Part of the problem with the Senate and their failure to pass the 2010 Unemployment Extension Bill is that its members have become a bit distant from the people, viewing their constituencies and the voting public as a set of numbers, demographics, or gerrymanderables. For many members of Congress, feeling like an average citizen was never a choice due to the fact they were never born into families of average citizens. They’re monied and powerful, grew up in the corridors of power, and have never known a day when they wanted for anything — or if they did, the memory is part of some dim unrecollected past. For most of the unemployed, want and need have become part of their being. The ability not to recognize that in others is how the Senate can simply not place the utmost importance on ensuring that the 2010 Unemployment Extension Bill is passed. With each passing week, more and more people reach the limit of eligibility for unemployment and fall off the rolls. Senators need for the unemployment extension issue to be personal, so they will help the people. They need to feel the pain of the people in order to move with a little more alacrity. They need to put a face on unemployment so it can get personal.
The comments section of the articles I’ve written about the 2010 Unemployment Extension Bill all paint pictures of what the current unemployment crisis is doing to the average citizen. Perhaps with a few of them a face will emerge that will give senators enough pause and halt the strange indifference and nonchalance with which the Senate — members of both parties — seems to be going about debating, jockeying for political position, pontificating, and/or posturing instead of reaching some sort of compromise and getting the unemployment extension passed.
Millionaires In The Senate Need To Know What It Feels Like To Be Out Of Work
Words sometimes can create a picture for those who cannot otherwise see to actually observe what is already evident to many. Like for corene, who writes, “I lost my job last April due to new management. I had worked three jobs for eleven years and all of a sudden I had none. I am going back to school and start all over at the age of 48 years old. My husband suddenly lost his job last September so here we sit, unemployment and no insurance. I am sick and tired of congress and their stonewalling. I would love for them to live in my shoes and I in their’s. I just want to have some peace for once.”
Career Politicians Need To Stop Playing Politics — There Are Lives At Stake
Paul Dewitt writes: I need your help? We, my wife, daughter and I heed your help? We’ve been on unemployment for less than 52 weeks and every time the extensions run out my party, the Republicans use it to try and force PAYGO . Until the economy is below six percent the extensions should be automatic. Unless my government (which can’t seem to focus) puts jobs as number 1 priority. Most of us are 1 to 2 weeks without the unemployment checks and we become part of the homeless statistic. We can’t focus on looking for a job when such a threat is looming for political purposes. STOP IT!!! Unless you want this country to look like Africa and we all live in tents by the side of the road stop using THIS as a method of forcing fiscal responsibility. STOP IT! It’s just plain evil. Can’t fix the jobless recovery. Too Bad. Just stop threatening us innocent citizens every few weeks with homelessness.”
And it continues with missy’s tale: “I was with a major firm for 17 years. I got laid off last year. I live on a island and there are no jobs. Can’t afford to move, had to sell my car. Did everything right for so long, paid my taxes, saved for 6 months emergency plan and now I get crapped on. No one in congress give a crap about any of us. We are all a number to them, we start costing them to much money so they cut us off.”
Betrayal, Disappointment, and Fear Of The Unknown Is Part of the Face Politicians Need To See
OlderUnemployed is feeling the double-pincered fear of long-term unemployment coupled with age discrimination in the job marketplace. He writes: “My unemployment has a week left. I have sent my resume out to tons of companies and no calls. The very few I get I have to sit in a cattle call office with 100 other applicants who are half my age and if I am lucky to get the interview before I get tired and walk out. I am told I am over qualified. TOO OLD is what they mean to say. I keep trying. Now I have to put up yard sale signs and try to get some money from what little I have left just to keep the roof over my head while I continue to search. If the money is cut off then I will have to join my old friends in the Tent City. I do own some candles and have started to gather my camping gear together. If I am still alive come November I will remember those who voted for the BANKS to get Trillions and the Large Corporations that got Billions, yet the poor working folks who lost their jobs due to GOV votine in NAFTA and letting Companies ship the jobs over seas. I use to be a Republican. I am switching. It seems they don’t care…”
People Know There’s Distance Between Them And Their Elected Representatives
Some of the anger comes out in disdain, as is evident in Skippy’s words: “These idiots don’t care if people are going hungry and losing everything they have.Most of those jerks in the Senate have never had a real job in their lives. Their “Let them eat cake” attitude shows their lack of character. Why don’t you have some cake McConnell, I hope you choke on it.”
If that doesn’t put a face on Unemployment in the U. S., nothing will. But is anyone on Capitol Hill taking notice? Or do they really not care?
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Sources:
Comments were taken from the articles:
“Republican Stop 2010 Unemployment Benefits Extension Bill, Affecting Millions of People”
“2010 Unemployment Extension Shot Down In Senate Again — Why Did Doctors Win, the Unemployed Lose?”
