A House-passed bill “to give another 13 weeks of unemployment benefits to people from states where the jobless rate is at least 8.5 percent has bogged down in the Senate because of resistance from lawmakers whose states have lower unemployment and would be left out,” the AP reports.
The original hope among Democratic leaders was to get quick approval of a proposal giving four extra weeks of benefits to the jobless in all 50 states and 17 weeks to workers in those 27 states where the unemployment rate is 8.5 percent or above.
But that drew opposition from lawmakers from the 23 states who wouldn’t qualify for the greater benefit.
"Unemployed workers face equally severe challenges no matter what state they live in, and they should be given the support they need," said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., in urging passage of legislation extending benefits in all 50 states.
Shaheen on Wednesday wrote a letter to Senate leaders, signed by 15 other Democrats and two independents who usually vote with Democrats, saying it was unfair that hundreds of thousands of workers in states with lower rates of unemployment would be excluded under the House plan.
Senate leaders “were scrambling to come up with a compromise.” The bill is the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act (H.R. 3548).
(credit image – getty)
Congress in Your Pocket
S E N A T U S 
GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND PASS THE DAMN BILL. Take what you can get . If you do nothing, Wait and see what happens to the econemy. Tent citys will be bigger than most citys. And the unemployment will be 50%
Congress needs to get off their butts and pass the 13 weeks of additional unemployment insurance. Mine ran out 6 weeks ago and I still can’t even find a part time job where I live!!!!!!!!!
I agree!, Pass the Darn Bill and get off your butts!! I need money to live off of!!!!!
I don’t think anyone drew state lines on the bank/corporate bailouts. I don’t think anyone was doing too much penny pinching. Was it 1.4 Billion under the house plan for the proposed extension. Make all states eligible…what does that make it 2.5 Billion, maybe? How much did AIG get and that’s just one company. Well, millions of people wondering how they are going to pay for food and shelter any day now, due much to those corporate cronies, is unacceptable. I get my last check on Monday. I’ve applied for hundreds (yes hundreds) of jobs in a single month… I have a BA Degree…laid off for a year…1 phone interview in a year….ONE!!!!!!!!!! I’m in one of the worst states…included in house bill….but I’d be understandably angry if it passed as is and I was not included. Worried and desperate knows no state line!!!!!! DO SOMETHING FOR THE PEOPLE in this country OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, and FOR THE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!….AIG stock has went up enormously….I’d like to make ends meet again!!!!!!!!
i agree… get off the the soap box someone else needs the wood. if to get it to pass we need to give 4 wks to those other states lets do it it will only help the economy, the peoples thoughts for the country and the govts ability to run it. we are all tired of seeing the money go to bailouts if we have a small company and run it wrong we dont get a bailout and we cease to exist… who cries for us no one. yet the small business are the backbone to the economy. so give those other 23 states the 4wks then just pass it already….. seems the senators of those states arent having to wait to get paid …. so can we just agree to disagree give a lil so we get some back….. christmas is coming those big companies are gonna want another bailout cause no ones has any money to pay for their products.
As someone who is going to be drawing their last unemployment check I find the Senates lack of reaction pathetic. I can’t tell you how many Senators I’ve called and left messages with about passing this bill. All I’m being told is I will pass your message along. Here’s my question for you Senators, do you really care?!? Just because this isn’t affecting your households? Just because your not the ones in danger of loosing your homes? Not in danger of not being able to put food on the table, clothing on your children’s backs or keeping your homes heated? What if the shoe was on the other foot? You wouldn’t be sitting on your asses doing nothing. I can’t wait for re-elections, just to vote your asses out on the street and hopefully you will feel the sinking feeling of despair I feel.
