Sunday, November 28, 2010

Unemployment Benefits

Dear Friends,

If you have not done so, please read The New York Times lead editorial today (here) entitled "The Unemployed Held Hostage".  As the editorial points out the extension of the Bush tax cuts for incomes over $250,000 would cost $700 billion over 10 years or an average of $70 billion a year, and the cost of a yearlong extension of unemployment benefits would cost $60 billion.  There is no reason to link these two issues although politicians are doing so.  That being said why is that according to the Republicans and conservative Democrats we cannot afford the extension of unemployment benefits but we can afford to give even more money to the top 2% of earners?  Here is how the editorial ends:
President Obama should pound the table for a clean, yearlong extension of unemployment benefits, and should excoriate phony deficit hawks — in both parties — who say that jobless benefits are too costly, even as they pass vastly more expensive tax cuts for the rich.
I agree completely and could not have said it better.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

1 comment:

  1. Dobby,

    Thanks for posting this! The inequities are so clear...how can this continue? It will unless more people who care start bitching...thanks for doing so!

    M

    ReplyDelete