojvt]

34. Louis L'Amour wrote

"A man needs to be able to say two things in a foreign language. He needs to be able to ask for food and to tell a woman that he loves her. If he can only say one thing it is probably better to know how to say I love you, because if he tells a woman that he loves her she will probably feed him."

Just saying.

[panader0]

5. The extension of the bush tax cuts is horrible

The idea of allowing 2 million people (and their families) to be on the street all at once is worse.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Egnever]

31. Barry?

Your slip is showing

[uppityperson]

6. I am glad unemployment insurance payments will continue, wish it was done another way.

[FarLeftRage]

8. No.

This is a very fucked up deal. I get no more payments. I have been out of work for nearly 26 months now and there are no jobs available... and the ones I do apply for, I get no replies from them.

[CitizenLeft]

9. I am so sorry. So hoping that things turn around for you.

I've had a job for 2 years now, but I still feel that terror of hitting month 5 without a job. Month FIVE - while there are people out there who have gone for years without work. I don't know how you do it, but I admire your courage and determination and wish I had your kind of backbone, because honest to God, I wouldn't have made it. Keep it up, keep going.

And I'm also sorry about the loss of your Mom. I wish I could do something to help you - to help all of you. It literally hurts my heart to see so many people out of work and dependent on that shitty little unemployment check that means so freakin' much.

[FarLeftRage]

16. Thanks for your kind words...

I did it through careful planning. The problem is, I did not know it was going to be this long. In retrospect, it could have been a lot worse if I did not have patience to endure it all... including the death of my Mom. My Dad and I are here together to support each other in times of need and he's 87. So it could be much worse. I'm still hopeful that something good will come my way, because I'm way overdue for it.

[CitizenLeft]

36. I also lost my Mom while unemployed. It was traumatic.

Still haven't gotten over it. Too much to deal with while at your most vulnerable.

I will continue to wish you and your Dad the best. Hang in there.

[tinkerbell41]

11. Yes!

I was unemployed for 21 mos. Went back to work for 6 and am out again. It terrifies me that there would be no extension, I cannot go out into the private sector to find my work.
But, I am not happy about the extension of the tax cuts.

[AsahinaKimi]

13. I was unemployed for nearly a year..

I got very lucky. Hired by a Japanese company, so my pay is wired into my bank from Tokyo. Its kinda sad to think, I had to be hired by another country to even have job, but it was the only option and I took it. Right now, its keeping me just above water.. but its better then nothing.

[Imajika]

14. Here is the problem with that...

The Republicans were bluffing quite a lot. They would have extended UI benefits too. It may not have seemed like it, but they would have. But yeah, it might have taken weeks or months and been truly horrible for those relying on unemployment insurance. I am lucky to be working and I know for those whose benefits were running out that getting them going again was probably the most important thing in the world.

I love the President, I really do. I think he probably had to make this deal. For me what is most maddening is that we should have had this debate BEFORE the November elections. It's pretty clear Obama wanted to do just that, but for whatever reason our Congressional leadership felt it was better to skip out of town and get into their districts. I think a big fight over this ahead of the elections would have been better. We could have fought out this tax cut for the rich issue, put the Republicans on record while it really mattered, and got done some of the things Congress is supposed to do like, you know, have a budget done and spending bills on the Presidents desk.

It just really stinks that we chose not to fight all this out in the lead up to the election. It really could have changed the dynamics.

[Telly Savalas]

18. We didn't have weeks or months.

When the new session begins, the GOP controls the House and has considerably more leverage. There's no bluff involved. The GOP has loses nothing by letting the benefits expire, so there's not really an option of having a war of attrition with them over this in the hopes of having to give up less to get the benefits extension.


I completely agree on the timing of the debate though.

[Berry Cool]

15. Yes, I'm unhappy.

All this did was kick the can down the road and show weakness yet again. The GOP gets two years of tax cuts, the unemployed get not jobs but 13 more months tops of benefits, and the 99ers get nothing. In the meantime, not only does the deficit go unaddressed (so much for GOP concern trolling) but the badly needed infrastructure and social services of this country also lose out. And those tax cuts? Will they create jobs? Uh-uh.

