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Six Republican Governors Rather Play Politics than Aid Jobless Workers |
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With U.S. unemployment at the highest level in more than a quarter century, six Republican governors would rather play politics with the lives of their citizens than help them make ends meet.
President Obama’s economic recovery plan provides $25 more per week and extends benefits for those who are jobless and struggling to feed their families. But as Karen Nussbaum, director of Working America, the AFL-CIO community affiliate, writes on Huffington Post:
If you live in Alabama, Alaska, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina or Texas, you are laid off and left out.
When AIG defrauded investors and the government, employees there took home millions in bonuses. Elsewhere, people are living unemployment check to unemployment check through no fault of their own, laid off because everyone is tightening their belts and job growth is nonexistent. Shoring up the unemployment insurance safety net is fundamental fairness.
Rumored Republican presidential candidates Sarah Palin of Alaska and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana both refused the unemployment funds—maybe a harbinger of the type of president they would make?
Millions of Americans need unemployment benefits to live. Nussbaum writes about several, including Marvin Bohn of Ohio, who was laid off after 42 years in the food service industry when Antioch College shut its doors last year. He has diabetes and heart disease, a pacemaker and a defibrillator, and needs 11 medications, but he couldn’t afford to continue his health coverage on the $329 a week he gets from unemployment insurance. He has run through his savings, paying his medical bills out of pocket, and he has not yet found another job.
On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the new monthly unemployment figures and the numbers are expected to be even worse than the February’s 8.1 percent unemployment rate. As Nussbaum writes:
Meanwhile, the much looked-for help the federal government has offered will be available only to those Americans whose governors aren’t trying to score political points. It’s time to remember it isn’t just big corporations that are hurting in this economy. Let’s let these Republican governors know they need to help make America work for working Americans.
Read Nussbaum’s entire article here.
11 Comments
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This must have been a difficult decision. Not taking federal funds that would go to state taxpayers - these decisions must have a reason other than “politics”.
I suspect the reason is that by taking the funds they felt they were irresponsibly committing their state to future payments it could not afford. Is that “politics” or is that responsibility to future taxpayers?
That didn’t sit well with Republican state Sen. Hugh K. Leatherman, Sr., the Senate finance chairman, who introduced a resolution in the Senate Thursday to request the money if the governor refuses it.
“Being chairman of the finance committee, I too have concerns about annualization,” Leatherman said, referring to Sanford’s concerns that the stimulus money could create financial hurdles in the future. “But I am not willing to deprive our people of maybe creating a good job for them,” Leatherman said.
Apparently not all the Republicans in South Carolina are as ideologically blinded as Sanford.
I think it is significant that two of these six are potential presidential candidates and several others may be thinking about it. This is about political positioning, and stroking the base that will be voting in the primaries. The fact is that the Republicans in congress and most of their spokespeople (like the de facto party head Rush Limbaugh) have no program to deal with the economic crisis. That is unless you consider the continual whining for more tax cuts for the corporations and the wealthy a program. Unfortunately for them, such proposals have been thoroughly discredited over the last 30 years, and were rejected by the voters last November. So the only thing left is to become the Party of NO, which they have done in spades. That is the context for the unfortunate stance of these governors. I think it gives them an enormous amount of unjustified leeway to suggest they really believe the substance of their positions in declining aid their constituents desperately need. For myself, I am long past giving these dolts the benefit of the doubt. Showing them the door in the next election is the best course.
Gary your assessment to every comment on these pages are every bit of total nonsense. All republicans sans Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt who stood up for Labor, cannot stand the average american. Rush Limbaugh is an all out liar and I would call him and everyone other republican a liar also that state they are for the working people.
These states and all others can afford it, they just don’t care about the average american. From Ronald Reagan to Bush the I and the II have proven without a shadow of a doubt that they are out to destroy the middle class and have a two tier system of rich and poor.
Your ignorance and others like you that believe this is totally idiotic. If or when the middle class ends up bowing out because of this sanctimonius and saccrilligious warfare against us, get ready for not only this country but the entire world to be in a depression so bad it will end up man against man, brother against brother to survive.
I’m of two minds on this. One side of me would just like to throw off because these are GOP governors who seem very anti-Obama, pro-Bush policies (i.e., hard right). I notice California with their GOP governor is not turning it down.
I’ve read that a few of these governors say they are turning down the dollars because there are too many strings attached.
How about writing something on the Obama “plan” for the auto industry and how many more union workers will be out of a job!
First, I am not a Republican. So good try.
Neither am I a Democrat. Like most readers of this blog I am a patriotic American and I want what’s best for this country.
I try not to judge politicians by their party. They all have lots of pressures on them and my experience has been that they are hard working, thoughtful and try to make decisions that are best for the their constituency and the nation.
My objection here is that it is simple thinking to demonize opponents, by party, religion, or even union or business affiliation. I think President Obama does well because he usually tries to see and understand the other viewpoint.
These Governors are making a decision for a reason they think is important and to demonize them (and every Republican) as a evil may be shorthand for why you hate them, but it is lazy thinking. I also think demonizing any public servant is unfair as there are trade offs and sacrifices for public service.
One of the reasons I spend time on the AFL CIO blog (other than the daily email reminder) is that it helps me understand your values and goals.
We are an incredibly successful country because we share values and goals, and not just in war time.
I think tough times test all of us. We are in tough times and I would prefer we all be pulling in the same direction. You can only do that if you listen to the other side.
With these governors, it seems so counter intuitive to deny cash, that they must have struggled with the decision. To simply write it off as politics is an insult to anyone who labors in government service and I would want to understand their reasons - D or R.
I want a strong country as much as anyone reading this. But if their reason is a concern about creating unsustainable debt for future generations - that is a good reason. I respect anyone who is willing to bypass a benefit today for their children tomorrow.
Our generation will be the first generation that does not leave the next generation better off. I do not think this is a badge of honor - and we all play a role in this.
It seems that republicans favor Wall Street fat cats and the elite. The democrats are inept to pass positive legislation that can help union members and those who are unemployed. Honestly, I am disgusted with all the political games from both sides and all the lies during the election season. It would be great if government officials would work for voters rather than those who hold the all of the cards. I do write to my senators and congressmen about a lot of issues, but my message falls on deaf ears. I have to admit that the only way people are going to improve their lives is by organizing people and collectively bargain for better wages and benefits. We can’t depend on failing government officials to serve the public interest.
Well Gary I live in Texas and believe me Rick Perry is a DEMON! He had no objections to Bush giing the wealthy a tax cut, he had no objection to Bush giing the banks billions of tax dollars in bailout, Perry certainly had no objection when Bush decided to get us into the quagmire of the Iraq war which costs us about a billion dollars a week!
Get real! Perry is and has never been a friend of workers! Demon? You bet and you know where demons belong!
Unions need play more than the “politics game”. They need to boycott congressional districts whom discriminate against labor, states whom let working folks suffer. Let a few “chambers of commerce” or casio owners call the congressman, senator or governor telling them they are losing money as union folks find elsewhere to spend their money.
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Unions should also tell the democrats that labor can run their own canidates for office if they do not produce. In some areas, labor canidates just might well win elections.
looking only at the lower 48, the pattern is fairly stark…republican governors are refuseniks cause if they weren’t …black people and hispanics might get some help…can’t have that…