They Just Don't Care
by James Glaser
July 7, 2010

Here are a couple of paragraphs from Huffing Post.

Without a reauthorization, 3.2 million long-term unemployed will have found themselves ineligible for extended benefits by the end of the month. If Congress fails to act, it will be the first time since at least the 1950s that federally-funded extended benefits have been allowed to lapse with a national unemployment rate above 7.2 percent.

"I received my last check on June 24th. If Congress doesn't approve the extension, I will have no money," said Shanae Dale of Louisville, Ky, who said she was laid off in December. "I will not be able to pay my rent, car insurance, utility bills or buy groceries. I would like to know how many of the members of Congress can't sleep at night because the only thing that occupies their minds is finding a job and paying bills."

There are a couple of reasons that Congress did not pass an extension for those receiving unemployment checks. The first one is that Congress doesn't care. Let's face it, we elect people who are in a different economic class than we are in. I doubt there are more than a handful of members of Congress who have ever had to rely on an unemployment check to make ends meet. Therefore, they have no idea of just how desperate the people losing their checks are going to be.

The second reason Congress did not pass this extension is that both political parties were in a pissing match with each other. The Republicans said they would vote "Yes" if the Government did not have to borrow the money and raise the national debt or our yearly deficit. The Democrats said that the only way they would pass the extension was if they could put it on our national credit card. The Democrats could find nothing in the Federal government that they could cut to cover the unemployment benefit extension.

So, what did the two Political Parties do? They went on vacation. Which brings us back to that first reason that they did not pass the extension. Congress does not care.

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