Senate Republicans Roadblock Unemployment Benefits Extension

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AFL-CIO News Blog

by Mike Hall

Senate Republicans today threw yet another roadblock into the path of legislation to reach out a helping hand to the nearly 300,000 jobless workers a month who run out of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits without finding a new job.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) attempted to bring to the floor the recently passed House bill that would provide an extra 13 weeks of benefits for unemployed workers, plus another 13 weeks for workers in states with high unemployment. But Minority Leader John Kyl (R-Ariz.) used Senate rules to block the bill.

As of the end of May, some 1.55 million unemployed workers have been unemployed for longer than six months, according to the Department of Labor. Under the House-passed bill, about 3.8 million jobless workers would receive help after running out of their state benefits.

May also saw the largest one-month jump in the unemployment rate in more than 20 years. The economy has shed jobs for five months in row, for a loss of 324,000 jobs since December.


Read more: http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/06/17/senate-republicans-roadblock-unemployment-benefits-extension/

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FULL story at link.

[WCGreen]

1. And now we all see why the War goes on, the people are left

holding nothing and Bush keeps slogging on, fucking up everything...

We need solid majorities in both Houses in order to dismantle the Bush Presidency.

[tblue37]

16. The Dems need to run lots of ads about this in the Senate races.

Make sure the people facing unemployment know that their Republican senators vote against them at every turn.

[and-justice-for-all]

2. Repigs are fucking greedy, selvish assholes!! FUCK THEM!

[spag68]

3. Rethug blockade artists

Don't just blame them, our own have been duplicate on these things. If they had any integrity at all they would bring the bills up and make the rethugs defend them with filibuster. It shows me that the threat of a rethug causes them to shiver in a corner as they try not to piss themselves. Not much left to root for at 66, but I keep voting and hoping.

[meow2u3]

4. They wonder why the crime rate goes up in Repug regimes

Unemployment goes up, unemployment compensation doesn't get extended, and people out of work and broke are desperate to get money to feed their families. So they turn to crime as a last resort. Understandable, but still no excuse.

[tblue37]

17. A brilliant, hilarious, and undervalued film called _Fun with Dick and Jane_,

starring Jim Carrey, Alec Baldwin, and Tea Leoni, really tore into this whole issue. I wish everyone would see that film.

[aquart]

5. Let's hope they learn about unemployment in January.

[Historic NY]

6. Why do Republicans hate the American people?

[OhioChick]

7. Because they're on the side

Of big Corporations.

[oldskool]

8. Like usual

And they say to be our leaders. Like usual they don't listen
to we the people.Come November they will be fired.

[DeSwiss]

10. Yes indeed!

[defendandprotect]

9. How much noise is the press making over this .... ???

I am guessing that they're going to keep it q u i e t . . ???

We should all make a lot of noise about this --- it's just sad, really sad!!!

[DeSwiss]

11. K&R

[orleans]

12. and why the fuck did harry reid allow this to happen???

(asshole.)

[countmyvote4real]

18. In the Senate we need more democrats, but across the board we need better democrats.

We need to elect more progressive Democrats if we ever intend to reverse the policy changes that began with Reagan. Make no mistake about it. That is where it began. And it got worse when the Clinton administration chose not to prosecute the Iran/Contra crimes of Bush the father of *.

It's time to clean house leadership again. They clearly do not represent the will of people. They are only there to represent their current power, themselves and the country can take a hike. This is madness. Our country is imploding. It doesn't matter if you are a Dem, Rep, Lib or Ind. We are all fucked by this apparent gamesmanship in the legislature.

We can stop it if we educate ourselves and examine the policies and voting records supported by members of both parties.

We must clean the House of corporatist appeasers to the * administration. Pelosi, Hoyer and Emmanuel immediately come to mind. GOP senator from KY, McConnell is also a prime suspect from the "other" side. Why has it taken two years to REFUSE to do nothing about the * war crimes?

I have a hard time balancing out a meager elevation of the minimum wage with selling out our constitution.

Anybody that doesn't watch Fox Noise would be hard pressed to understand that we are being punked by our own party leadership. There is nothing in their "compromise" that benefits our resolve to make this right for the past, present and future of our Democracy. It just seems to me that the democratic leadership is in it for themselves (and possibly the health insurance benefits, but they can probably afford their Congressional (socialist?) plan more than I can afford the loan I took out to a local dental school. It was originally sponsored by Capital One. I opted for the least amount of interest and my ability to repay at the time. Just like a sub-prime household loan they sold it off within two months to CIT. I know CIT is counting on me to default in the slightest so that they can totally rearrange out agreement. I am determined not to let that happen, but it is getting hard.

[Bozita]

13. Those Repiglicans are unfuckingbelievable!

A more polite, yet fitting term is not on my word list.

[sarcasmo]

14. Why would any working person EVER vote Republican?

[Mythsaje]

15. The 3 Gs.

Guns, Gays, and Gawd.

If we see 5 dollar gas this summer, the 3Gs aren't going to amount to a hill of beans when people go to the polls.