We have reached a stage unseen since the Great Depression, having a few million people who have been unemployed through no fault of their own for 99 weeks, nearly two years, and without much hope any time soon for employment opportunities!
These people are heavily middle class, who have been suffering financially and emotionally in a way none of us wish to experience!
To wake up for nearly two years without much hope, particularly with the millions of people unemployed in late 2008 and the first half of 2009, and to face the reality that each job out there has between 5-6 competitors on average, requires immediate action by our government to prevent these people from becoming homeless, living on the streets or out of their cars if they still have one, and going hungry and without medical care!
Many of these people had never experienced unemployment before, and many are highly educated and trained, and many are family people, with wives, husbands, and children!
To tell these people, sorry, you have gained 99 weeks of unemployment, and now you are on your own, is to tell them basically that they can “go to hell”, and that this nation does not give a damn about them and their future!
Here, it is appropriate to bring a religious statement into this discussion: “There but for the grace of God go I!” To say that this misfortune could never happen to us is a sign of cockiness, arrogance, and lack of care for other human beings!
When we have many people taking better care of their pets than we deal with misfortune of human beings, it is time for what Senator Debbie Stebanow of Michigan and others are sponsoring right now! Give small business tax credits to hire workers for a guaranteed 52 weeks of employment, and meanwhile give these unfortunate workers an extension of 20 more weeks of unemployment compensation!
This can be done before the Senate and House go on break, and with only a few Republican votes, and it is essential that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi keep the Congress in session until and when this legislation is approved!