With unemployment jumping at the fastest rate in 22 years, the US House just passed a 13 week extension of unemployment benefits. Kudos to Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Seattle) for sponsoring the bill and shepherding it through the House.
Curiously, while news of the bill’s passage currently graces the electronic front pages of both the New York Times and the Washington Post, at the time of this posting neither the Seattle Times nor the Seattle P-I have bothered to update their web sites to report on the legislative accomplishment of the congressman who represents their district.
Hmm. I wonder if slights like this have anything to do with McDermott’s undeserved reputation in some circles as a less than accomplished legislator?
I seriously doubt that you “wonder” about it.
Perhaps the critics will argue that extended unemployment benefits are of great value to people all across the nation, and therefore not something being done “for Seattle”.
I guess that means you can lay around in your underwear all day for another 13 weeks on top of whatever time you have left on your unemployment claim. Thanks WA Legislature.
@2 It was the House of Representatives, not the WA Legislature. Maybe you should spend a little less time scratching.
Itch @2,
I have collected unemployment benefits only once in my life, for a several week period in PA, back in 1988.
And by the way, it is not welfare, it is INSURANCE. While I haven’t been salaried most of my career, I’ve paid a helluva lot more into unemployment than I’ve ever drawn out.
Following up on Goldy’s retort to that itchy troll, I too collected unemployment compensation in Pennsylvania, after being downsized by a major hospital system (they preferred to buy another LifeFlight helicopter instead of doing research that would have demonstrated that the region already had too many copters).
In 1995, the maximum benefit in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was $128 per week. Even in 1995 dollars, that isn’t a whole lot of money. Washington is much more reasonable than Pennsylvania. When I was again downsized in 2005, Washington’s benefit was $496 per week.
That’s taxable income, by the way.
…So what you’re trying to say is they’re all part of a circle jerk?
Didn’t even make it to front page news on MSNBC OR CNN!!!
I collected unemployement once, in 1985. Got laid off from a firm which let go 80% of its staff. My wife was six months pregnant with our second child. I collected one week’s worth of benefits. Haven’t collected any since then.
I’m sure some Wingnuts will throw some stones at the whole idea of people collecting unemployment, but they are really missing the boat on this one. If people lose their jobs due to an economic downturn, then the lost spending power of those unemployed people actually gives impetus to the downturn, causing even more people to be laid off, etc., etc. By providing unemployment insurance benefits, the government helps break that cycle, or at least dampens it, and keeps enough money circulating in the economy to limit the impact of the downturn. If a downturn lasts longer than usual, Congress usually extends the benefit.
Notice that most of the Republicans in the Senate, who weren’t afraid to use the filibuster to kill the Windfall Profits Tax the day before, were more than happy to announce their support for the bill extending unemployment insurance. They know it would be poison for them to come out agains tthe bill in today’s economic environment.
Yup!
I’m 39, been working since I was in Jr. High, never been on unemployment.
YOU MEAN GOLDY CAN AFFORD UNDERWEAR
Speaking of new legislation… Rumor has it that Obama, McDermott and others in the Democrat Party have been reading up on what to do in tough economic times.
From what they’re saying, we can expect Obama to champion a Revenue Act of
19322009 and a new Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act to replace NAFTA.I collected unemployment in 1972, during the Boeing recession. I recall the local unemployment rate being 16%. Last person to leave, and all that. But to give you some flavor, the unemployment office was on Taylor, just off 99. You couldn’t report over the phone, there was no “on-line” – you had to go to the unemployment office. The were double doors to get into the building and inside was a long counter, with teller-type stations. The open stations, usually eight or so, had a line. The line is where the fun started. Each line snaked its way to and through the double doors, out to the sidewalk on Taylor. From there it headed south, all eight rows. Down to the corner, then west towards 99. It took hours to get in that building. When you finally got to the person behind the counter, they could treat you any number of ways that would leave you wanting to throttle him or her and take their damned job from them.
Who was in that line? Family, loved ones, neighbors, former coworkers, white, colored, middle class, poor – nearly everybody or someone just like them was in that line.
Trolls would be in that line. But today, during better times, the lunatic fringe, heartless fascists to the core, would mock those in need of a safety net, and yet they’re the very type of person who who crowd into the line during their own time of need. That time can come for anybody. Trolls – that time can come for you. You’re the ones who would whine loudest about how little society gave them. And today other than a cruel heart, you can hold up only a relatively small handful of abusers to justify their utterly selfish cause. Just another reason why I have nothing but scorn for you.
Mark @ 11:
I’d respond, but you’ve already said today that what you posted here was a joke. So I’ll just laugh at it and let it pass.
rhp @ 13
Is that all you can say when you have no leg to stand on? Sucks to be you, huh?
hey I never collected unemployment in my life, what do I get? A metal?
Mark @ 14: At least I don’t owe any unpaid gambling debts.
what do I get? A metal?
Sure. How about Lithium?
@15 “hey I never collected unemployment in my life”
Perhaps you need to grow up and get a job first. With luck, you’ll find one that suits your limited skill set. Umm, good luck with that.
@2 Typical drivel from a cheap labor conservative who wants to force labor to work for food handouts.
