Bill to extend unemployment AGAIN killed by senate republicans

[Gadawg73]

Good, unemployment "insurance" is a bad idea.
NO self employed folks get unemployment.
Why should anyone else?

 

[Jarhead]

Sadly, poeple believe that unempoloyment is an earned benefit. It is not an earned benefit anymore than berevement days are an earned benefit.

Fortunately, we have a system that offers unemployment benefits to those that find themselves unexpectedly unemployed to help them meet their essential needs while seeking a new form of income, but it is not earned by any means.

I know one thing for sure. I worked 12 hour days making no money as I srtarted my company. After a year I started to turn a profit and hired some people. As I continued to work 12 hour days, they were working their 8-9 hour days and we all were making money. Yes, me a bit more than them and at one point, I started to truly reap the rewards of my 12 hour days, but they were also reaping the rewards of their dedication with generous salaries, paid overtime, 401(k) match, medical coverage, etc.

Now that we are struggling, they are still employed, I am working about 8 hours a day as they are, they are making not much less than I am. One person is making more than I am but she is crucial to the continued existyance of my company. But if I go out of business, they will all get unemployment benefits to help them along and I will get nothing but the pain of having to close down and lose all I worked for; likely personal bankruptcy and loss of a stellar credit rating making it difficult for me to rebound when times get better.

Unemployment insurance is a good thing, yes, but by no means an earned benefit.

 

[American Horse]

That is the sad truth and if we continually push the benefits out there is no reason for people to look for work.

What say you?

The government finds ways to screw everyone. The unemployment system itself encourages unemployment. But people also pay into it for years and and then when they want some of their money back they get hosed...

FYI, the employee does not pay into any Unemployment Insurance account, nothing is taken from an employees wages to pay into an account, no employee has an account applied to their social# or an account that stays with them, and their record or history of being unemployed or not being unemployed does not determine the amount the employer does pay into the program.

Instead the amount the employer pays into the account as a benefit to his employees is determined by his own history of having laid people off, and that is the sole determinant of how much the employer pays into the account as a cost of doing business.

That being said, as long as people are really trying to find work and can show that they are trying by some strict regimen, it is good for our society to continue benefits. People who are not trying to find work, or don’t accept a job when it is offered should be cut off forthwith. The state agencies determining who qualifies should apply those standards fairly so that a person is not forced to take a job completely irrelevant to their skills to continue drawing the benefit.

The extension(s) of benefit periods need to be for defined periods determined by elected officeholders so that the unemployed person is not given to feel that benefits will go on forever; there needs to be an element of uncertainty so that people don't arrange their lives so comfortably that gaming the system becomes a way of life rather than returning to productive employment.

Of the politicians, in part, the Democrats see a continuing need for almost unfettered extensions without much constraint. The Republicans seeing this, also see continuing benefits without pause as retarding people from seeking jobs as they would if the extensions were known to have a definite terminal point.

 

[Soggy in NOLA]

Not much impetus to create jobs if you pay people to be unemployed for years at a stretch....

 

[chanel]

It appears that in most states, employees contribute nothing.

In 2010, New Jersey state unemployment insurance tax is based on the first $29,700 of wages (up slightly from the $28,900 cutoff used in the previous year). The starting rate for a new employer is 2.6825%.

Unlike most states, there is also an employee SUTA contribution of .43%, plus a workforce charge of .12%, resulting in a net employee charge of .55%.

After the first year, the rate is different for each employer, depending on past layoff history.

New Jersey Payroll Withholding Tax Tables for Goldenseal Payroll Software

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has conditionally vetoed a bill to limit the impact of an unemployment tax increase on businesses.

Christie said Thursday he wants changes to make it harder for people fired for misconduct to collect benefits. He also wants to establish a task force to study the fund's problems and recommend solutions.

The bill is basically designed to avert an automatic $400 per employee tax increase on businesses that would have been triggered July 1 because of the unemployment fund's insolvency. It calls for an increase of about $130 per worker instead.

Christie Conditionally Vetoes Unemployment Tax Bill - New Jersey 101.5 FM

The abuse of UI in our state is outrageous. For many folks, it is a way of life and far more "acceptable" than welfare. Many people get paid cash under the table, while they collect UI from a previous employer (who is then charged a higher rate). Until they fix the system, they should not extend benefits indefinitely. There will be no money left for the people who genuinely deserve it.

 

[Soggy in NOLA]

But people also pay into it for years and and then when they want some of their money back they get hosed...

Have you ever held a job.. and actually looked at your pay stub?

 

[Soggy in NOLA]

FUTA & SUTA are employer taxes... and what it paid in is far exceeded by what is paid out these days. You can't go on like that.

 

[American Horse]

They would rather you lose your home than receive unemployment benefits YOU paid for. I don't understand these people. They think they would rather collect a paltry payment than work and get paid what they were used too? What kind of logic is that?

Right now, its hard (depending on where you live of course) to find employment. The jobs just are not there. They quote the unemployment numbers when they are trying to make the president look bad, but say to these guys, go find a job. ???

They think a person who is trying to find a job but cant is automatically a "welfare queen" and that is just wrong.

Sometimes if a person can't find work it is because they won’t take a job unless it is of a certain type, or in a certain field that suits them; something they are invested in. It may be better for some people to finally lose their home and be forced to move to another city where there are jobs in their desired occupational field; a move they would never make unless conditions precipitate that move.

