Once again, the rich lawyers who run things (i.e. our "elected" representatives) are dragging their feet to extend unemployment benefits, which average $300 per week per person. Why?
At least ONE MILLION people will lose benefits at the end of February if nothing is done immediately. Another FOUR MILLION will lose all benefits in the months to follow. Harry Reid is talking about a TWO-WEEK extension (to March 15) to give these rich lawyers more time to wrangle, to fight about throwing in some obscure provision for a bridge in Alaska (or some other "pork" or obscure regulation) as a concession to extending benefits until the end of May (although there is no indication any miraculous recovery will occur at that point, and many economists have called for extension through 2010).
The end result of these delays is that the mental and physical health of the unemployed suffers, which is possibly GOOD NEWS for the insurance companies. They can make money out of this crisis, especially from the sick unemployed with COBRA benefits still intact.
Who cares if more people become homeless, or another child goes hungry, or Dad goes on a drunken tear or Mom pops an extra anti-depressant?
The unemployed should really be re-labeled "The Unimportant" or "The Insignificant". The way at least FIVE MILLION Americans and their families have been treated for at least the past six months indicates that re-labeling is long overdue.
Sure, our elected lawyers can find time to agree on pay-outs for rich bankers and Wall-Street execs. Hey, those guys NEED their million-dollar bonuses!!! But somehow finding time to make sure a huge portion of the American public makes it through these trying times (brought on, by the way, by unregulated criminals, i.e. the aforementioned bankers and execs)--well that is just too darn tedious.
And besides all that, let's face it, it's kinda fun to torture people. Almost like some cheap reality show. Except that this IS REAL.
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