‘Tis the Season

Merry Christmas, you bums! To celebrate this season of gift giving the Republicans are kicking 1.3 million people off of extended unemployment benefits three days after Christmas. I say the Republicans are doing this because in the recent budget negotiations they went into those negotiations with that benefit cut off as a “non-negotiable demand,” meaning there would be no new budget without it.

When asked what the people losing this benefit should do, the response was “they should go out and get a job.” This attitude is apparently not informed by any knowledge in that the number of jobs available is much smaller than the number of people needing them. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics “There were 3.9 million job openings in October, little changed from September. The number of openings was little changed for total private and government.” The BLS pegs the number of unemployed at 10.9 million with about 4 million not counted because they have given up looking for work (at least for one month). So, 15 million unemployed, 4 million jobs available, about 1 job for every 4 people wanting one.

Now, consider that the average unemployment check is roughly $300 per week (although there is quite a wide range, so some make much more than this and many quite a bit less, but we have to start somewhere). If one were to get a job that netted $300 per week, let us assume that they would have to make $400 per week to cover costs of payroll taxes, maybe income taxes, commuting costs, etc. At $400 per week and a 40 hour work week they would need a job paying $10 per hour, so immediately a good portion of the jobs available don’t pay that much. Worse, many which do pay that much won’t hire people to work 40 hour work weeks, instead they get many fewer work hours, so really they would need two jobs if the pay is $10-$15 per hour or less. There are not enough jobs for everybody to have even one job, but the Republican plan is for these folks to go out and get two jobs.

Oh, and by the end of next year another 3.6 million people will lose such benefits.

These are the same Republicans who ran the country, hell the whole world, into an economic ditch. They are now salving their political impotence by beating up on the poor and the temporarily down on their luck folks. They basically are saying that if you lost your job, the only reason you don’t have one yet is because you are shiftless and lazy.

Possibly, the fact that these unemployment monies get spent almost immediately to buy food, pay the rent, etc. supports the local economies of these laid off workers (you don’t get unemployment benefits unless you were working and paid into the insurance program) and the people who receive that money spend it again (this is called the multiplier effect), plus this stimulus is targeted in the areas that need it the most (areas with the highest unemployment) means this is the only form of economic stimulus that gets distributed to ordinary people, and since it is economically stimulative, the Republicans are against it.

They are also against any sort of jobs programs, like the ones that have been so successful in the past.

I don’t know, Grinches, Assholes, heartless, mean bastards, un-Christian . . . you’ll have to come up with your own label for the New Republicans yourself.