Senator Roy Blunt @RoyBlunt
Republicans warned that Democrats’ enhanced unemployment benefits would make it harder to get people back into the workforce. That’s exactly what has happened. 1:08 PM · Sep 16, 2021
The is much hilarity in the responses:
Except… that’s not true at all: [….]
You don’t get to pat yourself on the back when you hurt people for no good reason. That you wanted hurting people to have a justification isn’t its own justification.
[….]
Tell me lies… tell me sweet little lies…
[….]
That’s not what happened
1 in 500 American’s has died from Covid
Dead people don’t come back to jobs
If they’re not dead they’re quarantining after exposure, or staying home with their kids who are quarantining after definitely being exposed almost daily at school. Does anyone *not* know someone who has missed work because they either tested positive or had to quarantine?
I’m not buying it. An extra $300 a week is not the issue. That’s basically the equivalent of a $7.50 an hour job for 40 hours a week. Not only that, states who have already terminated the benefit have not seen an increased number of people going to work.
You didn’t care when you were dishing out tax breaks to the rich… but now you’re worried about spending???? Please
[….]
Continued Claims for Unemployment Insurance is the lowest it’s been in over 12 months, below 4M with a work force of over 150M yea, that’s what’s causing the labor shortage.
SMH
No state that terminated expanded unemployment benefits has experienced an uptick in unemployment. This is yet another lie.
Employees will come back to work when employers pay them a living wage.
Missouri stopped them months ago. So what’s the cause now?
Right, just pointing fingers without offering solutions.
Roy Blunt (r) continues to be…Roy Blunt (r).
Funny because where in enhanced unemployment benefits have ended (now everywhere but in many states some weeks ago), persons have not been flocking back to fill jib vacancies. Your simplistic partisan logic fails again!
How many people who have benefited & not back at work have you talked with? Any surveys of these scofflaws?
The National Federation of Independent Unemployed People had no comment.
Not to be blunt Roy, but does your party ever tell the truth? About anything?
No. This has been another edition of Short Answers to Simple Questions.
That’s a lie. Missouri stopped the covid unemployment benefits early. Still I see hundreds of help wanted signs. White Castle has a sign paying $15/hour. Just retire please.
Sorry Roy, wrong again on all counts. The minimum wage isn’t enough to put yourself in contact with the idiots who refuse to vaccinate, it’s that simple
“…In order to address workforce shortages across the state, Governor Mike Parson today directed the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DOLIR) to notify the U.S. Department of Labor that Missouri will end participation in all federal pandemic-related unemployment insurance programs effective Saturday, June 12 at 11:59 p.m….” – May 11, 2021
….The FPUC program provides that those eligible for at least one dollar of unemployment compensation benefits during the week will receive an additional $300 per week as a federal supplement. Claimants do not need to take any additional action to receive this supplemental payment….
For those interested in doing the math, after removing the federal supplemental unemployment benefit, the maximum benefit from the state is the equivalent of $8.00 an hour for a 40 hour week. The minimum living wage for a single adult in Missouri has been calculated at around $13.72 an hour. Poverty wages are at around $6.13 an hour. Add children, day care, transportation, etc. and you get a very different number.
“Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.”
This morning, from Vicky Hartzler (r):
Rep. Vicky Hartzler @RepHartzler
Missouri is ready to take off and boom economically but can’t due to labor shortages and misguided priorities from the leadership in DC.
I applaud @GovParsonMO’s decision in taking the necessary steps to turn our state’s “Help Wanted” signs into proudly “Open for Business.”
[….] 8:24 AM · May 12, 2021
It’s all about the cruelty.
Some of the responses:
Missouri does not have the infrastructure to “boom economically”. Two decades of GOP control of the state legislature has made sure of that.
If $300/wk is causing a job shortage, then those jobs are paying poverty wages. If a job can’t compete with the dole, the job isn’t worth it.
Thank goodness the voters approved the minimum wage increase, right?
yep. those people bringing home a maximum of *$620* a week are really gaming the system.
Wow. Can you imagine hating people that voted you into office this much?
Would either of you work for tips? There is no supplemental PPP included in them. Schedule an actual town hall and talk to those constituents. Do your job for once.
Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 20.5 million in April, and the unemployment rate rose to 14.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The changes in these measures reflect the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it. Employment fell sharply in all major industry sectors, with particularly heavy job losses in leisure and hospitality.
