July 8, 2010

Why won’t Congress reauthorize unemployment benefits for people who’ve been out of work for longer than six months? For the past several weeks, Republicans in the Senate, with an assist from Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson, filibustered bills to reauthorize the benefits due to concerns about adding the cost of the aid to the deficit.

Beneath the deficit concerns, however, there’s something else: the suspicion that the long-term unemployed are a bunch of lazy drug addicts. It’s not an opinion openly shared by most members of Congress, but a handful of senators and representatives from both parties have said this year that they suspect extended unemployment benefits actually discourage people from looking for work.

It started in March with Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who said unemployment insurance “doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.”

In May, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said extended benefits undermine the economic recovery because they “basically keep an economy that encourages people to, rather than go out and look for work, to stay on unemployment.”

And Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.), after pushing party leaders to trim a domestic aid bill, said that in light of four months of job growth, “At some point you have to take a step back and look at the relative value of unemployment benefits versus people looking for jobs.”

Altmire said business owners in his district (he declined to say which ones) complained of hiring trouble because potential workers would rather stay on the dole.

Continue reading Jason Altmire Cuts $30billion from aid to Americans, votes more war spending →

July 8, 2010

by Shahien Nasiripour

Huffington Post Reporting

An international economic organization criticized the U.S. Congress on Wednesday for allowing extended unemployment benefits to lapse at the end of May, a move that thus far has denied more than 2 million Americans a critical lifeline during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

In its report on the global employment outlook, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development noted that a “particularly worrisome feature” of America’s deep recession is the high number of workers who have been unemployed for more than six months.

Nearly half of the unemployed fall into this category, while more than 1 in 4 has been unemployed for longer than a year, the Paris-based OECD noted.

In the view of the OECD, “this group raises particular concerns for public policy,” as the long-term unemployed “are at an elevated risk of falling into poverty” and “risk becoming permanently marginalized in the labor market.”

Continue reading OECD Criticizes Congress For Allowing Unemployment Benefits To Lapse →

Please Join State Senator Jim Ferlo and Sponsoring Organizations

MEDICARE BIRTHDAY PARTY

FRIDAY, JULY 30th 12 Noon – 1:00

County Court House Fountain Plaza

Grant St., between Forbes and Fifth Aves, Pittsburgh

Free and Open to the Public

Join us As We Celebrate the 45th Anniversary of the Historic

Passage of Medicare

Help us tell our members of Congress to Expand and Protect Our Medicare and Medicaid!

Support State and National Single Payer Health Care

For All – Not Private Insurance!

AND

Save Our Social Security!

President Obama has convened the 18 member National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, also known as the Deficit Commission.

• Is the Commission empowered to look at cost savings to tax-payers if corporations and Wall Street paid their fair share to the federal Treasury? – NO!
• Will the Commission look at wasteful military spending by sending billions to Halliburton and corrupt foreign governments? NO!
• Maybe the Commission will look at ways to save billions from the profiteering in the health care system by private insurance companies or pharmaceutical corporations at the expense of consumers and small business rate payers? NO!
• Maybe the Commission will require non-profit UPMC to sell their $750,000 sign atop the USX building, reign in million dollar salaries or re-open Braddock Hospital? NO WAY!

The federal Commission, with funded staff from Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson (a long time proponent of abolishing or privatizing the Social Security), is stacked with folks committed to reducing benefits under Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They say cut-back and we say Fight-Back! Even more disgusting and un-democratic is that the 12/1/10 release date of the Commission’s report will be presented and acted upon by the Congress after the Fall General Elections in a lame duck session!! For millions of Americans, especially older women, the Social Security check is their only means of support.

JOIN US AT THE COUNTY COURT HOUSE AND HELP US SPEAK WITH ONE VOICE-

Hands off our Social Security and health care benefits!

Sponsors (list in formation):  Western PA Coalition for Single-Payer Healthcare; PA Alliance for Retired Americans ; Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees—SOAR; Independent State Store Union (ISSU); Just Harvest; Western PA Democracy for America; Pax Christi Greensburg; PA United for Singlepayer Healthcare (PUSH); Steel Valley Printers; National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 84; PA 4th CD Chapter of Progressive Democrats of America

For transportation from Beaver County contact Tina Shannon 724 843 0545.

For immediate release