Help!
39 Republicans and 1 Democrat; Ben Nelson of Nebraska
are suddenly worried about the deficit.
As a result of their sudden state of worriment,
2,200,000 long-term unemployed Americans have now lost their unemployment benefits.
53,500 more will join them each day, which amounts to more than
350,000 people each week, who will be losing what could be their only source of income
for housing, utilities, food and health-care for themselves and their kids.
To put those numbers in perspective...
2,200,000 is the population of Houston, and by the end of next week,
it will be more than the population of Chicago.
350,000 is roughly the population of cities like:
New Orleans, St. Louis, Tampa, Santa Ana and Cincinnati.
53,000 is approximately the population of places like:
Flagstaff, Sarasota, White Plains, Cheyenne and Battle Creek.
And, should the filibuster continue...
in one month we're looking at the population of
Manhattan, Philadelphia and Detroit...combined!
These people are our friends, our neighbors, our families
These people are us!
continued....
We are starving now and will end up homeless if the Senate does not pass the extension.
We can't wait for congress to do its job...people are suffering.
We need action, now!
Write and call your senators, representatives and, the President
Demand they pass the extension of Emergency Unemployment Benefits!
Call Ben Nelson!
DC office: 202-224-6551 or Lincoln, Nebraska office: 402-441-4600
Fax Ben Nelson's office: (202) 228-0012 you can use gotfreefax.com
Remind them that this current lapse in unemployment benefits is unprecedented and unconscionable.
Since 1959, the government has never allowed extended unemployment benefits to expire when the national unemployment rate is still above 7.2 percent. The current rate stands at 9.5 percent,
not accounting for the under-employed and the 99ers...we have no idea how many of them have given up.
This is an emergency, people.
Please, help!
Write and call your senators, representatives and, the President
Demand they pass the extension of Emergency Unemployment Benefits!
Stories of the unemployed
It's awful. Every day I wake up and wonder what will happen to me, my husband and my kids. I no longer have UE and my husband got his last check last week. I am losing this battle and fear I'll end up homeless and hungry.
I am a single mom with a rent that I can't really afford. Basically I am struggling. My UBI is all I have to survive this crisis. If I lose it I can probably say that I will be homeless. No one is hiring and some don't even loosing their companies. I hope we can rise from this economic crisis.
Now I am stuck because I have no more unemployment. If they don't pass the unemployment, I am going to lose everything and mw and my son are not going to have a place to live. I will lose my grandmothers house. I dont know what to do.
Thanks to the lack of jobs, and my U.I. tier 1 benefits ending, now it appears that I'll be homeless in approx. 1 month, and have zero healthcare and a genetic heart condition to deal with. And NO I Don't have relatives to move in with!
Humiliating.
Long-Term = mental condition.
Facing a a crowd of 100+ deep, even for the most menial of jobs.
Frustrated interviewers over worked by their penny pinching bosses, extending the abuse towards the unemployed.
Depressing, the next day bleeds into the next forming a dark blanket of failure.
Ego is deflated, future seems bleak.
Write and call your senators, representatives and, the President
Demand they pass the extension of Emergency Unemployment Benefits!
More stories of the unemployed
I'm so scared my baby, my child and I will lose our house if this extension does not pass. I have applied at 127 jobs. I get letters saying I am over qualified or thanks but no thanks.
Some days you eat a bag of chips, other days you eat nothing.
My daughters birthday is on the Fourth of July and congress has not passed the extended benefits legislation. So until they do I will not have a dime to my name let alone any presents or cake for my daughter who has no idea what I'm going through. I lost my two bedroom apartment, my security, my peace of mind... everything
I am desperate and Scared out of my mind, we have no food in our house and I have no money for my rent, car insurance which is now mandatory in my state, phone bill for which i can be contacted for employment I am lost and do not know what to do since my unemployment ended last week. my two year old daughter is living on cheerio's and milk while my fiance and I eat nothing just so she is covered
Now since they have decided to hold off on unemployment I am going to homeless. They are no jobs out there. Please pass what needs to be passed so i can at least hold my head up. instead of feeling disgraced.
