Hatch displays stunning lack of knowledge on unemployment insurance

Orrin Hatch Latest Lawmaker To Flunk Unemployment Legislation 101 (VIDEO)
WASHINGTON -- Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch said this week that extended Unemployment Insurance "is well over 100 weeks now," making him the latest Millionaire member of Congress to publicly demonstrate that he does not understand the Unemployment Legislation he obstructs. The jobless aid programs reauthorized late Thursday night provide up to 73 weeks of benefits for people who have exhausted 26 weeks of state benefits. The reauthorization lasts for 13 months, but that doesn't mean there a...

States Raise Payroll Taxes to Repay Unemployment Insurance Loans
Don’t you love this razzle dazzle the Feds pulled? This is an Insurance plan paid by the employer, not a government program. Of course the employer was going to have to pay for the extension of benefits sooner or later. Just like any other Insurance plan. Why can’t someone please just be honest about they are about? But then again, they may not even know. State Governments are borrowing heavily from the Federal Government to keep paying Unemployment-insurance benefits and, even with ...

The economic outrage of 2010: Cowardly leaders failed to help working people
As we look back on 2010, the most significant economic event of the year was what didn't happen: Unemployment failed to come down, stubbornly hovering around 9.5% almost four years after the bubble broke, three years after the beginning of the Recession and more than two years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. And, above and beyond any other reason, this stagnation persisted because our political leaders failed to muster the requisite courage to tackle our problems at their source. With o...

The NYT Piece on CO2 Measurement is a Good Read
There are several interesting articles in the NYT today. The piece on scientist Charles Keeling and how he developed the process of calculating and monitoring Carbon Dioxide levels in the atmosphere is unusually long and detailed for a newspaper piece. It's also simply an interesting, well-written story. It's become impossible to cover Climate Science in any way that does not have a political edge, but the numbers tell a story and one thing is certain, no one gets to negotiate a Bailout from the...

Dean Baker takes a look at the stimulus that isn't there
In the Guardian, Dean Baker warns that the US business press is engaging in some irrational exuberance over the Obama/GOP tax deal, seeing it as a massive stimulus that will make for a strong recovery next year. There seems to be little doubt that Obama sees it that way, too. Or at least he seems to be confidently talking that way--though Baker doesn't talk about him specifically. What he does talk about is that the vast majority of the tax deal merely continues existing law, and such doesn't ...

Was Gibbs was right?
TAPPER : So just to put a period on this, the president thinks that funding the government, passing Unemployment-insurance extensions "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Repeal, the DREAM Act, Tax Cuts and START all can be done? GIBBS: Yes. TAPPER : In the next 18 days? GIBBS : Yes. TAPPER : Good luck. GIBBS : Yes. Well, thank you. (Laughter.) Yeah, you'll have a lot to cover. Well, it's been 22 days, but as the Lame Duck nears conclusion, lets bring you up to date. A two year extension of the Bush-era tax ...

Economy grew modestly in July-September quarter
(12-22) 07:28 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Economy grew at a moderate pace last summer, reflecting stronger spending by businesses to replenish stockpiles. More recent barometers suggest the economy is gaining momentum in the final months of the year. Gross domestic product increased at a 2.6 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. That's up from the 2.5 percent pace estimated a month ago. While businesses spent more to build inventories, co...

Obama signs 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal
President Barack Obama signs the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010, at the Interior Department in Washington. WASHINGTON—Declaring that members of the Military will no longer be asked to lie, President Barack Obama fulfilled a campaign promise Wednesday and signed a landmark law repealing the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the armed services. "This is a good day," a beaming Obama said. "This is a very good day." The service chiefs must comple...

Obama signs 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal
WASHINGTON — Declaring that members of the Military will no longer be asked to lie, President Barack Obama fulfilled a campaign promise Wednesday and signed a landmark law repealing the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the armed services. "This is a good day," a beaming Obama said. "This is a very good day." The service chiefs must complete implementation plans before lifting the old policy — and they must certify to lawmakers that it won’t damage combat readiness, a...

Obama: Repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell' will strengthen national security
Declaring that members of the Military will no longer be asked to lie, President Barack Obama fulfilled a campaign promise Wednesday and signed a landmark law repealing the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the armed services. "This is a good day," a beaming Obama said. "This is a very good day." The service chiefs must complete implementation plans before lifting the old policy — and they must certify to lawmakers that it won't damage combat readiness, as critics charge. But the ...

Lame Duck spasms and other December twitches; the lack of a budget has longest shelf life
Posted by Clyde Middleton on Dec 22 2010 Filed under Business, Constitution, Featured, News & Opinion, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry DADT, START 3, CR, Tax Rates, Internet Regulation: Five spasmodic episodes since the November Punishment ending with a signature on the death cert for the 111th Congress.  All that was accomplished by the twitching was to give surrounding loved ones false hope th...

Jobless feel relief, anger for benefits extension
CLEVELAND — Kimberly Smith holds up the piece of paper that is the only thing keeping her from Bankruptcy: an application for extended Unemployment Benefits. She's not happy that she needs it. And she's upset that it was nearly taken away. "I do deserve it," the 49-year-old says. "I've done everything I could to try and get a job. I tried to get back into the retail industry. I made the effort to, at my age, go back to college." President Barack Obama extended Unemployment benefits f...

