OK, sure, I DO have a dog in this particular fight. So there.
There are three issues here. First: the story that hundreds of thousands of Americans on unemployment are not far from having those benefits run out. Second: The Governors (including our own) who are refusing some of the Federal Stimulus money because it will require states to fund the expansion down the road. and third: Part of the stimulus package includes cash to pay a chunk of the premium on COBRA health insurance, but only for those folks who lost their jobs between September and the end of 2008. [WRONG! See my correction in comments]As for the two million or more who've become unemployed since then? Sorry bout that, I guess. I haven't heard any movement to help (us) them. COBRA allows the unemployed to continue their health insurance, but at great cost...about a thousand dollars a month for family coverage. That's about the same as the maximum unemployment benefit in Alabama. The stimulus package will pay 65% of those premiums...but again, only for those fortunate enough to have been let go before December 31st. There. I feel better. Thanks for letting me vent.
Tim, you know - as do virtually all Americans - that our nation is now suffering through a most difficult time, caused in large part by the excesses of the previous nearly-decade long administration.
ReplyDeleteWhile "pass the buck" has made for great political chatter (useless twitter?), it's untenable to - for even one moment - imagine that there is no "cause and effect" in this scenario, that somehow, mysteriously and or magically, this debacle happened overnight on January 20th, 2009!
I cannot begin to imagine the burden our president and his team must be experiencing, and will be enduring in the days, weeks, months - perhaps even years - to come.
The insidiousness of the changes over the very-nearly past decade which the American people have endured and consequently suffered, are testament only to the enduring human spirit and our uniquely American attributes to overcome, and strive for justice.
To the extent that "we the people" have an unequivocal voice in our own governance - even to the point of rising above that of our own elected officials - will determine how much we recover from this sense of powerlessness we feel, which has in part created the great sport of vitriolic partisan punditry and launched the careers of many talking heads on cable teevee.
Even if you were still employed, you WOULD have a proverbial "dog in this fight," because you are a taxpaying citizen in these UNITED STATES.
MY mistake....the COBRA privison in the stiuimuls bill affects anyone laid off through the end of 2009, not 2008. Sorry for the error!
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