To those who think compromise was necessary for our sake, well, I don't think our benefits should have been on the table in the first place.

I'm lucky in a way. Even if I have to be on UI for six more months, which is my 99er point, I may only have a month to go before I'm safely in grad school for a few years with student loans to help me live on and at least one year of tuition paid. I sure hope so. I want to make a career change, and I'm sure that when I graduate in three years I'll actually have a job waiting for me that will help me repay any debts I incur.

But I'm just one person. I think of all the others who are not as lucky as me, and I think the President sold his political capital for the proverbial mess of pottage, and is pointing at me and saying "But I had no choice. I had to help YOU. You should grovel with gratitude."

Baloney. And to anyone who says I dare not question him or "we" will lose in '12, I ask you, what difference does it make? Will things be any worse if we do? Truth is, I don't think the Dems will lose the White House. Obama will be reelected because, well, because the GOP has nothing. (Don't even get me started with Palin.) And he has no serious challengers. But what will it mean, in the end? Nothing. Because either he'll be dealing with a GOP Congress, or he'll have a Dem Congress but somehow STILL "won't have the votes" to get anything done.

Nothing will change, not really. No one can conjure up a specter that will make me think this is the better way to go.

Don't get me wrong. Right now I'd rather have Obama as president than any of the other alternatives past or present. But to be honest, that isn't saying much.

One more thing: Don't anybody even USE the word "pony." Asking a man to do what he said he would do when he was running for election--in terms of fighting to defend the values he espoused--is NOT asking for a "pony."

[True_Blue]

19. I'm unemployed

I do NOT support an extension on these terms. It was absolutely ridiculous to even tie the extension with tax cuts for the greedy 2%. I will vote rememberin­g this issue in the next election.

[elocs]

20. People with families who may desperately need the money don't have the luxury

of not supporting an extension on these terms. When there are mouths to feed, bills to pay, or possibly losing the house it changes the perspective about receiving extended unemployment benefits regardless of the terms.

Yes, it is bad that these two things were tied together and it is sad that Obama got himself painted into a corner on it.

[True_Blue]

23. I desperately need the money but

Obama should have told the repubs no deal and declared a state of emergency for the millions of unemployed. Then he should have gone on TV and let Americans know that he had to do it because the heartless repubs blocked UI for the millions of jobless (at Christmas) and tax cuts for the middle class, because the repubs tried to use them as pawns to get tax cuts for the ultra wealthy.

These tax cuts will become permanent and then they'll end up cutting social programs, medicare, and SS to pay for them, which will end up being the final nail in the coffin for this country. I dread to think of where this country will be in another 10 years.

[Unrepentant Fenian]

21. I'm SURE that saving UE benefits saved some lives this holiday season.

I've already read about one suicide where loss of unemployment benefits was the straw that broke the camel's back. It is especially harsh during the holidays for a lot of people. It also saved many, many family homes. This is a BIG positive.

[Berry Cool]

22. I've got a mouth to feed and bills to pay, and I still disagree.

No, I am not going to lose a house. I rent, and I have incredibly sympathetic landlords with whom I have ties that extend beyond merely giving them a monthly check. And I love my apartment and would hate to lose it. In that sense, I'm lucky.

But I still think we, the unemployed, are going to lose in the long run. We will be able to pay some bills now, but we will not have jobs later, and eventually the piper will need to be paid. And no one will ever want to do what really needs to be done to help us go back to work or fix what needs fixing in this country. Because we keep letting the GOP box us into these false dilemmas where somehow, if we don't do what they want, WE are both the ones who suffer AND the ones who end up looking like the bad guys.

[Egnever]

30. Sorry i just dissagree with that

The unemployement chacks give more bang for the buck than almost any other stimulous. The idea that cutting them off would improve the situation is just ludicrous.

