In the words of Emily Litella, “Never mind.”
Never mind that I thought the rest of the tax cut deal was worth swallowing, because that was when I still thought there were 13 months’ additional unemployment benefits in the picture. There aren’t.
According to Calculated Risk, this is the same kind of “bridge” legislation we’ve seen before, in which people who were eligible for the next level of extensions (but couldn’t get them because they expired) are now eligible to move on to the next extension level.
It’s not another tier. There are no new benefits. You still can’t collect any more than 99 weeks. All it does is maintain the same system that was already in place.
Which means this deal isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit, as my mother used to say.
Arthur Delaney at Huffington Post:
The programs provide up to 73 weeks of federally-funded benefits for workers who exhaust 26 weeks of state benefits. The average weekly benefit is about $300, and the total cost of a yearlong reauthorization is roughly $60 billion. Republicans and conservative Democrats ostensibly concerned about the deficit impact of the benefits have blocked several attempts to renew them in the past couple weeks, but they’ve signaled they will relent if the benefits are attached to the even-costlier tax cuts for the rich.
Some 800,000 laid off workers have already received cutoff notices, and another 1.2 million will stop receiving benefits by the end of the month unless Congress reauthorizes the recently-lapsed programs..
So those of you who are running out of benefits, please curl up in your cardboard box and die. We wouldn’t want to upset the bond market, would we?
It’s simply amazing that the White House is allowing the press (and the voters) to think otherwise. I mean, does Obama think they won’t notice when their checks are shut off?
This is the same trick they pulled back in March, when I lost my benefits. The 99ers weren’t able to rally the troops because the media (and the general public) thought Congress had already approved additional aid, when all they did was fund the existing extensions.
Yes, it preserves the existing benefits. Well, why the hell shouldn’t they? Obama expects applause for this? In the name of common decency, this shouldn’t even be an issue. And in exchange for this emergency support, basic humane aid, we’re supposed to give away the store so that millionaires and billionaires can make even more money?
All this money for war, for banks, for big business, and nothing for the people getting buried by the economic fallout.
Bah, humbug. Time to look for a primary challenger.
And call your congresscritters today and tell them to reject this.
Ironic how the government is about to radicalize all those people.
And to what end? Hmmmmm.
Revolutions don’t just happen; they are provoked.
The Washington Post has finally caught on that individuals making less than $20K and families earning less than $40K will actually get a tax INCREASE because the 2% payroll tax holiday wouldn’t be as large a benefit as the Make Work Pay credit (something I figured out the night Obama announced his grand compromise).
So poor people actually get a tax increase.
And those “family friendly” credits that Obama “saved” from the eeevil Republicans? The Republicans wanted to keep those too!
I knew there was something wrong when you were in favor of this deal, I just KNEW IT!
Indeed, this deal should be rejected.
I had a dream last night in which Obama explained to me that he was deliberately provoking the base in order to motivate them to action and give him cover for putting forward more progressive policies.
Then I woke up.
Yep, primary him. And primary any Dem Senators who let this measure get through.
In my comment above, I meant the New York Times (early morning brain not functioning yet)
@ Kurt – Last night I dreamt that I was going in for open heart surgery and the surgeon was going to operate on me with only a local anesthetic.
If Bernie Sanders were to run for President, there would be no need to primary the SOBama: Sen. Sanders has the distinct advantage of being neither a Democrat or a Rethug. And, he has been a life-long out-there progressive, truly working for people.
So, now we know for sure that Obama’s a liar. In his presser he talked about all that he was doing “for the American people”. I knew it was bullshit, as do most progressives. He’s a fucking liar, period!
And so, then, the guy puts out a “warning” that if the Dems don’t vote for this bullshit they’ll be blamed for “a double-dip recession”. I mean, c’mon man………….when are you gonna get in the truth-telling business……………geeeze.
dandy, I just about choked on my cheerios when I read that this morning. “…That put the White House in the unusual position of warning its own party’s lawmakers they could be to blame for calamitous consequences if they go against the president.”
Obama’s gone all in with the republicans. They will no doubt reward him warmly for this.
And the NYTimes also points out that many public employees, those who do not pay into SocSec but other pension plans, will also get a tax increase.
I posted this in Susie’s Steve Benen post, now two pages back. Here’s the link for reading the details and getting links. I have to work on those leaves — snow just might arrive any day now here in norther NJ….
http://susiemadrak.com/?p=11028#comments
BTW, Obama’s pretty words are intended to confuse those not listening to every damn detail. It’s how he campaigned. Now, at least, we get more info from the MCM as to where his words diverge from his deeds. And he told the public about his Grand Giveawy to the Repubs, er, make that Compromise, that NO MIDDLE CLASS PEOPLE HAD TAXES INCREASED. He LIED.
He lied, or he thinks only people earning above the national media income are entering the middle class…which also says a lot about how he views us, the little people.
Our Senate critters have just defeated the bill to provide ongoing health care to Ground Zero workers and those who lived and worked in the area.
Hurry Up and Die is the operative plan. Reduce the surplus population! Next up– Homeless should freeze to death for the good of the deficit. Greedy geezers should also hurry up and die. The poor with lousy insurance should hurry up and die.
Obama — Not just Hoover, but the Anti-FDR!
Told ya’ you or I wouldn’t see any of it. The cardboard box metaphor is apt.
So you were for it, despite all the horrendous consequences, when you thought it would extend your unemployment payments; now that it’s just going to help the 26ers, you’re against it. Right?
Signed,
Another 99er
@10 – That’s the case with us. Husband works for the local school district and has PERS, therefore no payment into SS. With what I make we would just about break even on the payroll tax holiday vs MWP, but other families are not in our shoes. They will be screwed.
I have to believe that President Obama is working for the other side, the side of the bankers and financiers who have known all along that they were going to use the treasury to bail themselves out and then squeeze the money out of the working class to pay for the bailout loans.
At every turn he has moved to strengthen their side and to work against the working people of America. All I have to show for his great “accomplishments” is the knowledge that in a couple of years I will be forced to buy a useless insurance policy that will be too expensive to use because of deductibles and co-payments. I will simply pay the fine and go barefoot. If I have a heart attack I just hope nobody finds me until it is over.
It was never going to extend MY unemployment benefits. Mine ran out in March.