This is a dismal show of support for the people who elected their politicians. Unemployment is at it’s highest since the depression and there does not seem to be a stoppage of job losses anytime soon. I can see the point that poverty and joblessness have no state boundaries so make the concessions neccessary to get this bill passed. People such as myself have lost most if not everything they have WORKED years for. My unemployment ran out at the begining of September, it is now getting to the middle of October and this bill has been languishing in congress. Pretty soon you will be filling the coffers of homeless shelters and food banks because we wont be able to fare for ourselves. Thirteen weeks of extension will help but I forsee more will be needed before this economy turns around. Best get moving on this prior to the October break. If you were in our shoes you would be quick to find a resolution, quit bickering over health care because no one will be able to afford it anyhow. Other Bills though important need to be put on the back burner and get to the one thats going to help the people who elected YOU!!!!!!
Time is getting short, either pass the current bill or quickly pass the new one BUT get it done now. There are people who will become homeless living under the bridges if you don’t work fast.
Already two weeks behind on my bills get this thing done already before I have to apply for welfare just to have a place to live. PLEASE !!!!!!!! HELP !!!!!!!!
Ok enough is enough! I am a single mom raising two kids. I ran out of my benefits in september also. Quit thinking of yourselves and think of how angry people are getting. What if something bad happens, people start shooting and robbing banks more and more each day. Shooting there familys because they cant stand living like this anymore. The government acts like we are nothing but slaves. We must obey what they say and wait and wait until they give us an answer no matter how bad the it gets. Money is just paper. They make it everyday. I dont get it? What did they run out of paper to make us money we need? The people who are hurting the most is our children. They have to live in this and watch there parents stress out and worry and its not good for them to see that. We try to put a smile on our faces but its all fake. I dont think there should be a rule for employers to lay anyone off. I think once your in your in, thats it. Find something for us to do. Put us through more training for our jobs and make the employers pay us while we are in training until we start back up working again. STOP TAKING OUR JOBS TO OTHER COUNTRIES! AND WHY DO OTHER COUNTRIES GET TO MAKE CLOTHES AND SELL THEM HERE IN THE UNITED STATES?
Subj: Social Security 2009 BUT IT ALSO PERTAINS TO UNEMPLOYMMENT COMPENSATION
I COULDN’T forward this FAST enough………!!
2010 is an election year for 1/3 of the senate and 1/2 of the house of representatives. It would be nice if congress got the message; the voting taxpayers are in charge now.
LET US SHOW OUR LEADERS IN WASHINGTON “PEOPLE POWER” AND THE POWER OF THE INTERNET. PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS.
IT DOESN’T MATTER IF YOU ARE REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT!
KEEP IT GOING!!!!
Propose this in 2009:
START A BILL TO PLACE ALL POLITICIANS ON SOCIAL SECURITY and also make sure that they are “unemployed.”
AND, DO NOT VOTE FOR ANY INCUMBENT. ALL OF CONGRESS, REGARDLESS OF PARTY AFFILIATION, NEEDS TO BE REPLACED AND TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE.
———— ——— ——— —-
SOCIAL SECURITY:
(This is worth reading. It is short and to the point.)
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.
Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.
You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.
In more recent years, no congress person has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan.
For all practical purposes their plan works like this:
When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.
Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments. …..
For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7, 800,000.00 (that’s Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275, 000..00 during the last years of their lives.
This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.
Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.
Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. ZIP!! NADA!!! ZILCH!!!
This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;
“OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK”!
From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into, every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer ), We can expect to get an average of
$1,000 per month after retirement.
Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley’s benefits!
Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.
That change would be to
Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. . Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us
Then sit back…..
And see how fast they would fix it!
If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe good changes will evolve.
How many people can YOU send this to?
Better yet……
How many people WILL you send this to ?
P.S. The same goes for their healthplan
and they would definitely make sure there was funds for unemployment as well.
DON’T FORGET TO VOTE IN 2010!!!!
Someone get a peice of paper rewrite the bill and hold the vote today! My kids don’t understand why they can’t sleep in their beds in their room in their house. And the worse part is I do understand, but no matter how hard I try all they want is to go home and I can’t make that happen. Extending unemployment won’t get our home back but it will help me take care of my kids while I continue to look for work. I keep hearing about how the recession has ended and it’s all uphill from here but that doesn’t mean much to everyone that has to climb back up in hopes of being back where they once were.
