Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Senator Brown blocks unemployment

Our Senator Scott Brown took to the floor of the Senate to block extension of unemployment benefits. Blue Mass Group has the details here. The unemployment benefits of an estimated 2 million Americans will expire before Christmas unless Congress acts to extend them. While our Commonwealth did not reach the depths of unemployment that other areas are experiencing and is recovering jobs more quickly than the nation, there are still thousands of Bay Staters out of work with no prospect for employment because there are no jobs to be filled. Merry Christmas from the GOP!
To compound matters, unemployment payments are anti-recessionary. Unemployed workers spend their benefits and stimulate the economy. Which helps to reduce unemployment and spur demand. Demand creates jobs, ...

... not small business and certainly not tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of our population. It is simple. A well run business has exactly the number of workers needed to fill the demand for their product. Giving them a tax break adds to their profit, not their payroll.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Republicans want to block extending unemployment benefits after they passed legislation allowing tax credits for American businesses to take jobs overseas. They want to cut Social Security benefits. They want to increase the retirement age, as well. They want to privatize part of the Social Security money into the stock market. They want to maintain tax cuts only if they include people earning over $200k. They oppose regulations on businesses that protect their shareholders. George W. has only recently come out of hiding, and that was to sell his biography. Notice no one was stupid enough to drag him out to help them in the last election. While I am no fan of the Obama massive spending spree to fix the recession, I will take that approach as opposed to throwing the average American under the bus any day.

Anonymous said...

Let's stop all this business of handing out money to people and inflating the budget that is now somewhere near 13 trillion dollars. Most of the people collecting unemployment checks have been receiving unemployment for two years. Yes, we must help those in need but how about working for the money. Each person receiving an unemployment check should check in at their local city/town office and be assigned a job at the school department , public works, police department, and any other town department that needs an extra hand. Get serious. Most people collecting a check are not looking for employment because the check amount is more than if they worked.
The unemployed need the money but the country is running out of money. What will we do when everyone is out of work and the US dollar becomes usless.

Anonymous said...

yeah - 99 weeks of unemployment has really stimulated the economy so far.

Anonymous said...

Your stimulus didn't work. Your continued unemployment benefits didn't work. So, let's continue to do both to stimulate our economy? I support continued unemployment, but not for the sake of stimulating our economy.

You said:
A well run business has exactly the number of workers needed to fill the demand for their product. Giving them a tax break adds to their profit, not their payroll.

Increased profits for small business owners are great for our economy. Despite your OPINION, the fact of the matter is, they reinvest in their business, with capital investments, efficiencies, and job creation. Demand does fuel jobs. Kennedy, Reagan and Bush got this. That is why they extended tax cuts across the board. In each case, economic output increased following the cuts.

Bill, it's simple. You believe the government can spend our money better than we can. Your ideas are killing jobs, killing innovation, and killing entrepreneurship.

Engage in honest dialogue and quite the them vs. us, rich vs poor, blue vs red games.

Anonymous said...

I cannot believe how simple minded some of the complaints are about the lack of recovery from the economic devastation the Republican leadership did to this country. If you have a clue, then look at the economy in general in this country. Its' base is now far more service and niche business orientated than ever. The days of large manufacturing or other industry mass hiring’s domestically are a thing of the past. How long does it take to create more jobs in the typically small businesses? And how do you create jobs in service related industries that are ALWAYS looking to cut jobs? Think about it and in the process get a reality check.

Anonymous said...

Guilty for being simple minded then I guess. Spend trillions in 2 years and promise recovery and get less than zero results-that part I just can't figure out. Must be too dumb to see the republican hand in all of that.

Anonymous said...

Re: Guilty for being simple minded then I guess.

That you are, sorry to say. You don't have to look far to see the Republican hand in this. Look at the first hand you see in this mess. As in, who is responsible. The next hand you see is who tried first to fix it and failed. Alas, that is Republican, too.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I can't possibly see the hand of Barney Frank in any of this. He's still full of bluster and admits no responsibility in any of this. Last I checked Barney was a Democrat. Everyone should own a house and the banks should make sure they qualify anyone with a pulse. No problem there. Then we bail them out and guess what? More than 1/2 of them are in default again. Yeah it's George W's fault all right.
I suppose the dems that are blocking the current compromise on the tax plan are innocent too? They will single handedly make those on unemployment lose out on their benefits. Right before Christmas too.