It is the most depressing thing ever. I feel like I'm in jail and I can't do a thing about it. I'd rather be working getting a weekly check, but my unemployment has run out. I don't know what to do and where to turn.
Write and call your senators, representatives and, the President
Demand they pass the extension of Emergency Unemployment Benefits!
Congressman Sandy Levin MI-12, is posting stories of the unemployed
on his blog. Michigan has a very high unemployment rate of 13.6 percent
________________
What does Jon Kyl of Arizona have to say about unemployment benefits?
Sen. Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, believes that any extension to unemployment benefits "ought to be paid for." But when it comes to the $678-billion cost of extending the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy, the senator says no offsetting is necessary.
Well, color me surprise!
Guess it makes sense, though, since so many of the Senate Republicans are....well...rich.
Take Republican Senate Leader, Mitch McConnell, according to his 2008 financial disclosure filing, he is worth near $33 million.
Bob Coker of Tennessee has assets over $100 million according to his disclosure filings.
Lamar Alexander is worth $40 million.
Johnny Isakson $13 million.
Richard Shelby $10 million.
Of course not all Republican Senators are rich, but they all
(perhaps with the exception of the two Senators from Maine), seem to agree one one thing:
Screw the working people of this country!
As an example, take a look at this list of 17 Republican Senators who voted against the extension.
Each and every one of their states is suffering at least 10 percent unemployment!
Jeff Sessions Alabama 10.8
Richard Shelby Alabama 10.8
George LeMieux Florida 10.4
Saxby Chambliss Georgia 10.2
Johnny Isakson Georgia 10.2
Richard Lugar Indiana 10
Mitch McConnell Kentucky 10.4
Jim Bunning Kentucky 10.4
Roger Wicker Mississippi 11.4
Thad Cochran Mississippi 11.4
John Ensign Nevada 14
Richard Burr North Carolina 10.3
George Voinivich Ohio 10.7
Linsey Graham South Carolina 11
Jim DeMint South Carolina 11
Bob Corker Tennessee 10.4
Lamar Alexander Tennessee 10.4
How will they be able to look their constituents in the face?
There has already been some serious pushback. The approval ratings of Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell are falling and now it appears that even a prominent Kentucky newspaper is supporting the extension of unemployment benefits.
The Lexington Herald-Leader: Urgency needed on unemployment benefits
Unemployment benefits also act as a wage floor, much like the minimum wage. When unemployment is high, there are plenty of jobless workers available for employers to hire, and employed workers are afraid of losing their jobs and possibly facing long bouts of joblessness. This means workers have little bargaining power, making it easier for employers to cut workers' pay or squeeze more work out of each employee. By contrast, a higher monthly unemployment check would give all workers more bargaining power and make it harder for employers to push down wages.
The members of Congress who blocked the extension of unemployment insurance acted with extraordinary callousness toward the millions of jobless. And they have done the rest of us no favor, either.
We should all be demanding extended and expanded relief for the unemployed, now.
Senator McConnell, a few of your neighbors have something to say:
"I’m sitting here getting ready to fill my husband and sisters medicine box for the week. There isn’t enough medicine to give them, and now no money to get more. They both have dementia. My husband also has major depression and thinks of killing himself. He thinks that it would be better for me.....I have to be his cheerleader to bring him up & not feeling bad about his self. He served 24 yrs in the Tennessee National Guard & we have been trying to get his SS disability for 1 ½ years. Why should it be so hard to get help? So, now with the wonderful U S Government cutting off Unemployment Extension, HOW ?,"
"I want to be working and earning an honest living like I had in the past. But when no one is hiring and all I keep getting is the "I’m over qualified" response for positions that I am capable for, it gets very frustrating and disheartening. I want to be able to pay my bills on time and not have to worry if I will have just the basics like milk, bread, cereal in my refrigerator, or a roof over my head. So your damn right I am going to remember this come November 2010."