Before I lost my job, house, car, and everything I could sell or couldn’t carry with me, I struggled to make ends meet but we got by. My kids didn’t have everything they wanted but they had clothes food and a bed to sleep in. Now they sleep on the floor of my mothers bedroom while i sleep on the couch. There are twelve people living in my mothers three bedroom two bath house and only one of us has a job. We collect cans for gas money, grow tomatoes, corn, and potatos in the small backyard. We wash clothes without soap because that would be a waste of money. The adults don’t eat breakfast or lunch and the only reason the kids do is because they qualify for free meals at school. So we only have to feed them breakfast and lunch on the weekends. I would love for any of these senators to spend one month living the way we do. We’ve been living here for over a year.
hello, im in the same boat. people go to N.E.L.P. AND FILL OUT THE FORM TO BOMBARD YOUR SENATORS AND TELL THEM YOUR STORY. not that they really give give a dam but tell them anyhow. THEN REMEMBER NOV 2010 WILL COME FAST!
@Social Security (above)
I am sympathetic to your interest in fair pensions, but you have misrepresented Congressmens’ and federal employee pension systems. here it is for real:
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/congresspay.htm
Some of the oldest members of Congress may have been grandfathered when the rules changed in the 1980’s, but it is not anywhere near the situation you described.
Try not to yell “fire” in a crowded building next time.
And no, I do not work in government, at all. In fact, I’m unemployed.
Peace.
13 weeks is just a bandaid, I should be at least 26 weeks and extented to all states.
Come you lazy SOB’s in congress get off your lazy asses and acually do something FOR the American People.
Can’t wait till the 2010 elections!
I’ve been out of a job due to injury in Oct. 07 then was fired doc said I would not be able to return to previous job of 17 years. I CAN’T GET A JOB ,CAN’T GET INSURANCE AN HAVE NO MORE UNEMPLOYMENT,IF I HAD THAT MAYBE I COULD HANG ON. NOW I’M LOSING EVERYTHING PLUS STILL HAVE DOCTOR’S BILLS,CHILD SUPPORT ,MEDICANS,AN TRY TO LIVE WHERE IN THE HELL DO I START? MORE SCHOOL AT 51 TO GET A PART TIME JOB AT MCDONALS FOR 7.25 AN HOUR STILL WON’T BE ABLE TO LIVE.I’M TO OLD FOR SCHOOL CAN’T GO BACK TO PREVIOUS JOB ,AN DON’T QUILIFIED FOR ANY INSURANCE ANYWHERE. {NOW THEY CAN PASS MONEY OUT TO BANK ,OTHER COUNTRY’S AN THEMSELF NO QUESTION ASKED?} TAKE CARE OF THE US FIRST!PEOPLE ARE WATCHING AN MAYBE YOU CAN BECOME UNEPOLYED BECOUSE YOU DO HELP POOR PEOPLE IN NEED ANY MORE.
Just remember that we the people are the ones that vote you ***wipes into office and we can damn well vote you out…..too bad we can’t suspend your paychecks until this is passed. Here is a blurb that says it all
Jobless Americans paying big price for others’ crimes
By Alexandra Jarrin – 10/01/09 06:15 PM ET
This is getting ridiculous! Does the joke, “How many monkeys does it take to screw in a light bulb?” ring a bell to anyone in the Senate? People are starving, they’re freezing — what must happen to the American people before this unemployment benefits extension, S. 1699, gets passed and we get the help we need? We are not responsible for the crashing of the economy, we are not responsible for the outsourcing of our jobs, we are not the thieves that have raped the people of the United States. However, we are the people who are paying the price for their crimes!
