Unemployment Benefits Extension ALMOST complete
Today the cloture vote passed 97-1 and now we just have to wait until late Thursday evening to get the final bill passed. Make sure to check out the article on Subprime Blogger to get the full info:
Unemployment Benefits Extension Passed Wednesday Cloture Vote 97-1
Help is on the way!
Why Unemployment Benefits Should Be Extended
I have been unemployed for more than one year. As time went on and I wasn’t able to find a job, despite sending tons of resumes and going on interviews (interviewers say there are apprx. 150 applicants for each job). My health has taken a beating (from worry) and I have developed an arrythmia from stress. I am not lazy — I have a master’s degree in mass communication and have worked since I was 16 years old.
I was so happy when I bought my new house. Now all I do is wonder how I will make ends meet and whether/when I will need to foreclose on my house. Being unemployed can ruin your life and everything you have built for yourself. Until you’ve been there, you can’t understand how bad it gets. I’ve known friends who have become suicidal.
I am no longer a Republican because I believe the party is elitist and cannot empathize with the average joe. Take a look at Sen. Thune and today’s blockage of the unemployment extension. He wants to add an amendment to the bill — this is just one of many holdups caused by the Republicans. It would seem they cannot relate to the plight of the unemployed.
My benefits are about to be exhausted. I’m not sure the bill will pass within the week I have left. I’m tired and very discouraged. My Mom used to talk about the Great Depression and I never understood her feelings. Now I know.
Each day the Republicans stall the unemployment extension, more than 200,000 of the unemployed lose their benefits. This is a sad time for the U.S., but the Republicans just don’t get it. They continue to play games with people’s lives.
Ann D.
Unemployment Benefits Extension – Election Day!
I’ve been unemployed since June 11, 2007, grateful to have been given Unemployment Insurance for a good part of this two and a half year period – UNHEARD of in years past to get more than 39 weeks. But economic times like THESE, wasn’t heard of EITHER, not since the ’30s!
I’ve received 79 weeks to date ($116 a week, and $25 a week thanks to Obama), and could even end up with a lot MORE. SHOULD I? I would say so, considering the predicament today – the worst economic crises since the Great ’30s Depression! Also, I am one who put in 45 years of work, losing my last full-time job Friday the 13th of May, 1994 at age 54 (2 World Trade Center; guess I was fortunate THAT way!), an age you don’t gain new employment easily – maybe part-time jobs here and there – often two of them at the same time – and 0 health insurance! I had NO health insurance for ELEVEN YEARS, ’til I was 65 and qualified for MEDICARE, which is certainly not the GREATEST healthcare plan – NO dental OR eye coverage (maybe for a CATARACT operation? I WONDER!).
I’m also at an AGE disadvantage for finding a job – OVER 55 by 15 years now – 70 this December 17th, when ‘they’ expect you to take YOUR BEST Social Security benefit. Yet, the Department of Labor expects me to show I’m looking for work. Well, I’M LOOKING, but there isn’t anything – THERE REALLY ISN’T, for someone my age, or EVEN 55! I’m Ready, Willing and Able as ‘they’ say/require to claim weekly benefits, but THOSE tree are fading. WHAT AM I DO DO, LIE on my report? I’d do myself no good. So, I can’t really PUT ANYTHING DOWN, just keep writing letters as I am doing HERE! I intend to send THEM to the Department of Labor every month as my report! I feel I am doing something that way, as THIS IS MY TALENT. I should have been doing it ALL MY LIFE – writing for a living. All I was doing was TYPING FOR OTHERS – Word Processing. And now my fingers are getting clumsy on the keyboard, my Word Processing skills PASSE. I’d never get another job – WHO AM I KIDDING?
But I BADLY NEED MONEY! Try living on Social Security, $13,000 a year! Yet it seems I don’t QUALIFY for any kind of HELP re food stamps or MediCAID, which is BETTER than MediCARE – dental, eye, etc. If Unemployment is OFFERED for all these weeks, then I feel I’m ENTITLED to all, as others in my position are. We’re not talking a typical Recession, just MAYBE the 21st Century version of a DEPRESSION.
‘They’ say the Recession is OVER! What about DEPRESSION? That’s what PEOPLE are still in, FORGET what’s seeming to rally re the ECONOMY. It takes a YEAR OR YEARS for people to recover from an ailing economy, ESPECIALLY THIS one – YEARS! The GREEDY ones who benefit from a recovery will not want to share it – just HOARD! THBIS IS IT!
UP TO NOW, ALL my Unemployment extensions HAVE COME THROUGH RIGHT ON THE HEELS OF THE PREVIOUS ones, income flowing smoothly, taking care of budgeted needs. NOW SUDDENLY, there is a big GAP in continuing Unemployment Extension – this one that comes after Week 79. THIS IS NO TIME to play games with the Unemployed, ESPECIALLY those HARD CORE Unemployed, like ME. But it’s even WORSE for those who have exhausted their savings, HAVE no other income, e.g. Social Security. They probably have foreclosures and EVICTIONS going on, HAVING LONG PASSED (many going homeless), and many ABOUT to! Unemployment continuance might just AVOID all this, or least STALL it all. DON’T ‘THEY’ REALIZE this?
I say – EITHER TELL US NOW – we’ll get no more Unemployment – OR GIVE IT TO US NOW! I certainly hope it will all be RETRO, these now 4 weeks of benefits I’ve certified for since early October. FORECLOSURES, EVICTIONS, LAW SUITS, etc. won’t wait! AND, the ECONOMY will only SHOW this! We’re being LIED to, or WILL be lied to about the Recession being over, IF PEOPLE ARE STILL TO GO ON SUFFERING financially, and because of those uncaring individuals who could PASS THE VOTE, but just choose to LAY BACK, as they have these past four weeks – GOING ON FIVE now!
GET MY MESSAGE TO THE RIGHT PEOPLE, WILL YOU? Does your blog mean anything? MINE doesn’t, don’t even have the right CONNECTIONS!
Tobias Van Buren, nearing 70, living on $13,000 a year – MANY ON ZERO by now! I’m going to DIE soon, but WHAT OF THE LIVING WHO NEED A WAGE, and if NOT a wage, AT LEAST EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT UNITL THEY GET a living wage!
Thank you!
Unemployment Benefits Extension Poll
Please pass this along to as many friends and family as possible. Whether you use email, Facebook, Twitter or any other networking site, get the word out. The goal is to get as many votes as possible so everyone in Washington knows how America feels. The more votes we get the greater the chance of an extension!
