Over the House unemployment extension vote:
House Republican leaders sent a memo this week to the entire GOP conference with talking points designed to help rank-and-file Republicans show compassion for the unemployed and explain the Republican position on unemployment benefits. In the memo, which was obtained by The Washington Post, House Republicans are urged to be empathetic toward the unemployed and understand how unemployment is a “personal crisis” for individuals and families. The memo also asks Republicans to reiterate that the House will give “proper consideration” to an extension of long-term insurance as long as Democrats are willing to support spending or regulatory reforms.
A few definitions might be helpful:
When you say “creating jobs”, what kind of job did you have in mind? Full time work, with benefits, sick leave, some vacation time, something in the way of a retirement plan – a “job” that would pay enough such that you only needed to work one job, and be in the middle class bracket.
Or did you mean a part time job, few hours, no more than minimum pay and preferably less, no benefits, and a job where you’d best be working 2-3 other “jobs” to try to make ends meet?
You meant the latter?
That’s kind of what I thought. How about having the decency to say so?
Oh – and about the unemployment rate being lower now than when a similar situation occurred in the 1980s, isn’t that all kind of “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” stuff – because we’ve gotten so much better at fudging the real unemployment rate, that in all probability it is much higher than it was in the 1980s if we bothered to be at all honest?
What’s that? Your policy isn’t based on honesty? OK – glad we cleared that up.
One other thing – the part about “restoring independence” – did you mean to buck the whole corporate system, learn a skill or a craft you can practice in your local community outside the corporate economy such that you are truly independent of it – or did you mean working at a big box store and still be at the poverty level?
Yeah, that’s kind of what I thought.
“Empathetic”……..hmmmm……maybe the Congress should be forced by law to take that pill that we spoke about a few days ago?
“It would be within the historic norm to allow the emergency benefits to expire.”
Sounds like empathy to me.