How many more weeks will we be fed the rhetoric that it is going to happen — “just hold on”? Also, what do we tell the people who depend on us to survive — our families, our children, landlords, mortgage companies, power companies, gas companies and grocery stores? How many people will wind up in prison because they felt they had no other way to get food, or money to pay their bills? How many people will die by their own hands or others’ because the Senate took its time, because they hear the word emergency but are clueless as to the definition and to what it takes to execute an emergency plan.
How will Congress get back what is lost to these people, to me, to the American People who are trying so hard to make it from one day to the next? When houses are lost to the mortgage companies and banks, and apartments lost to eviction, how will the government get all that back to us, because they have failed us, once again? This is not our fault; again, we are not the ones who caused this problem, but we are the ones who are asked to carry the burdens and live with the consequences.
The question is, What are you going to do to help us? Will you sit there in your chair at your desk and thank your God that you are not one of us, or will you get up and do something to help us before our blood is also on your hands?
We want to know, we need to know, we demand that you tell us where you stand and what you will commit to doing for us.
Brentwood, Tenn.
janbunz
Here is a site that can help the unemployed with phone numbers and where to call to try to get this bill passed……unemployed-friends.forumotion.com….if you don’t see the numbers as ADMIN to repost them…..also, if someone can post a you tube if they have the techno background…..that site get alot of info….does anyone that is unemployed still have a video camera…..we need to find out where all the tent cities are and post them to you tube…..why can’t we all go to the white house and live in it….I thought the people owned it.
Please Senate, pass the new extension. I know the real solution are jobs, but what are we going to do? Live on the streets? Beg for money and food? I am 53 years old so it is harder for me to find a job. It was hard for anyone 45 or over to find a job before the economic crises. So the new extension may only delay the inevitable, but it will give us a chance. Plus I read that Congress wants to give credits or benefits for companies to hire us. That may help provide some jobs and it is a beginning in the right direction. Not to mention, if the new healthcare program did not allow insurance companies to charge more for over 40, then that would also help more to be employed.
It is funny how people who are living off of tax payer dollars, take there time in helping the people they work for, enough with all the talk and pass the bill already! or how about your pay checks stop from tax payers, I can’t belive that a room full of adults can’t make one agreement on the people they work for, the same people who put them in office, while your sitting on your hands, some of the very people who voted for you are becoming homeless, don’t have anything to feed the families with, doese the U.S.A have to come to a complete stop before something is done?
Here is a hypothetical scenario anyone is welcome to try to break.
A hypothetical state unemployment compensation scheme that provides unemployment compensation for anyone who is naturally unemployed. At-will employment doctrine and state at-will employment laws apply as does our Ninth Amendment (which protects the natural right to create and dissolve social contracts that result in employment.)
If anyone can apply for unemployment compensation at-will, and that compensation is above the official poverty rate, why would there be any secular poverty in our republic that is due to a simple lack of income?
The mechanism of unemployment compensation already exists in every state.
Solving poverty via that existing infrastructure could also act as an economic stimulus on a longitudinal basis.
We could lower our tax burden by ending discretionary spending on crime, drugs, poverty, and terror, if no one is in official poverty; as a form of limiting government and its cost to only those Things which provide for the general welfare.
I wish someone had the ability to hack into the system and stop all payments to the senators until they pass this bill……that would be a reality check for these ***wipes
I got a idea how to fund the unemployment extension!!! How about we make all the
banks that we bailed out pay us TAXPAYERS back the money we gave them(BEFORE I LOST MY JOB) before they reward theirselves BILLIONS for the mess that they helped cause
In California, the employer pays all the unemployment tax. I would not mind paying half, to ensure that at-will employment doctrine and state at-will employment laws are fully complied with, as a simple matter of equity, privilege, and immunity.
We could be reducing that cost to the employer and reducing litigation costs concerning at-will employment if anyone can apply for unemployment compensation at-will.
We can also solve official poverty if that unemployment rate is just above the official poverty rate.
we had billions for clunkers,same for banks & investment companys.trillions for wars . how about all us formally hard working people who are now unemployed.we have bills food mortgage heat medical.people of the senate please help our people we count on you.pass the unemployment extention act now,make it for 26 weeks.jobs are not out there lets be real hard hit states are at 20% not 9% as reported.