Senators Kyl and McCain, please read this from a fellow Arizonan:
"My husband is doing labor work bringing home about $280 week after taxes. I have yet to find anything and my unemployment is now gone. We are a family of 5 and our rent alone is $850. We live in AZ so you can imagine what our electric bill is like in the summer. You do the math. I can’t even get food assistance or medical help because they say we make to much money. We don’t have enough to cover all of our bills let alone buy food. My husband has to have gas. The unemployment was the only thing allowing us to eat and keep utilities on and pay car insurance etc. I would gladly take a job over the unemployment but with 60 to 200 people applying for every available job out there it’s like playing the lottery to get a call back. Why can’t government work together for the American people? Didn’t we give them their jobs?? Maybe it’s time to lay them off let them stand in the unemployment line.... oh wait there is no unemployment!"
Excuse me, Senators Wicker and Cochran, did you know this:
Between the third quarter of last year and the second quarter of this year, Mississippi averaged the highest percentage of discouraged job seekers among its marginally attached--nearly 50 percent, compared with 32.6 percent nationwide.
~snip
The heights of discouragement in Mississippi are significant. "It says something about the situation in that state when half of the people with a relatively recent commitment to searching for a job have stopped because they believe nothing is available for them," says Thomas Krolik, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Hey, Senators Shelby and Sessions, this is from a man in your state:
I don't what to do. I've been trying to find work, and despite what you hear from most of the legislators here in Alabama, there aren't any jobs to be found for a 52-year-old engineer.
I'm a social conservative and a life-long Republican. It kills me to hear the people I've voted for imply that I'm lazy or just not willing to take a job that is "beneath" me. I would have done anything to keep our house. Honestly, there are times when I think about my life insurance and try and figure out some way I could die that would not look like a suicide. At least my passing would give my family a future and the hopes of a decent life.
Tier 5 Unemployment Case Study: Alan In Alabama
Senators, with stories like these, it begs the question; how do you guys sleep at night?
________________
Write and call your senators, representatives and, the President
Demand they pass the extension of Emergency Unemployment Benefits!
Now, we have the support of Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins,
so we only need one more senator to vote with us and to stand up for struggling families.
Only one...
it should be the Democrat from Nebraska...
maybe it will be, if we call and email his office all day!
Call Ben Nelson!
DC office: 202-224-6551 or Lincoln, Nebraska office: 402-441-4600
Fax Ben Nelson's office: (202) 228-0012 you can use gotfreefax.com
holy mackerel!!! the rec list!!!
now, lets keep it here...no, not for me, but for our fellow Americans
let's get this action going.
one more thing, please don't forget to rec the mothership!
thanks :-)
Update
Thanks to left over flower child for this comment:
I'd like to add this If at possible give to your local food banks! I know it seems like a small thing, but the food bank shelves are going bare almost faster than volunteers can fill the them. There's such a huge demand.
Five bucks on canned goods could be mean a meal for a family...
Thanks to Happy Days for this suggestion:
People should write to the local Nebraska TV and newspapers about why it's so important to extend the benefits. Turning opinion in his home state will help turn his vote.
We need to counter the meme that people prefer collecting unemployment benefits to getting a job and remind them that there are 5 (or is it 6?) people looking for every 1 job opening that exists.
Even if unemployment isn't that bad in Nebraska, the Nebraskans should have some sympathy for their fellow American citizens across the country.
Also, a suggestion was made that we contact the MSM, I think this is a great idea. The MSM has not been covering this, not nearly enough.
Call your local news and ask why they aren't doing enough reporting on this.
Remind them of the staggering numbers at the intro of this diary, how the amount of people left without a life line is the equivalent to the population of Chicago!
If anyone hasn't had the chance to support the Black Kos/Helping Haiti team-up, please check it out! They need our support, too.