On unemployment benefits, Delay likes delay
March 9, 2010Jon Brooks 1 Comment »On Sunday, former Republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay defended Sen. Jim Bunning’s recent blocking of an unemployment benefits extension.
From the The Huffington Post:
Host Candy Crowley: Congressman, that’s a hard sell, isn’t it?
Delay: It’s the truth.
Crowley: People are unemployed because they want to be?
Delay: Well, it is the truth. and people in the real world know it. And they have friends and they know it. Sure, we ought to be helping people that are unemployed find a job, but we also have budget considerations that are incredibly important, especially now that Obama is spending monies that we don’t have.
Some reaction from various sites:
From Hullabaloo
I would guess that this is going to catch on among the dittoheads. The right is reasoning that they can appeal to a good number of the majority who are employed and make them question why they should subsidize all those losers who are not. It worked with health care. Empathy for your fellow man, or even a selfish sense that you might personally need some assistance someday, is being attacked by the right wing head on. And I would guess that there are more than a few people who secretly have thought these things but didn’t have the social support necessary to say it out loud. Now they do.
This isn’t a widely accepted point of view. Yet. But its infecting the body politic.
From The Reaction
-This is a widely accepted point of view on the right, and it’s already caught on among those who worship at the altar of Dear Leader Rush and the Republican Party of Teabaggers, which is pretty much the state of the GOP in 2010.
-I assume they have to know this was an argument they tried to sell after 1929. American workers were lazy spendthrifts said Republicans whose roaring 20′s resembled the ‘debt doesn’t matter, the market always goes up’ attitudes that brought us to the same precipice again. But sure, it’s the hardworking 1 percenters that need the tax breaks, giant corporations who need subsidies and the rest of America who deserves what they get and shouldn’t ask the “real” Americans to make sacrifices.From The Mess That Greenspan Made
-While the term “funemployment” has been popping up on a somewhat regular basis over the last year, this is clearly a twenty-something phenomenon and those with families to support would no doubt overwhelmingly argue that there is nothing fun about it.
-I sympathize with the majority, and do not propose my example is the norm, but I have a friend who was laid off in July 2008. After a couple of week with no promising prospects, he decided he would go back to school while collecting unemployment checks. After a couple of months not doing that, he decided to concentrate on his music (he is a good musician). Then he decided he was moving to Miami to find work there, but he didn’t. Then he decided he was moving back to New York to work there, but he didn’t. He is still collecting unemployment checks. He is 53 years old. -I have been looking a job for the past 6 months. I DON’T LIKE IT. I was bringing in $5,000 per month…now I can barely make it off of $300 a week. Are you kidding me!!!! And another thing — these are the same folks that won’t pass healthcare reform. GIVE US YOUR PLAN! I can’t even get sick They created this mess and now they are saying we are all lazy… -Tom is talking about a study. Everybody else keeps putting words in his mouth. As long as the government cuts checks people will cash them. Tom is right. I am busting my tail and making less than people on the take. The government has never guaranteed employment. That is what the endless extensions are doing we have to stop them it is a cycle that will end in ruin. -A culture of entitlement. Advertising, schools all of it. We tell people they deserve this or should get that. Unemployment is meant to be a transitional program. One job to the next. The attitude is funded by non existing tax dollars. The gov is running up its credit cards to support an entitlement culture. -I take exception to these ‘Tom’s got it right’ comments. Anyone who believes people can make a living off $300 a week obviously have never tried it. I would agree that it’s not the government’s responsibility to guarantee citizens a job. However, what about what is government’s responsibility to not give tax breaks to corporations who successfully ‘outsource’ our jobs to India? That’s what’s caused this problem and good old Tom and friends better not forget that. -The fact is that the ratio of people looking to open positions is 5:1, the worst since the 1930′s depression. You don’t just “transition” on to the next thing in that environment. Zeroing in on cheaters and various exceptions to the rule is weak but of course utterly predictable. Cowards always find it easy to kcik down rather than punch up. -I have mixed feelings about extended and enhanced unemployment benefits. I had a hell of a time about five years ago finding a new job, and my benefits got cut off after a few months (as was the norm) because we had this so-called booming economy. And I didn’t have any help with COBRA payments either! If more people had their benefits cut off, there’d be a lot more activism to get our leaders to do what needs to be done to get our economy moving again. -Blah blah blah, go find another job lazy ass. Sounds nice but you people are clueless. There are no jobs. Here we are the then of the first quarter and IBM has continued its relentless transfer of jobs out of this country by firing another 255 Americans, yeah, US job action only. Along with firing 10,000 ever year I haven’t seen anyone post up who is HIRING 10,000 a year. And all the cottage industries that used to be called start ups are not longer in this country.
March 17th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
I was terminated from my job 2 years ago because I was talking to “Federal Employees During and After worked” I was a “Non-Federal Emplyee working in a “Federal Facility” and was told I couldn’t talked to the “Federal Employees of the Patients.” Also, she hired a friend of the family or a relative and after 4 1/2 years service I lost my job. The person she hired was at least 15 years younger than me.
I wasn’t aware that “Freedom of Speech” is only for the Federal Employees. And she has given me a bad reference everytime I applied for a job. I do not enjoyed being on Unemployment and also can not get our unemployment checks in California. To say we want to be on “UNEMPLOYMENT IS B……S.