I’ve voted republican since Reagan/Bush and I would never vote republican again, I do not even care if it was my neighbor whom I like and lets me borrow any tool that I need, if he was to run for alderman on the republican ticket I would campaign and vote for the democratic opponent, I’ve switched to the party with the extended hand not the party of the extended finger.
>>”I’ve switched to the party with the extended hand not the party of the extended finger.”<<
Great line; and it's true.
I'm so glad people are finally waking up to what republicans' are really about. Let's just hope it's not too late.
1. Senate must pass this bill. No brainer. However, that being said… you should all know that Senator Reid (Pelosi’s gimp boy) pulled a fast one and decided to slip in some other stuff that inflated the bill. Figures. Don’t blame it all on the Republicans. Impeach that idiot Pelosi. She let Charlie Rangel get away with tax evasion and has done NOTHING but posturing her whole time in office. That three ring circus (Pelosi, Reed, Rangel) needs to be stripped of power. This is done by your votes people.
2. Republicans AND Democrats have failed this country. So has the public. Period. We stand by and don’t vote yet get mad when these bloated fat cats get re-elected time and time again. 90% of Americans don’t pay attention to their LOCAL politicians and VOTE. Get off your keisters and vote. Go get some info. Share it with your family and neighbors. Make a day of it. Since we don’t have a job, we might as well be pro-active. Election time is upon us and if you sit on your hands again, then it’s just as much your fault.
3. What do you think would happen if 50+ million people decended on Washington DC and to take back the government? What would they or could they do?
If you want your country back, TAKE IT BACK. Go educate yourselves on the local issues FIRST, then go vote responsibly. Get rid of these deadbeats that have been stealing your money and voice by taking corporate handouts.
Write letters. Forget the phone calls and emails. They like LETTERS. The OLD FASHIONED WAY. Trust me. That BIG PILE of letters is harder to ignore than pressing delete on your inbox. WRITE A DAMN LETTER.
4. Stop being so damn greedy too. We are not entitled to anything. But hey, now you and I can’t even find a job, we are starting to realize what the true essentials are to living. That over inflated super sized suburban nightmare you call your home isn’t one of them. Put your ego back in your pants and start being sensible.
Enough said.
The two clueless Republicans holding up the unemployment extension bill H.R.3548 are Jon Kyle from Arizona (202) 224-4521 and Orrin Hatch from Utah (202) 224-5251.
Everyone give them a wakeup call for the unemployed who are now without benefits, and each week more join the list. Six million unemployed = Depression! Nationally, employers have dumped over 260,000 jobs, meaning that these are jobs that no longer exist.
Sign the petition to Stop the Senate from denying extended unemployment at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/pass-the-unemployment-bill
The Senate Republicans are out of touch, delusional and not serving the people. Truly failure of government at a time of its citizens’ highest need.
This is the same old BS and the same old dragging their feet to help those who are in dire need to keep going until the job market improves. How many more will lose their homes etc due to this lag time. This happened as they mulled over the last extension and many hard working people lost everything. Even if they pass it today all of the states will be delaying payments until they get official word. More delays! Stop this insanity! This is a no brainer folks.
In our constitution it says “For the People by the People”
Look at what corprate america has done to this nation,they have stripped us of jobs received 100’s of billions of bailout money from the American people (there goes our social security right down the drain)And here we are unemployed begging for help so our families don’t go without the basic necessities.
Food,shelter,water,and clothes.Security of Treasure said”We will never get back the bailout money from AIG”They received around give or take a billion 120 billion-150 billion.Imagiane this if every household in a america would receive $500,000 from the bailout money it would be about $150 billion.
And all the american people are asking for please give us a few more weeks of unemployment to get through these rough times that the American never created.
It’s time to find people who truly cares for this country which was built by the american people.There own two hands.
Since we the unemployed we should take time and read our constitution and you will get a better of this nation