Liberty and Justice for All!

Now that Senator Byrd has been replaced, the Democrats have the votes (along with the two Senators form Maine) to pass an extension of unemployment benefits.

This is, of course, good for people who are currently unemployed and cannot find a new job in a down economy.

It does have a side effect though. For those who do not know, the unemployment rate is calculated by using the “workforce” as a group of all those people who are working and those who are actively looking for a job. How do they determine who is actively looking for a job? They count those on unemployment. So adding those who are working and those who are unemployed makes the workforce, and the unemployment rate is the percentage of all those people who are collecting unemployment.

So the side effect of extending unemployment is that it extends the amount of time that people would still be counted in the workforce. Had the Democrats not passed any unemployment extensions, the unemployment rate would be much lower. This, of course, doesn’t mean that there would be more people with jobs. It would just mean that there would be more jobless people who are not counted.

So keep that in mind when people are critical of Obama for having a higher unemployment rate than we would have under a Republican Congress and President. The reason is not because the Republican policies are better. The reason is because the Republicans would make sure that less jobless people are included as part of the workforce.

There is a fight in Congress about extending unemployment compensation. While I have blogged about this before, the absolute morons at the Heritage Foundation are at it again, suggesting that extending unemployment benefits extends the time that people are unemployed.

Unemployment benefits are typically extended in a bad economy. It seems obvious to me that in a bad economy, jobs would be harder to come by. So the need to extend benefits would only exist in a time where jobs are harder to find and more people would be unemployed for longer periods of time.

Basically, the Heritage Foundation are suggesting that the cause of the longer durations of unemployment is the extension of unemployment benefits. It is extremely more likely that the cause of longer durations of unemployment would be the bad economy.

But as i said, common sense doesn’t seem to be very common any more.

I just watched WWL and they interviewed Bobby Jindal on his two year mark as governor. It is really sad that WWL will continue to not question Governor Jindal on his claims. See, Governor Jindal said that one of the reason we are doing better than other states in the union is that our unemployment rate is lower. WWL didn’t ask why.See, when Bobby Jindal rejected the stimulus funds meant to increase the length of time that someone can collect unemployment payments, he made it so people would stop receiving payments sooner, especially when compared to states that accept the funds. When people stop getting unemployment payments because their benefits run out, they are no longer counted as being part of the workforce. This makes Louisiana have an artificially low unemployment rate as compared to the rest of the country.So why is our unemployment rate as low as it is? It is because Bobby Jindal manipulated the system so it would be that way. Yet WWL allows him to tout himself and how wonderful he wants people to think he is. Why should we take them seriously?

Emergency legislation is being proposed to provide states with additional funding for people whose unemployment will run out soon because of the bad economy.

Unfortunately, with our current unemployment rate,  we do not qualify.

And whose fault is that? Well non other than Bobby Jindal of course! Why? Well, because Governor Jindal refused the stimulus funding for increased unemployment benefits, people in Louisiana stopped receiving unemployment benefits sooner than other states. Once you stop collecting unemployment, you are no longer counted as part of the workforce. If you are not part of the workforce, you are not counted by the tally as being unemployed (even if you lack a job).

So way to go Bobby! Great job at screwing us over yet again.

The Democrat from Baton Rouge refused to stand idly by as Bobby Jindal rejected the additional stimulus funding for unemployment benefits. An amendment was slipped into a bill that will help those who are currently unemployed. The legislation will put Louisiana in a position to except the funds.

Maybe now there can be more discussion about the truth of this bill and how it will have NO additional requirements on businesses once the federal funds run out.

Jindal said that this bill could “cost businesses” 12 million a year. Um, how much money did Jindal spend on saving that chicken plant again? $50 million? Where does Jindal think THAT money is coming from? Thin air?

Jindal is a liar and a hypocrite. This rejection of additional unemployment funds is just grandstanding at the expense of those Louisiana citizens who are unemployed in this hard economic time. It is about time more people called him on this.

Jindal’s top priorities: saving chicken plant and defeating unemployment expansion

Sad huh?

Just sayin…

OOOOH, a dramatic entrance. I like how one MSNBC commentator said “Oh God” to his walking out of nowhere. Can he sound any more like Mr. Rogers?

Jindal brings up people who have lost jobs, of course he doesn’t care about them.

Jindal claims he cut taxes, but Clancy Dubos already called Jindal on those lies.

Jindal says that he opposes universal government run healthcare. Well, Obama is not pushing for that so why bring that up? Is Jindal ignorant of what Obama wants? Or is he just purposefully misleading the listeners. I vote the latter.

Jindal brought up the “strong ethics laws” he had passed. Yet he conveniently left out the fact that he signed legislation that made it harder to convict corrupt people of ethics violations. He claims to want to bring transparency to Washington D.C., yet he signed legislation that eliminated transparency from his office! What a hypocrite!

UPDATE:  MSNBC is calling Jindal “crazy” for bringing up Katrina. I am very happy to see the national media finally criticize Jindal in many areas (including his extremist position on abortion and his rejection of unemployment benefits). Now I just hope they catch on that Jindal called for increased transparency in government in D.C. but yet he signed legislation that removed his office from the Louisiana public records law.

Many networks are saying that “Sarah Palin must be very happy” after Jindal’s speech.

UPDATE 2: I can’t believe I missed this gem from Jindal.

To strengthen our economy, we also need to address the crisis in health care. Republicans believe in a simple principle: No American should have to worry about losing their health coverage - period.

REALLY! Then how does Jindal explain his closing down clinics even though he had already eliminated the deficit when you “served” Louisiana as the head of Louisiana’s Department of Health? (I use the term “served” loosely). I guess having a state agency show a profit on paper was more important than the lives of people who rely on the state for healthcare.

Update #3: There is an uproar over Jindal’s “volcano monitoring” comment. From the fact that only $14 million is actually going towards the volcano monitoring to the fact warning people that a volcano is soon to erupt near your home, this monitoring can be very effective and is needed for safety. People are also pointing out the hypocrisy of the Governor of Louisiana questioning the spending that can help mitigate loss of life in the case of a natural disaster.

But I am going to look at it from a different point of view. Jindal thinks that spending $14 million on this monitoring is questionable. What about the $14 million that Jindal awarded Chouest after Chouest donated over $130K in bundled campaign contributions. State government spending that much money on a port wasn’t a big deal when Jindal was paying back a campaign contributor. So I guess Bobby Jindal only has a problem with government spending $14 million when he has not received a campaign contribution.