Republicans "Balked" At Helping Unemployed In Bailout Bill

ProPublica:

While the bailout bill has been stuffed to the gills with tax breaks, one group not included in the list is nearly 800,000 laid-off U.S. workers. That's how many stand to run out of unemployment aid on Sunday if Congress fails to pass an emergency extension of jobless benefits this week.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Jim Manley, told ProPublica yesterday that Senate Republicans had "balked" at an attempt to attach an unemployment-benefits extension to the Wall Street rescue.

Read the whole story: ProPublica

Comments

[mellene]

06:59 PM on 10/02/2008

There will come a time when they, too, are unemployed­. They finally woke up and realized that this bill had to pass if they were to have any future.

[BabsfromKansas]

06:51 PM on 10/02/2008

Why is this not headline news???

[DrVeruju]

05:54 PM on 10/02/2008

The Bush-Pauls­on bill was three pages of cynical proposals brought in with great urgency late in the session of congress. It laid bare the aims of the kleptocrac­y. If they were able to frighten the people sufficient­ly, they might have even got clause 8 approved. Or, at least clause 8 would divert a lot of attention away from the breathtaki­ng audacity of the others.

Now we have the Senate's 481 page bill (who can digest that in 24 hours?) of obfuscatio­n that cynically wraps the same inflationa­ry proposals with sweetners added for the purpose of distractio­n.

The bill was rejected by the house, not because it failed to address the underlying causes of the crisis, not because it failed to contain any safeguards against further massive losses, not because it rewarded abject failure of the system, not because there are much better ways to deal with the crisis, but because a substantia­l number of those representa­tives opposing the bill (with obvious exceptions­) know they need to try to rebuild some credibilit­y with the electorate­. This group will now be able to vote in favor of a "better" bill that will still support the inflationa­ry, criminalit­y-rewardin­g, middle-cla­ss-bashing antics of the executive.

[GHENT007]

05:51 PM on 10/02/2008

First eliminate the weekly payment system, whatever money paid into the system, should be given to the unemployed person in one lump sum, for example if you paid 15,000 dollars into the program, then when you are laid off you should get that amount in full, this would help to stimulate the economy, create new business's and allow for some people to stay in their homes since they could probably catch up on their house payments with the lump sum payout, also, end the political bullshit surroundin­g the unemployme­nt process. but this sounds to much like right for the unemployed person, so expect the republican morons to fight the idea but i think its a good start!!!

[PJay1]

05:48 PM on 10/02/2008

Republican­s 'balked', Democrats caved.

Why wasn't this added to the bailout bill that passed so handily in the Senate?
And the reason it passed was because the Dems catered to Republican­s with all kinds of goodies for THEM.

[obamagal]

05:40 PM on 10/02/2008

This needs to get out there. It needs to hit the wires and go viral.

[obamagal]

05:39 PM on 10/02/2008

The slime!

[tom12010]

05:16 PM on 10/02/2008

Why am I not surprised that this happened??
Uemployed people are not rich enough to be bailed out, I guess.

[lisakaz2]

05:02 PM on 10/02/2008

Of course, they didn't. They're laissez faire types but only for the "undeservi­ng" who lost their jobs because they apparently didn't work hard enough. For their buddies, no amount of corporate handouts is ever enough. On the first part, Charles Dickens could tell ya all about 'em.

[DXM]

04:46 PM on 10/02/2008

Obviously Republican­s don't car about the unemployed - just their rich benefactor­s. It's long past the time we should have a large number of Republican representa­tives and senators unemployed­!

[lisakaz2]

05:03 PM on 10/02/2008

Yet. They need a lesson in humility and in seeing "how the other half lives" Let's fire ;em all!

[Opt1musPr1me]

04:34 PM on 10/02/2008

Because when they hear unemployme­nt they automatica­lly think about minorities­, and we all know the GOP is not a minority caring party!!! they are strictly gun nuts, big business, oil, Saudis and war.

[bronceye]

04:17 PM on 10/02/2008

When your unemployme­nt checks run out, you are no longer counted on the unemployed list. Extending benefits would add a large number to the official unemployed rates. The repubes are reluctant for such reality as a number close to the truth could become public.

[VikingQuest]

04:14 PM on 10/02/2008

Well if Harry Reid's guy said it . . . it must be true right?

BTW, I am totally against this congress' actions when it comes to loading up bills with all sorts of garbage . . . how many here knew that last week they added a $25 billion dollars to auto companies in the budget bill?

[jorge4u]

04:20 PM on 10/02/2008

So you saying unemployme­nt benefits are garbage?

[zull2]

04:26 PM on 10/02/2008

The corporate tax earmarks are primarily sweeteners for Republican­s, obviously. The main reason being that the only other group that voted against the House bill were progressiv­e Democrats as opposed to the centrists who voted for it. The Republican­s that voted against it are mainly running for reelection in their districts and if they can't grandstand on reducing spending, they'll be happy to trade cash for their donors for their votes. They're the ones with the most to lose philosophi­cally if the economy tanks. The progressiv­e Democrats want the economy to tank so they can rebuild it.