President Signs Bill Extending Jobless Benefits

[Dulcinea]

Source: NPR

President Obama signed a bill extending unemployment benefits through June 2 and restoring full Medicaid payments to doctors.

The bill cleared both houses of Congress on Thursday night. The House passed the bill 289-112 just two hours after it emerged from the Senate on a 59-38 vote that capped an unusually partisan debate.

Republicans largely chose to take a stand against the legislation for adding to the $12.8 trillion national despite backing it by wide margins in December and again recently.

People who lost out on the additional weeks of benefits after exhausting their state-paid benefits will now be able to reapply and receive those checks retroactively.


Read more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126030244

[Donnachaidh]

1. this sort of foot-dragging, penny-pinching weaselry from the Republicans

Should come back and thoroughly bite them in the ass in November.

June 2nd is going to be here very quickly -- I certainly hope Reid and the other Dems are prepared to do battle with the pukes BEFORE it gets out of hand AGAIN. Far too many desperate, long-termed unemployed out there to turn this into a bi-monthly pissing contest for the cameras.

[woodsprite]

2. Well, jobless bene's need to be paid. The repubs get 2 choices

vote for extension or pay for it themselves from their ill-won, war profiteering wealth they've gained over the last 8 yrs. After all, it's mainly the republicans fault that the unemployment numbers are what they are.

[Orrex]

3. I don't see how it was "an unusually partisan debate"

Seems more like standard Repub tactics, and that's how NPR should have framed it.

[uberblonde]

4. And for those of us who are 99-weekers....

And are not helped at all by this bill, because it didn't extend benefits, we can just sell the cans and bottles we pick up in the streets!

[Donnachaidh]

5. aww man! That totally sucks

I really have to giggle when these politicians start claiming we have too much *social safety net* going on in this country -- that's not being disingenuous -- that's a flat out LIE.

So UI no longer covers you - then you find yourself at the mercy of any charities that may be out there, and it's an unending race of hurdles to go through, just to get your basic needs paid for. And gods forbid you make as little as 5 bucks OVER their limits on acceptable income, or things you own and have not hocked yet.

In our experience, the Salvation Army (at least my local one) are sadistic weasels, ready to change up rules to make people stand on line for hours, and then get turned down etc.

We've been were you are now. My heart truly goes out to you and the others getting forked over by your reps AND those groups that claim they *help* people.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{uberblonde}}}}}}}}}}}}}

[proudohioan]

7. That "social safety net" has FAR too many holes for my comfort....

Who the fuck are these repukes trying to convince with THAT rhetoric; themselves?

May they get stripped of every last dime they have, TRY to find a job that pays a "living in the real world wage", pay their mortgage/rent, food, utilities etc.... on that income and watch them squeal like the pigs that they are!

Karma, you can't go around fast enough for me!

[Donnachaidh]

8. that Karma thing --

I've been waiting patiently for that to roll over some of the creeps we've had to deal with. Cold dish in hand, so to speak.

Does it seem to you (dunno, perhaps I'm too shellshocked) that the *haves* are becoming even more heartless regarding the folks out there in need of help? I'm really quite stunned with how blatant the *F U, I've got mine* attitude has become.

We used to be a compassionate country at some point in the past, yes? Or was I just dreaming that?

[proudohioan]

9. Well, if you were dreaming, then so was I......

and a lot of other people that I know, too!

Yes, the hostility (misplaced, IMO) by the "haves" has certainly seemed to have risen dramatically in the last several years. That attitude really is stunning, isn't it? Considering that we (as a society) are basically all in this together, and what affects us "have nots" will, at some point, affect us all. But it still makes me want to say,"FU, I lost mine..." Of course, that doesn't make me any better than they are.

:hi:

[No Elephants]

6. I was afraid of that. Some layoffs were the equivalent of the canary in the coal mine, in that

they came earlier than the time most Americans became aware of the collapse. Layoffs by banks, for instance.

ETA: I don't mean layoffs by banks of executives or other people who knew what was going on. I mean the lower, unsuspecting echleons.