I am opposed to the 13 month extension of unemployment benefits that has just been passed by Congress. Am I a Grinch? I don’t think so. Am I heartless? People who know me know I am very generous. What I am against are benefits that last so long that people adapt to living on the dole or that can easily be defrauded.
Let me give you an example:
In late 2008, I terminated two employees for cause; one for being legally drunk on the job and another for falsifying time records. Both were violations of printed company policy. The State ruled that I could legally fire them, but that their actions were not serious enough to deny them unemployment benefits. Nearly two years later, they are both still collecting unemployment although they are doing work in competition with me while collecting unemployment. Now that their benefits are close to running out, I was told by a competitor that one of them has just applied for a job. What they are doing is defrauding the system, but the state has cut back on the number of investigators and is not able to pursue this issue.
Those of you who are business owners; when was the last time you had someone ask you to sign their sheet or card showing they applied for a job? It has been several years for me. How does the Employment Security Commission know if someone receiving Unemployment Compensation is actively seeking work or is working on the side and not reporting it?
Also, continuing benefits that exceed minimum wage, what incentive is it to accept a lower paying job? A recent article in the paper said that if you don’t have a job a lot of businesses won’t hire you; they are afraid you could be just looking for a temporary job to re-set your unemployment.
If we are going to continue these generous benefits, we need to tie them to some controls or follow up to prevent fraud or re-training to work in a field that is hiring. Payouts without strings have got to stop.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
The Iron Lady's Reign is Ending
What concerned me most Democrats controlling both houses of Congress in 2008 along with a Democratic President was their ability to push through a progressive/socialistic agenda without compromise and that concern proved true. For the past two years, they have voted down virtually all Republican amendments in committee or taken bills directly to the floor where they could be passed without amendment with a super-majority. On the health care bill, they debated one version for months and then at 3:00 in the morning of the vote they withdrew the bill and replaced it with a 2,000+ page bill that was voted on without reading.
The Democrats even ran the country for the past year without a budget. They just brought up these massive bills as emergency measures and passed them along with a “continuing resolution” to provide the spending authorization for them. They can’t be accused of overspending the budget, because there wasn’t one.
The main perpetrator of this abomination was Nancy Pelosi. They called Margaret Thatcher the “Iron Lady” because of the way she controlled the Tory Party in Great Britain with iron fisted control. Well, Margaret has to pass that iron gavel on to Nancy. She was able to maintain virtual domination over a party that has a lot of diversity. Those that disagreed were bullied into supporting the bills by threats of pulling spending from their districts or running an opponent in the 2010 election. And now, the Democrats are even more hard line than before because the more moderate Democrats have been purged.
And now, this weekend, the progressives had their little show. They brought up the continuation of the Bush era tax cuts the way they want with no amendments; a continuation for up to $250k and tax increase over $250k. The Senate, as expected, shot it down. This was as expected. Most commentators believe a deal is in place to continue the tax cuts for all in return for an extension of unemployment benefits (another issue) and that this weekend’s exercise was just a show for the progressive base so that they can continue their class warfare agenda, for example, Republicans favor the rich.
I’m looking forward to the new year and a little gridlock. At least, the two sides will have to talk to get something done and we might see things become a little more reasonable.
The Democrats even ran the country for the past year without a budget. They just brought up these massive bills as emergency measures and passed them along with a “continuing resolution” to provide the spending authorization for them. They can’t be accused of overspending the budget, because there wasn’t one.
The main perpetrator of this abomination was Nancy Pelosi. They called Margaret Thatcher the “Iron Lady” because of the way she controlled the Tory Party in Great Britain with iron fisted control. Well, Margaret has to pass that iron gavel on to Nancy. She was able to maintain virtual domination over a party that has a lot of diversity. Those that disagreed were bullied into supporting the bills by threats of pulling spending from their districts or running an opponent in the 2010 election. And now, the Democrats are even more hard line than before because the more moderate Democrats have been purged.
And now, this weekend, the progressives had their little show. They brought up the continuation of the Bush era tax cuts the way they want with no amendments; a continuation for up to $250k and tax increase over $250k. The Senate, as expected, shot it down. This was as expected. Most commentators believe a deal is in place to continue the tax cuts for all in return for an extension of unemployment benefits (another issue) and that this weekend’s exercise was just a show for the progressive base so that they can continue their class warfare agenda, for example, Republicans favor the rich.
I’m looking forward to the new year and a little gridlock. At least, the two sides will have to talk to get something done and we might see things become a little more reasonable.
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