[….]
In April, the unemployment rate increased by 10.3 percentage points to 14.7 percent. This is the highest rate and the largest over-the-month increase in the history of the series (seasonally adjusted data are available back to January 1948). The number of unemployed persons rose by 15.9 million to 23.1 million in April. The sharp increases in these measures reflect the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to contain it…
[….]
In April, unemployment rates rose sharply among all major worker groups. The rate was 13.0 percent for adult men, 15.5 percent for adult women, 31.9 percent for teenagers, 14.2 percent for Whites, 16.7 percent for Blacks, 14.5 percent for Asians, and 18.9 percent for Hispanics. The rates for all of these groups, with the exception of Blacks, represent record highs for their respective series.
[….]
Table A-15. Alternative measures of labor underutilization
U-3 Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (official unemployment rate) – [April 2020] 14.7%
U-6 Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force – [April 2020] 22.8%
Thanks for nothing, Donald.
Bad combover. Check. Too long red tie. Check. Orange spray tan. Check. Tiny hands. Check. Cluelessness. Check…
Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) has yet to take to Twitter to highlight the positive news:
We’re not holding our breath.
[….]
Heh. We’ll, Representative Hartzler (r) finally did comment yesterday via Twitter:
Rep. Vicky Hartzler @RepHartzler
June jobs report sadly showed 49 out of the past 50 months more people DROPPED OUT of job search than found a job. 12% unemployment really. 6:46 AM – 9 Jul 2014
That’s a reference to U-6, a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics “alternative measure of labor utilization” which includes “Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of all civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers”. U-3, which is the “official unemployment rate”, is currently 6.1%.
Representative Hartzler’s (r) tweet prompted a response:
Uh, we already knew that. Representative Hartzler (r) probably does, too. The spin manufactured through the republican party hierarchy probably doesn’t allow for acknowledging facts like that.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics provides easy access to historical data sets. The following graph shows the U-6 rate from January 2001 (when George W. Bush took office as President) through June of 2014. The red line indicates January 2009, when Barack Obama took office as President.
U-6 from January 2001 to present. Historical data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
One might note that the long term trend of U-6 during the Obama Administration is down. One might also note that there was an uptick during the first term of the George W. Bush administration and then a catastrophic rise at the end of the second term as the economy collapsed. The spin manufactured through the republican party hierarchy probably doesn’t allow for acknowledging facts like that.
Representative Hartzler (r) continued, via Twitter:
Gallop: Unemployment rose to 9% mid-February. Food stamp use is at all time high. True unemployment rate may be over 15%. 9:26 AM – 22 Feb 12
“….True unemployment rate may be over 15%.”
The unemployment statistic which has been consistently utilized by everyone and is reported in the media as the unemployment rate is the U-3. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has “[a]lternative measures of labor underutilization”, one, the U-6, which includes the “[t]otal unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force”. The U-6 is always a higher number.
The seasonally adjusted U-6 was 16.4% in September 2011 and 15.1% in January 2012.
It’s interesting that Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) is just discovering (or is it spinning?) these standards.
….Has the economy really deteriorated just like that?
Nah, don’t worry.
As The Bonddad Blog pointed out last week, this Gallup data isn’t seasonally adjusted (in fact it says that in the chart right up there).
Since it’s not seasonally adjusted, you have to look at it year over year, and guess what.
And guess what, a year ago Gallup was at 10% and BLS was at 9.0%. So with Gallup now being at 9%, you could surmise that BLS will stand at 8.0%, another solid drop….
[emphasis added]
We’ll find out when the BLS releases the next monthly report.
Meanwhile, Representative Hartzler (r) is either an idiot, or thinks everyone else is, or both.
DailyKos‘ Joan McCarter reports that when asked about the prospects for the President’s jobs bill, Illinois Senator Dick Durban allowed that there aren’t enough Democratic Senators who can be relied on to pass the bill:
There are some senators who are up for election who say I’m never gonna vote for a tax increase while I’m up for election, even on the wealthiest people. So, we’re not gonna have 100% Democratic senators. That’s why it needs to be bi-partisan and I hope we can find some Republicans who will join us to make it happen.
