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

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...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

No Labels Hails Tax Cut Vote
Cleaning out my in-box, I came across this e-mail from the “No Labels” co-founders, Nancy Jacobson and Mark Mckinnon, who cited the Bipartisan passage last week of President Obama’s Tax Cut deal as proof that the area between the “warring factions” on the left and the right is “where we can find common ground.” “(F)or the first time in a long time, Democrats and Republicans came together to pass a new package of tax cuts and benefits for those faci...

Independent Women's Forum - Position Paper No. 33: The Unintended Consequences of the Paycheck Fairness Act
This November, the Senate will likely vote on Legislation known as the Paycheck Fairness Act, to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938[i] and the Equal Pay Act of 1963[ii], in the name of giving women extra protection against Sexism in the workplace. Proponents of the Act suggest this Legislation is needed to close the Wage Gap between working men and women, arguing that the gap is evidence of persistent gender-based Discrimination. Yet, this assertion is misleading. Research shows that the...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

Temp work becomes a fixture
Published: Dec. 20, 2010 at 11:49 AM WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. labor market has shifted toward a greater reliance on temporary workers, Labor Department data shows. The department said the Private Sector added 50,000 jobs in November, but 80 percent of those were temporary positions. From January through November, The Economy has gained 307,000 temporary jobs out of 1,17 million new jobs for the year, The New York Times reported Monday. The percentage of temporary is markedly higher ...

Obamonomy: Companies Look More Towards Temporary Jobs
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 fewer benefits or none at all, and have virtually no Job Security. It is harder for them to save. And it is much more difficult for them to develop a career arc while hopping from boss to boss.Actually, one of the bleakest labor markets in American history. Almost a year and a half after the Recession supposedly ended, Unemployment is...

Lo and behold, December 20 lives in infamy | Michael Tomasky
The Weekly Standard chose an interesting day to post the Haley Barbour story. Dennis G. of Balloon Juice makes the nice catch of reminding us all that: Perhaps the Nit Diddler is in the news today to help celebrate the 150 Anniversary of South Carolina's act of Treason that put the Nation firmly on the path to Civil War. Yes! I'd forgotten about this story I read a couple of weeks ago: NAACP members and supporters plan to hold a peaceful march in downtown Charleston the day of the ball, on Dec. ...