Unemployment benefits extension in tax-cut deal only goes so far

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...

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...

House Democrats Introduce A Bill To Help 99ers
By Yashwanth Manjunath The 99ers are people who have exhausted the full 99 weeks of Unemployment Benefits without being able to find work. These are hard-working Americans who had jobs prior to the Financial Meltdown caused by the rapacious greed of the wealthiest and Most Powerful in the country. Right now there are  roughly five unemployed workers for every available job. That means that for 80% of the unemployed there simply are no jobs available no matter how hard they try. The Obama-McCo...

Majority of tea partiers support extending tax cuts and unemployment benefits
So much for cutting the Deficit from those who said it was important to cut the deficit. So much for Democrats who opposed Tax Cuts for the rich. The poll question: Congress has passed and President Obama has signed into law a bill that would extend Tax Cuts for all Americans, reduce the Estate Tax, extend Unemployment Benefits, and reduce the Social Security tax that workers pay. Taking into account all of those provisions, do you favor or oppose that bill? Overall, 75 percent of respondents su...

Extension of jobless benefits affects about 17,000 Rhode Islanders
PAWTUCKET — Legislation signed into law by President Obama on Friday will extend federal Unemployment Benefits for thousands of out-of-work Rhode Islanders. Congress last month let lapse some key federal benefit programs. As a consequence, the maximum amount of time that an unemployed Rhode Islander could collect jobless benefits was cut by up to 53 weeks. But a far-reaching tax bill, approved overnight by the House and signed Friday afternoon by Mr. Obama, includes a 13-month extension of...

Extension of jobless benefits affects about 17,000 Rhode Islanders
PAWTUCKET — Legislation signed into law by President Obama on Friday will extend federal Unemployment Benefits for thousands of out-of-work Rhode Islanders. Congress last month let lapse some key federal benefit programs. As a consequence, the maximum amount of time that an unemployed Rhode Islander could collect jobless benefits was cut by up to 53 weeks. But a far-reaching tax bill, approved overnight by the House and signed Friday afternoon by Mr. Obama, includes a 13-month extension of...

Richardson encouraged by North Korea trip
Sen. Tom Udall continues to advance his cause of changing the Senate rules to reduce the role of the Filibuster and the ability of a minority of senators to delay Legislation from being voted on — in some cases indefinitely — in the Senate. The deal that extends both the Bush-era Tax Cuts for all income ranges and Unemployment Benefits for two years easily passed the Senate today on a 81-19 vote, as expected. Both U.S. Senators from New Mexico voted against the deal because of the ta...

31 States Have Borrowed Money From Federal Government To Cover Unemployment Benefits
Over the weekend CBS ran a fantastic piece about the impending financial collapse of State Governments. Add into the mix this report indicating that 31 states have now had to borrow money from our bankrupt Federal Government, which in turn is borrowing it from international creditors, to pay the bill for expanded Unemployment Benefits: Since the current Recession began, 31 states have borrowed just under $40 billion from the federal government to fill their depleted Unemployment trust funds. It ...

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...

Newt Gingrich Blames Nation's Problems On Unemployed People
Newt Gingrich, who is currently mulling a presidential bid in 2012, said at a political event in South Carolina on Thursday that most of America's problems can be blamed on the "leftist News Media," Hollywood, tenured academics, overpaid federal workers, and unemployed people. "I'm opposed to giving people money for doing nothing," he told the crowd of 250 cheering GOP Activists in a state with a 10.6 percent Unemployment Rate. The Los Angeles Times reports: Comparing Unemployment Benefits ...

31 States Have Borrowed Money From Federal Government To Cover Unemployment Benefits
Over the weekend CBS ran a fantastic piece about the impending financial collapse of State Governments. Add into the mix this report indicating that 31 states have now had to borrow money from our bankrupt Federal Government, which in turn is borrowing it from international creditors, to pay the bill for expanded Unemployment Benefits: Since the current Recession began, 31 states have borrowed just under $40 billion from the federal government to fill their depleted Unemployment trust funds. It ...

Jobless Americans wary of losing their edge
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Since losing her job last April, Laurianne Dobbins has known one thing: she wasn't going to let her skills get rusty. So the 45-year-old mechanical designer bought a training edition of the drafting software she had used at work and practiced daily. "If you don't do it every day you can lose the skills," said Dobbins, from Rochester, New York. "I didn't want that to happen to me." She stopped her hobby of singing and missed out on outdoor pursuits with her family on weekend...

Crazy Things Conservatives Say: Jobless Edition
Having won the right to take control of one body of Congress, conservative Republicans are in full "what the American People voted for" mode -- in which a politician presumes the "American people" believe whatever crazy thing rattles around in his or her mind. Funny then, that after agreeing to a Compromise whick President Barack Obama regarding taxes and jobless benefits, all the components with the President championed are popular, and all the planks that Republicans insisted upon are not. T...

