Oregon aid agencies brace for tens of thousands losing unemployment benefits
By Richard Read, The Oregonian -- Dec 14, 2010
Unless a job offer shows up soon, Mitchell will become one of Oregon's roughly 21,000 so-called 99ers, the unemployed people who have exhausted their maximum benefits this year. Washington state has 32,000.
"This is just as scary as people lobbing mortars over your head at 2 o'clock in the morning," said Mitchell, a Vietnam veteran. His weekly check is $391, far short of his mortgage payment.
"It's not just me," Mitchell said. "This is going to affect an awful lot of people in a horrifying way very soon if something's not done."
You'd think honoring our Vets, by giving them meaningful work, would be the least we could do.
99ers Unemployment Extension NOT Passed by the Senate
Posted by admin, toppayingideas.com blog -- Dec 15, 2010
99ers have been crying for help in their situation but this $856 billion tax will do nothing for them. Instead it seems it is all great news for the rich and wealthy in the United States.
[...]
Right now there are millions of jobless 99ers and many experts agree that millions more will join them in the coming months, with their number expected to be spiking by April! If we are going to talk about numbers, the 99ers could be 4 million if not more given the current state of the economy – flat numbers in job creation and a very slow economy recovery.
Again, Senate turns its back to the people who need it the most.
You'd think hiring our College Graduates, giving them a productive job, would be one of the smartest things we could do.
4 Million Americans Set To Lose Unemployment Benefits Even If Congress Passes Extension (Chart)
Shahien Nasiripour, huffingtonpost.com -- 12-6-1010
The existing emergency unemployment program, which extends benefits for nearly two years, expired on Wednesday. Without an agreement to extend the program, the economy will lose about 600,000 jobs, as the spending enabled by continued unemployment checks ceases. National economic output--which expanded at an annual pace of 2.5 percent during the summer months--would fall off by 0.6 percent.
That disturbing prospect does not even account for the roughly four million people who would exceed even the extended limits in the emergency program. Were that many jobless people left to fend themselves without unemployment checks, that would pose significant risks for the broader economy, say economists. They cite the fact that consumer spending accounts for roughly 70 percent of all economic activity.
"If you're looking for economic recovery supported by consumers, it's discouraging," said Henry J. Aaron, an economist at the Brookings Institution, a research institution in Washington. "It's drag on the economy."
Many economists argue that paying unemployment benefits is among the most effective ways the government can spur the economy: Jobless people tend to spend nearly all of their unemployment checks, distributing those dollars throughout the economy.
You'd think extending Unemployment Benefits, to those who will immediately spend it, would be one of the most economically effective things we could do.
Because if we don't, their growing Impact on the Economy -- is about to be heard in a Big way ... a Big Negative way.
Because people without Work -- don't just go away, no matter how much the Republicans, like to pretend that they do.
Chart Source -- larger
The peak job losses were in early 2009 [...] many of those people will be exhausting their benefits over the next few months.
The mass exhaustion of benefits, an echo effect of the great recession, is unprecedented.
You've heard of the Baby Boomers and their effect on the Economy -- get ready for the growing impacts of the 99-Boomers.
... and given the pathetic state of the GOP Agenda, don't expect any holiday miracles that will suddenly fix their Great Recession mess.
New 99ers Unemployment Extension Bill Introduced by Congressional Black Caucus Members
Unfortunately, the Bill May Have Little Chance of Ever Seeing Passage
Saul Relative, Yahoo! Contributor Network -- Dec 21, 2010
Given that at least one forecast, working with jobless claims data from the Department of Labor, posits that the total number of 99ers could conceivably double in 2011, the urgency to provide some type of federal assistance -- whether it be financial aid or via actual jobs creation programs -- for the long-term benefit-less will likely increase.
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Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) introduced bill H.R.6556, the "Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 2010," into the House of Representatives Saturday. But unlike other unemployment extension measures, instead of adding a Tier 5 to the existing unemployment benefits extension Tier system, Lee and Scott's proposal calls for extending the first Tier.
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The number of 99ers is growing. The number of bills will probably increase as well. But they'll do no good if they only die in committee or get filibustered or sidelined in some fashion. Without popular support to show political muscle, that unfortunate fact of the legislative process is a truism no matter what year it might be or which political party controls Congress.
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You'd think helping those who need the most help, that hiring Americans to fix America, would be the most common sense thing we could do ...
but alas our Representative form of Government -- too often has other priorities. ... other than "common sense" or "helping".
4 Million Americans Set To Lose Unemployment Benefits Even If Congress Passes Extension (Chart)
The Federal Reserve forecasts that the unemployment rate will still be as high as 9 percent this time next year, and about 8 percent at the end of 2012, according to minutes from the central bank's Federal Open Market Committee meeting last month.
"What we're seeing right now is the Christmas present from Scrooge," said Aaron, the Brookings economist. "Merry Christmas, we're cutting off your benefits."
If nothing changes for the growing ranks of the 99-Boomers --
Soon they won't even have a line to stand in.
and after that, many won't have a home, to take shelter in, either.
America used to be called the 'Land of Opportunity' ...
It may be time to start calling her it the 'Land of Opportunity -- Lost'
Land of Opportunity for the lowest bidders -- Only!
American Workers, need not apply. No Soup for you.