In these horrible economic times and with a barren employment landscape the Republicans are offering a proposal that is "expected to reduce the total number of weeks unemployed workers are eligible for aid by as much as 40 weeks and tighten rules for eligibility."How nice. How absolutely lovely!
Do these elected representatives and their supporters ever stop to think about where unemployment benefits go? Are we to suppose these folks who have lost their jobs and with them the ability to provide for themselves and their families take these government "entitlements" and put them in Swiss bank accounts?
Now my thinking is along this line. These government "handouts" are actually good investments as well as a moral imperative. Unemployed people take their unemployment checks and do such things as pay bills and buy food - things that do their part, however humble, to keep our economy going.
To those are bent on cutting benefits and elements of our national safety net, we must ask them: What are the alternatives for those affected?
I don't see many legitimate alternatives.
Perhaps we should advise those whose benefits are about to run out to do the following: take those last checks and stock up on Ramen noodles and potted meat; find a close friend or relative to move in with; join a church or religious institute in hopes of receiving charity. If all that fails, move yourself and family into your car (if you still have one) and resort to begging for food and change.
Starting a new career might be an alternative. Perhaps desperate fathers could encourage their wives and daughters to stand on the street corner and offer their bodies for sale. These fathers could also establish themselves in the business of manufacturing Methamphetamine, for which their seems to be a flourishing demand.
Granted these are options which lie outside the law and could result in imprisonment. But, after all, even then one would have food, clothes, and a roof over his head.
It is a very simple question: Is it acceptable in this self-touted "greatest nation on earth" to have widespread hunger, homelessness, and hopelessness?
Are our citizens eager to vote for politicians who believe the answer is "yes"?
They should be looking at extending rather than cutting these benefits. It's the only right thing to do.
13 comments:
The Republican party has declared war against President Obama.
It's not about disagreeing with his policies, it's about a systematic effort to bring him down anyway they can...Simply put, it's about politics and 2012. Unfortunately, the economy, the uninsured, the unemployed and the environment are all collateral damage in this war. Republicans have voted against bills that they themselves have created, when the President says he supports them. The most insulting whacked out Idea I've heard, is Newt's proposal to put poor kids to work.
How about someone telling Newt instead of trying to put poor kids to work, he needs to encourage his republican buddies in Washington to pass the President's jobs bill, so that their parents can find employment. It's a parents responsibility to provide for their children , not the other way around.
Cutting unemployment benefits in these hard times would be disastrous, not only for unemployed Americans but the economy. This madness needs to stop!
Amen Doug. I would like to nominate you to run our country. You are not only intelligent but you have compassion. Something that seems to be lacking in our country.
Well, lets see. We don't have the slaves to victimize anymore (OVERT slavery is illegal). We can't take any more away from the Indians. I marvel with the last queen of Hawaii who had trouble understanding why America, which had so much, had to take Hawaii from the Hawaiians. Who remains that is weak and we can victimize. Ah, the poor.
But politicians are such wonderful, sensitive people. I can think of one who weeps magnificently.
I think Rainlillie's analysis is spot on, Doug. This austerity is not really about the deficit. Instead, we're all being played for pawns in the Republican war on Obama. It's sickening.
Rainlillie,
Well said. But I think it is more than just that. I see recent polling data indicating that 70% of Republicans identify as conservatives. The conservatives would turn the clock back to the bad old days before Social Security, before the FDA, before bank regulation. In fact, Grover Norquist, who has gotten most of the Republicans in Congress and those seeking the presidency to sign off on his idiotic Tax Pledge, outright states he would like to see government shrink to what it was prior to Roosevelt ... Theodore, that is, before the progressive movement that was launched early last century. And conservatives are literally flooding the airways with such idiocy and it is actually being taken seriously.
Ahab,
I absolutely agree. It's madness.
Sylvia,
Well, thanks for the vote of confidence. I suspect, however, I'm a bit too blunt and opinionated for that. (I'm also probably a bit too socialistic.)
Exrelayman,
Might always makes right in the twisted thinking of some. Evil humans will always seek to oppress their fellow humans.
Paul,
I agree with you and Rainlillie, but suggest it goes further than just the GOP versus Obama.
For the better part of three decades we have been force-fed the idea that - as President Reagan put it - "Government IS the problem." Even Democratic President Bill Clinton in the 90s
famously declared that "the era of big government is over." We've heard it so much that the majority of us seem to be accepting it as common sense.
I, however, don't. History is there for the examining and one has but to look back at how life really was back in the "good old days" of the poor houses and debtors prisons. Modern conservatives are in love with the good old days because they didn't have live in them. We can't, musn't, and shouldn't want to turn back the clock. I refer you to the vision of Grover Norquist and, of course, those village idiots who make up the Tea Party.
Well said and I agree 100%. "Groping The Elephant" for president! For some reason I can't get that visual out of my head.
Doug, you're right. This has been going on since long before Obama.
Mildred,
Ovaltine, my dear, I'm simply speechless. LOL.
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