That could be the best thing for them, rather than waiting for certain job openings that will never come. Too often maybe, people need to be forced to begin at a lower level occupation - maybe even working a second part time job until they get a raise - just so that they can get back into the game. Once back in the game they can be more comfortable, earning a check, while attempting to again find work in their desired field. That may never happen, but by having some work they have more leverage than as an unemployed person.

 

[Ravi]

Good, unemployment "insurance" is a bad idea.
NO self employed folks get unemployment.
Why should anyone else?

If you incorporated yourself and paid it then you would get it. Why would you expect to get it if you don't participate in the program?

 

[Oddball]

Why do you hate entrepreneurs?

 

[Ravi]

Only stupid ones.

 

[blastoff]

She puts the N in the N-word.

 

[JimH52]

Baggers win another one!

 

[Oddball]

She puts the N in the N-word.

Yeah...Nincompoop.

 

[KMAN]

Senate Republicans Kill Unemployment Measure | The State Column


Without looking into it too much I am on board with letting it die. If we do this yet again, when will it cease? Many people stop looking for work after they begin to draw until the benefits are coming close to an end. That is the sad truth and if we continually push the benefits out there is no reason for people to look for work.

What say you?

What they need to do is cut spending in other areas to make up this $35 billion (or whatever it is) and have certain stipulations on receiving the benefits, like drug tests, or find some way to make sure people are actually looking for work.

 

[The Rabbi]

Senate Republicans Kill Unemployment Measure | The State Column


Without looking into it too much I am on board with letting it die. If we do this yet again, when will it cease? Many people stop looking for work after they begin to draw until the benefits are coming close to an end. That is the sad truth and if we continually push the benefits out there is no reason for people to look for work.

What say you?

What they need to do is cut spending in other areas to make up this $35 billion (or whatever it is) and have certain stipulations on receiving the benefits, like drug tests, or find some way to make sure people are actually looking for work.

How do you make sure of something like that? You can't.
Gov't should not be in the business of guaranteeing someone a livelihood. If they starve to death it is their own damn fault. If they actually cannot work they need to be on disability.
Two years on unemployment is not a temporary help, it is paying people not to work. There are plenty of jobs unfilled.

 

[Foxfyre]

My heart goes out to those who have been looking for work for six months, nine months, a year or more now. I have friends and relatives in that boat and others who are facing inevitable layoffs.

But unemployment insurance, like most insurance, is designed to cover specific losses and anticipates a cap on such losses. Your auto insurance won't replace your old clunker with a new car. It will only pay the maximum of what your old clunker is worth. It won't pay for a car rental while your damaged car is in the shop indefinitely and it will pay for any medical expense only to the limit of the policy.

When the Congress passed welfare reform limiting welfare to two years and Bill Clinton signed it into law, many anticipated tremendous suffering and hardship for welfare families. It didn't happen. Voila! People who claimed there were no jobs before seemed to find a way to go to work.

Of course the good, hard working people that are currently out of work want something comparable to what they had and it is heart breaking seeing them in real, genuine distress. They don't want to have to take a grunt job for peanuts. But many will wind up doing just that however demoralizing or even embarrassing that might be. Even in this crappy economy, it usually isn't impossible to find work, temporary or permanent, that pays as much as an unemployment check. I've done it years past and it didn't kill me.

The point is that the well is dry. For the federal government to continue to pile up tens of billions on top of tens of billions more debt every single day cannot be sustained without collapsing the economy perhaps beyond repair.

Somebody has to have the courage to just say stop.

 

[Flopper]

They would rather you lose your home than receive unemployment benefits YOU paid for. I don't understand these people. They think they would rather collect a paltry payment than work and get paid what they were used too? What kind of logic is that?

Right now, its hard (depending on where you live of course) to find employment. The jobs just are not there. They quote the unemployment numbers when they are trying to make the president look bad, but say to these guys, go find a job. ???

They think a person who is trying to find a job but cant is automatically a "welfare queen" and that is just wrong.

Sometimes if a person can't find work it is because they won’t take a job unless it is of a certain type, or in a certain field that suits them; something they are invested in. It may be better for some people to finally lose their home and be forced to move to another city where there are jobs in their desired occupational field; a move they would never make unless conditions precipitate that move.

That could be the best thing for them, rather than waiting for certain job openings that will never come. Too often maybe, people need to be forced to begin at a lower level occupation - maybe even working a second part time job until they get a raise - just so that they can get back into the game. Once back in the game they can be more comfortable, earning a check, while attempting to again find work in their desired field. That may never happen, but by having some work they have more leverage than as an unemployed person.

Those low level occupations you speak of are just not available to most middle class workers that lose their job. Even low level jobs have requirements. No one hires a 50 year old office worker to dig ditches.

Unemployment benefits are based on your salary. In most states, it rarely pays more than a quarter of your salary. You still have to pay income tax on it which leaves even less. I have never know anyone who would rather be on unemployment than have a job.

Extension of unemployment benefits is always a political game. Whichever party that controls congress attaches legislation to the unemployment extension that the other party can not support. It's pure politics.

 

[The Rabbi]

I know people who lost their jobs, went on unemployment and decided it was a 2yr paid vacation.
It doesn't matter. Gov't doesnt owe people a living. There has to be some personal responsibility somewhere along the line.

 

[Vel]

Don't they have constituents on unemployment? I mean seriously, aren't they in fact hurting the people who voted them in ?

Its called unemployment benefits because you paid for it with taxes. Its unemployment insurance.

Employees don't "pay for unemployment benefits with taxes". EMPLOYERS pay into state and federal reserves to provide unemployment benefits. Those reserves are running dry as they weren't designed to provide endless benefits for millions of people at the same time.