Long-Term Unemployment: No Help For The 99ers

A response to the 'Titled" HuffintonPost story about Unemployment Benefits running out.


The country has been run into the ground. Give away things while the economy is good, lower taxes while it is good. And waste - waste more than you put to use. That is the mantra of the 2 parties.

But then when things are bad, there are no reserves to get you through the rough times. Sorry that schools stopped teaching economics decades ago, and replaced it with "keyboarding" (typing on computers that do the formatting for you). Sorry that we encouraged americans to spend more than they make.

"Lower taxes" on the people so they will spend more. "Lower taxes" on companies so they will make more, but when you can't buy with the air you breathe, the companies go under.

We are in this fix because they ruined the schools - most can't count change much less balance their living expenses. Because they kept tempting us with 'pretty things' instead of teaching the lessons that our earlier generations learned the hard way - work, save, buy with some and save for a 'rainy day'.

Today, we are getting drenched, and few are prepared.

To some less educated, it may sound like I am blaming those out of work. I am not. I am blaming a system that taught us all the wrong lessons. I am blaming "the rich get richer" and "let them eat cake" crowd; and the people who taught us not to care.

The AMT is UNFAIR To All

I got a newsletter from "my" senator, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), the other day. It read, in part -

On Monday, I introduced the Children of Fallen Warriors AMT Relief Act, a bill that will remove the punitive burden that is currently imposed on the children of fallen servicemembers by our outdated tax code. Under our current tax laws, the children of a fallen servicemember who receive an annuity from the Uniformed Services Survivor Benefit Plan can unintentionally become subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). This bill recognizes that the children of fallen soldiers have already sacrificed enough for their country, and ensures that they are not subject to the AMT. 


SO I SENT HIM A MESSAGE BACK, (and sent it to "my" Representative) as follows -

In your latest newsletter, you mentioned that you introduced an Act to keep children of fallen soldiers from being subject to the AMT.

That may be a good thing, but you could have saved EVERYONE ELSE along with them by simply changing the AMT to be indexed to inflation, with the RATE INDEX ONLY retroactive to when the AMT started, and any "refund" to taxpayers good only to 2008 (even though I would get money back if it went back to 1999, I recognize that the country needs the income from the past decade).

SO - how about it? How about introducing a BILL to make this a law?"

Bail Out for the Billionaires -- YOUR MONEY, NO CHOICE

From my Sept 23, 2008 Letter to The Washington Post

The current fiasco that has expanded from your street to Wall Street will now kick you in the pants, if President Bush and Congress have their way.

This is going to cost us severely, and blame runs everywhere. However, many in D.C. don't want to place blame because they know that it will lead back to THEM. And unfortunately there are some in the press, such as the Post's own Business Editor, who support this idea. He clearly stated on "Meet The Press" that we should try to pass a solution, and not 'waste time' finding someone to blame. [You should fire him.]

Both political parties have also supported the "we can't go around blaming" - our kids for failing school; 'our' politician' [it's always the other party] for the debt, war, job loss, pork project, etc; ourselves for not getting that raise; and now company executives, and the SEC, Treasury, and the rest of OUR GOVERNMENT, for the loaning of at least One Trillion Dollars to people who had no way to pay it back.

Who really has benefited from all of this run-away lending? The Wealthy. Who can put money in hedge funds? Only MILLIONAIRES. Oh yea - and huge companies with billions of dollars in private funds. Now the 'average Joe' is forced to read the fine print - "you can lose part or all of the money you invest" and have to live by that rule; not the rich, though.

And the filthy rich? They come get the money they lose from YOU! Remember LTCM [Long Term Capital Management], the huge HEDGE FUND, for THE SUPER RICH only that was "too big to fail because it would cause Global Financial Disaster". Sound familiar? Now AIG [et al] is the latest LTCM, and they have come again for your wallet!

I say - the rich caused this problem, so go take THEIR money to fix it. Tax them 50% on their gross income [before any deductions] including capital gains, dividends, and any other income, starting with any person making $2 million or more. Face it, they will cry, but when taxes were 70% back in the 50's and 60's we still had people out trying to become rich, so don't fall for the garbage "if you tax them more than 20% then no will will try to earn a living". Republicans [mainly] throw that lie out as their reason for lowering taxes.

Lowering taxes; let's examine their reasoning. If things are going well, we should lower taxes because people will buy more, thereby raising government income by the "Wal-Mart" effect [profit by volume]. Then when things are bad, we should lower taxes to stimulate buying. In other words -- we should never pay for anything government "gives us".

How do they get away with this? They have ruined our schools so the public is too stupid to know they are being tricked. If you keep putting in the same crooked people in office, they will keep sticking their hands in your pocket!

UPDATE 10/27/09 --

RE-ELECT NO ONE until this country is BACK ON TRACK !!

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY -- demand that CEO's and others go to jail for what they have done to us!!

We now see that putting a "Democrat" in the White House is no help - Pres. Obama has followed the same plan.

Perhaps what we need is also a cleaning out of the colleges that these people went to. After all, they all learned the same thing: keep businesses running any way you can, even if it means taking everything from the workers, because they don't have the guts of 200 years ago - they will never revolt.