The US is in no danger of going bankrupt we can print money till the cows come home and the only effect it will have on us is that imports will become more expensive, somethin that in and of itself would help create jobs for americans.

You paying your "some bills now" Is keeping people employed right now at a time when we desperately need those jobs. Pulling that money out of circulation right now would only ensure the unemployment rate went up! Why in the world you would want that is beyond me.

[LooseWilly]

33. I think printing more money also causes inflation... making the unemployment benefits less valuable

Mostly I agree with you, but I can't help thinking that this is just a bad deal. With the money that letting the tax cuts expire the Feds could easily just hire the unemployed for the pay scale of their unemployment rate... and still be showing a surplus. There may be some legal hurdles to overcome making that happen, but they couldn't possibly be as high of hurdles as making waterboarding, and other forms of torture, illegal, right? So the DoJ should be able to handle it...

Even if it couldn't be worked, who cares? It would make a hell of a talking point... and facing that talking point the Republicans would have to cave, or come up with a means of blocking the hiring of the unemployed whose benefits they cut... many of whom are Republicans...

The benefits to the unemployed are, without question, the best thing for the economy... but caving and extending them according to the dictates of the Republicans' agenda is bad policy... and it leaves the Republicans behaving like a school bully who you've given your lunch money to. Mother Fucker is gonna be back tomorrow... the Republicans seem positively giddy as school girls at the prospect of the next shakedown.

[TheKentuckian]

24. I was unemployed for 16 months and still am only temping, hoping to stick.

I could totally need the extension at a moments notice and have just worked my 1st full week and have been and am against this deal.

It is pure hand to mouth and we will be paying heavy prices in many areas for years to come.
It is not good at all for the medium and long term health of the country.

We have fallen into a shrink the pig trap and there will be consequences that will be a net negative.

We are starving the economy and our government, don't be blind.

[Imagevision]

26. it's not Obama, clueless are uninformed of New World Order already in play...

[LooseWilly]

32. I've been unemployed (without unemployment, like $0 in regular income) for nearly a year now...

I think this capitulation was an embarrassment. I am not pleased.

Luckily I socked money way, just in case. Luckily my mom died and left a 401K (so much for retirement for her... worked her to death, but now it's paying for the upward spiraling costs of my son going to school).

Luckily I found myself living on the streets and shoplifting for food for a while many years back— now I'm not afraid of it. Living off park benches, huddling on sidewalks with overhangs when it rains, sink bathing in a train station bathroom, or a McDonald's bathroom... stocking up on Burger King napkins to use to wipe my ass when I had to shit in the park because there were no open fast food bathrooms in the middle of the night... it's really not that bad.

It can be downright fun if your neighbor on the next park bench over is ok. And if the government has money enough to hire people to clean the parks.

In exchange for 13 months of unemployment coverage for the relatively newly unemployed, Obama has voluntarily blown $900 billion (using numbers from Countdown) for two years of extensions of top marginal tax rate cuts and capital gains tax rates cuts... A hole in the budget that will almost certainly require cuts in social services (right about the time that those who receive the extended unemployment are likely to lose it and need social services the most)...

The capitulation is short sighted and cowardly. It's too bad Obama has never been homeless, or maybe he'd know that, with some social services to lean on, it can be weathered... but once those social services are cut to finance this short term spurt of kindliness toward the unemployed— the homeless to come will be twice-over-screwed.

My advice for the twice-over-screwed... arrange your shoplifting around the library hours so that you don't lose out on valuable internet access time. Consider broadening your underground economic skills with apprenticeship programs with your local drug dealers... you're all out there on the same streets after all. As long as the corporate money keeps outsourcing overseas, lessons hard learned in the neighborhoods long used to high unemployment are lessons that the rest of the city will increasingly want to learn. Get in on the ground floor... with the Democrats always looking out for new opportunities to snatch defeat from the jaws of success, I suspect it's going to be the only game left in town. Well, that and working retail at the mall frequented by the rich who're scheduled to get huge tax break extensions...