CNN Poll Shows GOP Won Far Better Deal on Tax Extension
The latest CNN Poll (PDF) is amazing proof that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell got a much better bargain than President Obama on the Bush Tax Cut deal. According the poll the major “concession” Obama won from Republicans — an extension of Unemployment Benefits — is extremely popular. A full 76 percent of respondents favor the extension while only 22 percent oppose. What Obama received in turn from McConnell was Republicans “willingness” to support an extreme...

Does the GOP Have a Tea Party Problem? (The Atlantic Wire)
WASHINGTON, DC – Many wondered not whether the Tea Party would become a Headache for Republicans, but when. The answer might be: right now. John Boehner hasn't even claimed his speakerly throne yet, and already there are "signs of a rift" between top Republicans and the Tea Party that helped them win a majority in the House, ABC News' Huma Khan reports. Tea Partiers aren't happy about compromises on the Bush Tax Cuts, Food Safety, Gays in the Military, and other compromises that they see...

Jobless benefits are extended - but hold the applause
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Millions of jobless Americans are no doubt cheering the Tax Cut deal that President Obama signed into law Friday. The Legislation provides for 13 more months to apply for extended jobless benefits, but not everyone who's unemployed will be eligible for these extended benefits. Email Print Comment In fact, residents in at least five states won't have access to the same level of Unemployment Benefits as their peers nationwide. That's because the Unemployment Rate in th...

State unemployment down at 10.6 percent for November
COLUMBIA -- South Carolina's Unemployment Rate improved for the third month in a row to 10.6 percent in November, state officials said Friday. But the total number of nonfarm jobs in the state declined by 3,700 during the month despite the slight improvement in the jobless rate from 10.7 percent in October, according to a release by the state Employment and Workforce Department. It is unusual that total jobs would decrease when the number of people working increases, but the numbers are calculat...

Nevada Unemployment Rate Increases to 14.3% Harry Reid Still on the Job
Thank you Harry Reid … The jobless Unemployment Rate in Nevada increases to 14.3% . Maybe the folks of Nevada would like to explain themselves as to how they reelected Harry Reid back to the US Senate. Do they have no one but themselves to blame for their predicament? One really has to question how a state can have an Unemployment Rate that is so far above national Unemployment rate, coupled with record home Foreclosures and bankruptcies and still keep the same people in political pow

Payrolls Drop in 28 U.S. States, Joblessness Rises in 21 in Labor Setback
Payrolls decreased in 28 U.S. states and the Unemployment Rate climbed in 21, showing most parts of the world's largest economy took part in the November labor- market setback. North Carolina led the nation with 12,500 Job Cuts last month, followed by Massachusetts with 8,600 dismissals, and Ohio with 7,800, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. Joblessness increased most in Georgia and Idaho, while workers in Nevada faced the highest rate in the country at 14.3 percent...

House Democrats Introduce A Bill To Help 99ers
The "99ers" are people who have exhausted the full 99 weeks of Unemployment Benefits without being able to find work. These are hard-working Americans who had jobs prior to the financial meltdown caused by the rapacious greed of the wealthiest and Most Powerful in the country. Right now there are roughly five unemployed workers for every available job. That means that for 80% of the unemployed there simply are no jobs available no matter how hard they try. In the Atlantic City-Hammonton metropol...

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...

Lame Duck doesn't suck
In a move that surprised just about everyone, the Senate passed the Food Safety bill on a voice vote yesterday. I'm not sure it's that good a bill since I've seen some small buzz about provisions that could potentially hurt small and organic farmers. But the larger point is our broken Senate can get things done, if they want to. In fact, DDay points out the Lame Duck Senate session has been rather productive: So far in the lame duck, Congress has passed: the Tax Cut bill which includes a 13-...

Is This the Obama Comeback? (The Atlantic Wire)
WASHINGTON, DC – Now that President Obama has pleased Conservatives by getting Congress to pass his Tax Cut Compromise and has thrilled liberals by finally repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," pundits are suggesting this could be the start of his big comeback. That's a pretty quick comeback from his political low point in November, when Congressional Elections were swept by a wave of Republicans who have not even taken their seats yet. So are they right? Are we seeing an Obama resurgence t...

Republicans Threaten Nuclear Treaty Over Don't Ask/Don't Tell Repeal
The President chose to strike a deal, saying at the time, "I think it's tempting not to negotiate with the hostage takers, unless the hostage gets harmed." In exchange for giving the Republicans their desired Tax Cuts for the wealthy, President Obama got the middle-class Tax Cuts he wanted, and an extension of Unemployment Benefits. Now, since their first hostage taking was such a success, what do Republicans have to lose by trying again? Public Opinion for one thing. Within an hour of The Was...

Senate to decide on Dream Act, don't ask repeal
WASHINGTON — With enactment of the tax-cut Compromise and the possible passage of other key White House priorities, congressional leaders have asserted their authority to achieve Bipartisan agreements in advance of a more polarized legislative environment next year. The approach marks an unusual end to a Congress famed for gridlock. The Lame Duck session began with Democrats facing an emboldened GOP that vowed to block all action until its priority fiscal issues were addressed. It is wra...