Republicans Out to Kill Unemployment Insurance

[RyanPsych]

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and in a number of states are out to kill, or at least cripple, unemployment insurance.

The House Ways and Means Committee passed a bill that allows states to take unemployment insurance funds away from jobless workers and use them to repay federal loans instead. If enacted, the bill will break the agreement Republicans made last December, when they agreed to an additional year of extended unemployment benefits in return for two years of tax cuts for the rich. The Republican sponsors of this attack on unemployed workers call it the JOBS Act.

In Utah more than 20,000 unemployed workers will lose benefits, because the legislature refused to enact an additional 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits - benefits that would have been paid for by the federal government.

In Michigan, whose unemployment rate of 10.3% is among the highest in the nation, state-funded benefits (regular unemployment) will be reduced from 26 weeks to 20 weeks beginning next January. In each case, the savings will go to cut taxes on business. Arkansas and Missouri have passed similar laws.

Florida's legislature is moving forward with a combination of the Utah and Michigan actions-cutting regular benefits by 6 weeks, and cutting extended benefits by 13 weeks. At the same time, Republican Governor Rick Scott plans to cut corporate taxes by $700 billion Florida is one of two states with higher unemployment than Michigan.

Florida, Michigan, Utah, Arkansas and Missouri have the most extreme response (so far). But most states are facing a problem with unemployment insurance. Regular unemployment (the first six months of benefits) is paid for by state funds, financed by a small tax on employers. When unemployment was lower, business lobbied successfully to keep the tax low, so the unemployment insurance funds couldn't build up large reserves But the deep, long recession - the worst since the 1930's - quickly wiped out the funds and forced states to borrow from the federal government to continue paying benefits. The recession has gone on so long that states are required to start repaying those loans - even while high unemployment rates continue.

keep reading at: http://www.peoplesworld.org/unemployment-insurance-under-attack/

[rurallib]

1. Rec and a belated welcome to DU

:hi:

[RyanPsych]

2. thanks!

:)

[Blue Meany]

3. That's phase I; in phase II they bring back indentured servitude...

in Phase III a return of serfdom; and finally a return to the natural order of slavery.

[skepticscott]

4. I'm sure they and their corporate allies would like to return

America's manufacturing base from overseas, and have all the cheap goods now produced in Asia by people making pennies a day made here again. This is just one step. To accomplish it, they also need to kill unions and destroy public education, and those efforts are already in progress. Finally, they will have to kill minimum wage laws, and if people keep voting in governors like Snyder, Scott and Walker, you can expect that to be attempted too.

[CrispyQ]

8. Most people think that can't happen here. --nt

[Lorien]

10. At least slaves were fed and had a roof over their heads

they don't want to give us that much.

[Demeter]

5. They are Psychopaths, Every One

And clinically insane.

[provis99]

6. no, they're just evil.

Sometimes it is as simple as that.

[Lorien]

9. Sociopathic and psychopathic; they don't have one shred of humanity left in them

The only things that drive them are their greed and their hatred and contempt for all other living things.

[marmar]

7. Hopefully that ridiculous House Ways & Means bill never makes it past the Senate.

nt

[midnight]

11. K&R