McCarter notes that Durban does not name names, so she supplies some of the most obvious:
We pretty much know who he’s talking about here: Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson, and Claire McCaskill. Maybe Bill Nelson, maybe even Jon Tester, as well.
Get that? Is our Claire McCaskill really one of the votes standing in the way of policies that we elected her to support? Given the content of her recent email, touting an op-ed she wrote for the Kansas City Star, I’d say it’s hard to tell just where she plans on coming down; it seems to be a little of this and a little of that, amounting to not too much of anything.
I include the introductory content of her email – minus the op-ed she also includes – below the fold. (The op-ed can be found here.) You will notice, if you read both, that she’s carefully trying to work both sides of the street, shoveling on the GOP’s favored anti-government, anti-regulation, anti-tax rhetoric, while mentioning some of the jobs bill provisions and other initiatives that liberals can be expected to approve.
McCasill’s quick to endorse ideas meant to appeal to the center-right, like the President’s proposed tax cuts “that have traditionally won bipartisan support,” while she’s down on “big promises” to fix the economy and “unreasonable or untimely regulation” that might “overburden” business. She carefully tries to distance herself from anything that smacks of liberal, progressive or, to put it mildly, comprehensive governmental approaches to fixing our problems:
During this debate, Missourians have heard from politicians on the extreme ends of the spectrum – some shouting that the government can’t do anything and folks should be left on their own, and others shouting that government is the solution and that we can spend our way into a full-blown recovery.
The solutions she explicitly endorses are okay, mostly, if underwhelming. Lots are typical McCaskill, which is to say lots of itty-bitty pecking-at-the-details types of legislation, which, while undeniably useful, are apt to have correspondingly small effects, at least when taken individually in the way she seems to be promoting. She mentions such efforts as consolidating job training programs, combating tariff evasion, etc. She indicates that she will support transportation infrastructure spending, although she does not indicate the extent of her support of the relevant proposals in the President’s jobs bill, nor does she mention support for education infrastructure spending or other important provisions that the President has proposed. In short, McCasikill has produced a genuinely artful exercise in trying not to piss anyone off too terribly much. And we all know the problem with this type of approach, right?
McCarter gets it right when she observes, apropos the supposed obstructionism of these Democratic-lite senators:
How about instead of protecting these senators, leadership leans on them a little harder to get on board with what is probably the key push to save all their hides, including President Obama’s, in 2012: jobs. A little bit of populism, a little bit of taxing the rich, in Nebraska, in Missouri, in Montana, even in Florida, isn’t going to hurt any senator seeking reelection. Not in those states. Of course, there’s always the possibility that some of these senators are more concerned with their big money supporters than the voters.
I personally wouldn’t accuse McCaskill of anything more venal that worrying about the much vaunted outstate conservatism. I will, however, hold her accountable for enabling a destructive GOP narrative when she doesn’t really have to do so. As to what she’s going to do about the jobs bill when push comes to shove, who knows? And aren’t we entitled to know? We pay her salary after all. Same goes for asking whom she expects to please with efforts of this sort. Or, put another way, just whom is she trying to fool?
September 29, 2011
Dear XXXXXXXX,
I spent the month of August criss-crossing Missouri to hear directly from Missouri businesses and workers. They all told me the same thing, that they want to see Washington stop playing politics and get to work on commonsense measures that can get bipartisan agreement. They don’t want any more big promises. They want to see those hard-working Missourians struggling in this economy get back on their feet and back to work without losing their homes or ability to feed their family in the process. They want an economy that is not overburdened by unreasonable or untimely regulation. They want Washington to listen and to focus on helping in ways that actually work.
Based on what I learned in August, I have introduced bills to crack down on unfair trade practices, and ensure that contracts reserved for small business actually go to small business, and I am working on legislation to consolidate job training programs so that less money gets wasted on administration and more money gets to the businesses and workers who use it. I am fighting to win a long term extension of transportation funding so we can fix our nation’s crumbling roads and bridges and put thousands of Americans to work in construction. And I am prepared to work on provisions in the President’s jobs proposal, like tax relief for middle income earners and tax incentives for businesses hiring new employees, that have traditionally won bipartisan support.
With this in mind, and knowing of your interest in the state of our economy, I have included the op-ed I recently published in the Kansas City Star about my trip, which you can read below.
DailyKos‘ Joan McCarter