Today’s issue is unemployment benefits. In my opinion Republicans should support extending the unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed. For me, the question is what would the Republicans suggest for the unemployed and impoverished? It’s a question to which the guessed-at answer is at the root of the new nastiness that is associated with the Republican Party.
While the President’s approval has dropped as he has proven himself a “typical” politician, especially regarding Obamacare using deceit and manipulation to sell people on a policy he never intended to and was not enacted, Republicans must know that even the President’s low approval will not help them since for the most part they are seen as worse, not only “typical” politicians but NASTY and MEAN.
Wise Republicans, those taking the national pulse, will see the argument over unemployment benefits as an opportunity to soften their hypocritical harshness about saving money. Will cutting off benefits save money? Maybe, and at least in the unemployment benefits program money will be saved. But it is asserted here that cutting off unemployment benefits is premature and therefore, the benefits should be extended until more obvious Federal waste is addressed.
By premature I mean that Republicans are delivering more of the same, cutting off food stamps and unemployment while supporting increases in other entitlement programs (such as those for military personnel, which as discussed well in the “Times,” article of September, 2011, included then pensions and health care costs of $100 billion a year, (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/us/retiree-benefits-for-the-military-could-face-cuts.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 or search, James Dao and Mary Williams Walsh, 9/18/2011, “The New York Times,” “Retiree Benefits for the Military Could Face Cuts.”)
Or, why wouldn’t Republicans start with the OPM ruling that entitles Congresspeople and their staffs to sign up for health insurance on the health exchange but to also continue to obtain their old-time federal government contributions to healthcare? (I discussed this yesterday, “Senator Ron Johnson: Thumbs UP!” http://conoutofconsumer.blogspot.com/2014/01/senator-ron-johnson-thumbs-up.html)
Or, why wouldn’t Republicans promote a change to Obamacare so that the rebates and credits, the entitlement created for consumers using the health benefits exchange for certain individuals earning between $11,490 and $45,960 provides that individuals must show their ASSETS not only their income. After all currently those who inherit money or live in million-dollar-homes or own millions in stock but show income between Obamacare amounts are eligible for Federal handouts. (Discussed in posting, “What’s the ONE THING you’d Change in Obamacare?” http://conoutofconsumer.blogspot.com/2013/09/whats-one-thing-youd-change-in-obamacare.html)
These changes alone, talking about getting rid of all entitlements including their own and those of the military in addition to talking about the poor and impoverished would go a long way in beginning to repair the perception of sheer nastiness of, in addition to the perceived hypocrisy of today’s Republicans.
I hope that there will be help for the continued number of poor who were let down by Republican old-fashioned notions and illusory promises that the rich are the job creators as unemployment stays steady and the rich continue to hide their money, move their money offshore, or use it to buy representation and laws favorable to themselves in Congress while fighting bitterly against a living wage for working people, against food assistance for the poor, and against now, unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed.
I’m hopeful that if unemployment benefits end that these individuals could be moved into the welfare system. Perhaps these individuals would also be eligible for disability benefits based on emotional or physical limitations. If they wait long enough, perhaps there will be old-age Social Security if they live long enough to collect it.
It may be that all politicians are essentially liars and manipulators, but they don’t all have to be mean which is ultimately the impression of many people of today’s Republican Party.
Today is an opportunity for Republicans to bring some sanity back into their own platform and acknowledge that they want to cut unemployment benefits but that perhaps they should be doing something else FIRST, like working to remove the handout the OPM created for them for their health benefits, before asking the poorest among us to suck it up again.