Unemployment Checks Resume For Some Jobless While Others Go Without For Holidays
Ken Watson said the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services notified him Sunday that on Monday he'd receive the Unemployment checks Congress kept from him with its dithering the past two weeks. "I didn't know what they were gonna do," said Watson, a 46-year-old laid-off IT contractor with five kids in Batavia, Ohio. "I didn't really count on it coming back." More than a million people relying on federally-funded extended Unemployment Benefits had their checks interrupted after Congress all...

Unemployment benefits extension in tax-cut deal only goes so far
While Bipartisan tax Legislation signed by President Obama on Friday reinstates Unemployment Benefits for about 1 million it doesn't provide any additional help for those who have exhausted all 99 weeks. The $858 billion measure provides for an extension of federal Unemployment Benefits through the end of 2011 but only for those who have exhausted their 26 weeks of state jobless Insurance or who are working their way through the federal tiers. The White House, Democratic lawmakers and advoca...

32 states borrow billions from feds to cover unemployment benefits...
BY MALIA ZIMMERMAN - Hawaii has applied to be the 32nd state to borrow from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration to pay state Unemployment Benefits. Hawaii will temporarily take up to $30 million this December to cover payments to the state’s 17,000 unemployed workers who lost their jobs within the last 26 weeks. That is the beginning of what will likely be an 18-month borrowing streak, says State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Interim D...

Lame Duck Produces a Lame Economy
Floyd and Mary Beth Brow, FloydReports.com The Lame Duck Congress and President Obama are retarding the recovery. It’s tough medicine to medicine to swallow — ending Unemployment Benefits for people who have been out of work for three years — but it is necessary if we want recovery. The official U.S. Unemployment Rate has not been beneath 9 percent since April 2009, and it is unlikely to dip until much of the currently unemployed take jobs paying lower wages and benefits. Back in...

Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 passes
(Dan here: I am traveling right now and am posting things late or maybe not as tidy as I would like. But posts are coming.) by Linda Beale Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 passes crossposted with Ataxingmatter No big surprise here.  The House on December 16 passed the Senate-approved TRA by a vote of 277-148, clearing it for the President's signature.  The bill extends the Bush Tax Cuts for two years and reduces the number of estates ...

Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 passes
(Dan here: I am traveling right now and am posting things late or maybe not as tidy as I would like. But posts are coming.) by Linda Beale Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 passes crossposted with Ataxingmatter No big surprise here.  The House on December 16 passed the Senate-approved TRA by a vote of 277-148, clearing it for the President's signature.  The bill extends the Bush Tax Cuts for two years and reduces the number of estates ...

January Jones: Congress Bans Shark Finning
Christmas came early for sharks, as Congress took the last step yesterday to pass a ban on shark finning in the U.S. Shark finning is the brutal practice of slicing off a shark's fins, often for use in shark fin soup, an Asian delicacy. The shark -- sometimes still alive -- may be thrown back into the sea to bleed to death. Each year, Commercial Fishing gear kills more than 100 million sharks worldwide, including tens of millions for just their fins. Having swum with sharks large and small, I...

Gems bill dies as Congress gives up on land legislation
The U.S. Congress will not pass an omnibus land bill before the 2010 Lame Duck legislative session ends, meaning that Rep. Jared Polis’s bill calling for new wilderness designations from the Hidden Gems proposal will expire. Will Rousch, the Gems campaign outreach coordinator, said they are confident Polis will re-introduce the bill — which he called the Eagle and Summit County Wilderness Preservation Act —this spring, in the next session of congress. “He seems pretty com...

Kyl: Senate Democrats "very partisan" on START Treaty
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and seven other Republican senators on Tuesday held firm in their opposition to ratifying a new U.S.-Russia nuclear arms treaty during Congress' lame-duck session, even as the agreement appears on track to clear a key procedural hurdle and could reach a final vote as early as Wednesday. Speaking at a Capitol Hill news conference with Republican Sens. John Barrasso (Wyo.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), John Thune (S.D.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Ji...

Three Citi-affliated insurance brokers paid a $2 million fine for insurance law violations they allegedly committed ...
Three Citi-affliated Insurance brokers paid a $2 million fine for Insurance law violations they allegedly committed between 2003 to 2007. To embed this post, copy the code below and paste into your website or blog....

START Gains GOP Support, On Track for Passage
ABC News’ Matthew Jaffe reports:  The momentum to pass START continued to gain speed today when Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-GA, and Sen. Bob Bennett, R-UT, announced their support for the pact, giving Democrats - on paper at least - enough votes for ratification.  “Only through setting the example, without giving in or capitulating a thing, do we give hope to the future that my Grandchildren and yours can live in a world that will not be free of nukes but will be secure; th

Kepcher: An unexpected role reversal
Is it possible for a wife and mother to be a breadwinner, a husband and father to be a stay-at-home dad, and for the whole situation to work out successfully, even happily? Of course it is. Couples do it all the time. But what about those who never meant for this to happen? In the economic downturn, men have been let go from their jobs at a higher rate. The national Unemployment Rate for men older than 20 was 10% in November, but 8.4% for women older than 20. It's a small upside for the averag...

As Hiring Falters, More Workers Become Temporary
Temporary workers are starting to look, well, not so temporary. Despite a surge this year in short-term hiring, many American businesses are still skittish about making those jobs permanent, raising concerns among workers and some labor experts that temporary employees will become a larger, more entrenched part of the work force. This is bad news for the nation’s workers, who are already facing one of the bleakest labor markets in recent history. Temporary employees generally receive few...