This story was reported a couple weeks ago in the New York Times. To summarize, there was a glitch in the language of the unemployment benefit extension passed by Congress and signed into law in early November. Unless this glitch is addressed before Congress takes a holiday, over a million people will suddenly lose their unemployment benefits come January 1st.
To be clear, we are not talking about folks who've already had an extension or two. We're talking about anyone who has been laid off after July 1st, 2009. For people in this group, when their regular benefits run out, they won't even qualify for one federal extension. Since regular unemployment benefits last only 6 months, we'll see over 1 million people lose benefits the first week of January. By March, the number will increase to 3 million.
This "glitch" is incredibly unfair. Some people are on their third or fourth extension while others won't even get one extension. Furthermore, this does not reflect the true intent of Congress. It was simply just an oversight that no one noticed before the bill became law. Unfortunately, it is an oversight that will devastate millions of honest, working-class Americans.
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Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) already has legislation written to extend unemployment benefits through 2010. And, there is a halfway decent chance it will pass once it's voted on. But that's the problem. It might not get voted on until January or February of 2010 or ever, for that matter. In the meantime, millions of people whom depend on these benefits for survival are going to be on their own until Congress gets its shit together.
How's that for a nice "Merry Christmas" to all the working-class families that are already struggling and scraping to get by this winter.
For all American citizens, this is completely unacceptable.
For starters, the only people that are even allowed to collect unemployment are those whom have lost their job through no fault of their own. So, we're not talking about a bunch of slackers or rule-breakers here. We're talking about regular working-class folks that under normal circumstances would be employed and taking care of their own responsibilities. Secondly, we pay for this insurance and so do our employers. It is not a handout. (And I swear the next right-wing jerk-off that tells me it's a handout is going to get a mouth full of loose teeth from me). From the time I began working as a teenager, money has been taken out of my paycheck to pay for unemployment insurance. The same is true for everyone. Congress really has no right to deny us these benefits anymore than a bank has the right to deny someone access to their savings.
Finally, It was their screw-up to begin with. They need to be responsible for their mistake.
The overwhelming majority of us never collected unemployment before because it simply does not pay enough to live on. In the past, we'd just go out and get another job. But that's not a viable option for most people anymore and those unemployment checks are the only thing keeping many of us from going homeless. Until the economy improves, going out and getting a job is a very, very difficult thing to accomplish.
Folks, right now, this is the most important issue we face simply because it is incredibly urgent. Yes, this is more important than the health care debate and the war in Afghanistan and virtually anything else being discussed and debated right now.
If this is not fixed within the next 20 days, over a million honest, hard-working people are going to suffer badly - many of them will go homeless. If this is not fixed in the next 80 days, the number will be over 3 million. I'd say that qualifies as being a top priority issue right now.
And to think, it's all because of a stupid "glitch".
Please, I beg you, email or call your congress representatives and senators and tell them we need to get this glitch fixed before the Christmas break. Also, please rec this diary so that it will get on the rec list and get more exposure. For whatever reason, this story isn't getting much attention right now. But, I guarantee it will get a lot of attention when families start going homeless by the millions come January. We can prevent this tragedy from happening, but we have to act now.
Thank you very much for reading and I hope you and yours have a happy and safe holiday season.