Unemployment benefits are insurance payments. The event insured against is employers depriving workers of the opportunity to support themselves by working. We ought to go farther and make putting people out of work a criminal offense.
Since everyone is confessing to collecting unemployment bennies, I may as well confess that I, too, got unemployment.
In 1970, after I came home from Vietnam and was discharged from the Army into the teeth of the Boeing Depression.
But it wasn’t just the Boeing Bust that made work hard to find. Employers of the time — the so-called “Greatest Generation” — would not hire Vietnam veterans. Assholes.
Yep, the generation that send my generation to war turned their backs on us when we came home. They labeled us “psychos” and “baby killers” and wouldn’t have anything to do with us. Wouldn’t let us work for an honest living.
So I took the unemployment checks their payroll taxes paid for. Fuck ’em.
Not only that, I took $28 worth of food stamps, too. Fuck ’em. I considered that a delayed payment of the food the Army didn’t feed me for the first 4 days I was in Vietnam. That’s right, my first 4 days in Nam nobody fed me because I was in transit and therefore didn’t belong to anyone, so no one was responsible for feeding me, so no one did. By the time I got to my unit I hadn’t eaten anything except 1 small bag of potato chips from a vending machine for 5 days. So, when the whole fucking economy refused to let me work when I got back — because I’m a psycho killer, you know — I took their $28 of food stamps. Fuck ’em. In my case, it wasn’t welfare, it was soldier’s pay.
I didn’t start out in Nam as a psycho killer, but I sure as hell was one by the time I got to my unit. I told them, “Either feed me right now, or I’m gonna start killing people!!” So they fed me, because they were afraid I might not be kidding. Well, okay, that’s not exactly what I said. I used an even worse threat because by then I was really mad! I said, “Either feed me right now, or I’m gonna write my congressman!!” Fuck ’em.
Being a psycho killer can come in handy. For several years I had a bumper sticker on my beater car that said,
“I’m A Vietnam Vet, And I’m OK Now”
with the phone number for the vet counseling center under it.
I never had any problem with tailgaters or people cutting me off while I had that bumper sticker. As soon as a car got close enough for the driver to read my bumper sticker, it would drop back several car lengths, and no one ever tried to pass me.
Kill them all and let God sort ’em out! Fuck ’em.
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR
Any of you rightwing assholes still got a problem with extending unemployment benefits?
@11 “From what they’re saying, we can expect Obama to champion a Revenue Act of 1932 2009 and a new Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act to replace NAFTA.”
Not a bad idea. We could use another Great Depression to bring down food and fuel prices. Now that the working class has been stripped of income and the middle class has been stripped of assets, only the rich Republican bastards have anything to lose.
rhp @ 16
WTF are you talking about? YET AGAIN you Lefist idiots show you can’t read. If MTR or any other “Mark” has a gambling debt, I can’t say, but I sure as hell don’t.
Does it hurt to be as stupid as you are? Or are you baked most of the time on Lee’s stash?
#8 Yes, we all know that all prosperity comes
from the government.
Good news for the lazy unemployed HA happy hooligans!
I’ve worked continuously all of my life and I’ve never been out of a job. However, I was the victim of a lay off in December, and for the first time I find myself without a job. Most places say that I am overqualified even though I tell them I need a job and understand that the position will pay less. Heck, I’d work at the mall if it meant feeding my family. But that’s not working either. Until I get a bite from the hundreds of resumes that I’ve sent out, the 13 week extension would go a long way to helping my family keep our home and put food on the table.
It’s hard for people to understand the need for extra help when they are actively working. Unfortunately, I’ve discovered that it’s much harder to get a job now than it used to be.
You know it is really funny reading posts from some of the people that claim to be educated people trashing those that claim unemployment. There are alot of states where the actual employees not employers pay into Their State’s Unemployment insurance fund just like Social Security. So for those bashing them I think you really need to take a long hard look at yourself and GROW UP! There is going to be people that abuse the system on anything that is out there, but for the most part the people that are collecting unemployment benefits are hard working Americans that lost their jobs from no fault of their own. If you Trash these individuals, I hope that when you get to the age of collecting Social Security, that you will decline it and get off of your ass and get a part time job because face it your just lazy right (thats what you think of people that have no other choise but to collect unemplyment benefits while searching for a job.
I get no pleasure in being on unemployment insurance. After 18 years on the same job, I was laid off the day before Christmas. I can’t afford to pay my Cobra insurance, and the unemployment doesn’t cover my mortgage. When I was 28, I had 4th stage lymphoma cancer and a few years back I had a pulmonary embolism. I took off only 10 days for the PE and immediately went back to work. This extension means that I have food on the table and lights. The maximum unemployment benefit in my state is $258, which is what I get. I’m college educated, but can not find work. I also will never find healthcare again, because of my preexisting condition. I find it despicable that some posters think I’m lazy and enjoy taking home 1/4 of what I earned. My 401k is now gone, from paying off my bills and keeping my mortgage current and this extension is essential for my existence. I’m sorry that some people think it’s a hand out. I’ve worked full-time for 30 years and never needed any assistance before now! Thanks, for listening!