unemployment insurance cut from 26 to 20 weeks.

[hvactec]

Battered by the recession, many states have found they can no longer cover unemployment insurance funds. Some states are cutting the number of weeks a laid-off worker can expect to receive benefits. NPR's Senior Business Editor Marilyn Geewax and Rick Nivison, who is currently receiving unemployment benefits, talk about the cuts to the benefits. Nivison lives in Michigan, which recently cut the number of weeks someone can claim state unemployment insurance from 26 to 20 weeks.

Listen to the Story States Cut Down Time For Jobless Benefits Receipt : NPR

 

[sparky]

but we're doing a great job of nation building in Iraq, so all you slackers will just have to stand in line with hat in hand !

 

[RetiredGySgt]

but we're doing a great job of nation building in Iraq, so all you slackers will just have to stand in line with hat in hand !

It is not the Governments job to pay people to do nothing. Obama and the Democrats increased the number of weeks with Federal tax dollars. Of course the catch was that after a year or 2 the Fed quits paying. The States don't have the money and the Federal Government has no Constitutional Authority to pay people not to work. Or perhaps you can find the clause that allows that?

 

[Care4all]

I thought the federal stimulus covered unemployment for 99 weeks and funded the States for this.... or something like that? (I guess i need to read the article?)

 

[sparky]

but we're doing a great job of nation building in Iraq, so all you slackers will just have to stand in line with hat in hand !

It is not the Governments job to pay people to do nothing. Obama and the Democrats increased the number of weeks with Federal tax dollars. Of course the catch was that after a year or 2 the Fed quits paying. The States don't have the money and the Federal Government has no Constitutional Authority to pay people not to work. Or perhaps you can find the clause that allows that?

sure i can Sarge, it's called the welfare industrial complex>

Street Prophets: Exhuming the Welfare Queen

 

[expat_panama]

...the Federal Government has no Constitutional Authority to pay people not to work. Or perhaps you can find the clause that allows that?

That's not the law in question here, and anyway it's pointless because asking where the Constitution allows for welfare gets people pointing out the preamble's goal to "promote the general welfare". The law were really applies is the law of supply and demand. From the article:

"...one of the things that policymakers are having to take into account here, is whether or not in the long run it does people much good by extending benefits as long as 99 weeks. There is some line of thought out there that it's actually the better thing for people to get cut off after a while. And then you have to make hard choices like maybe you need to move to a different city." ​

When GWBush extended benefits it made unemployment worse, soaring to 6%. Now Obama is cutting unemployment benefits (blaming it on the states instead of Bush) in the hopes that we'd lower unemployment down around say, 6%.

The good news is that at least we're not whining about how everything's all Bush's fault with women and minorities are hardest hit.