FL GOP urges strict rules for jobless: ‘Get real’

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/gop-urges-strict-rules-for-jobless-get-real-1237168.html

The state House and Senate are considering bills that would give more power to businesses fighting whether workers are eligible for compensation in the first place, then reduce the number of weeks the unemployed can receive benefits, require them to prove they are looking for work and make them take jobs paying far less than they were making before.

SNIP

“What it really does is it casts jobless workers in Florida as shiftless, lazy drug addicts,” said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the Washington-based National Employment Law Project. “It’s blaming the victim.”

Sen. Nancy Detert insists her bill, which would require laid-off workers to have a skills assessment before they can receive benefits and then to prove they are looking for a job, would get them back to work more quickly.

“We have to do more to help people get off unemployment quicker, because after a couple of months you’re going to be too depressed to go out there and look,” said Detert, R-Venice. “It’s not like we’re dying to kick people when they’re down. This is costing millions and millions and we’re not even really helping anybody.”

The proposal (SB 728) also would cut how long they can receive benefits from 26 weeks to 20 weeks. In the first 12 weeks of that period, those receiving benefits would be required to take any job paying at least 80 percent of their last salary, and in the last eight weeks they would have to take any job that pays at least as much as their unemployment compensation.



This bitch can bite me. My husband looks everyday for a job. Last week someone told him he was too qualified for a job. The week before he was told he did not have enough job experience. My husband is 56 years old. He has plenty of experience in any job. And he's done plenty. I'm blaming the Real Estate and Republicans in this awful state. My husband had a great job until the housing market collapsed. And who was in charge in Tallahassee?? Oh that's right - Repukes. I blame them and all of the nitwits who keep voting in these idiots and pRick Scott.

Better to enact punitive measures on the victims of Republican policies than admit they don't know what the hell they're doing. Florida has certainly picked a bumper crop of ideological automatons to run the state. There's so much there, it's hard to believe that even the concerted efforts of these incompetents could do so much damage, but it's happening before our eyes.

they should be put out of work for this insane amount of callousness they are showing to people who pay their salaries--the taxpayers.

It's really quite nice and would work out well for them.

what a hoot and perfect for repuke thinking!
tib

"We're not trying to kick people when they're down." Hahahhahahah!!! BULLSHIT!!! I have little doubt that the vast majority of the people who were laid off in her hellhole state have far more "skills" than that despicable, little piece of shit has.

a mortgage and a two year old baby. I am a middle-aged college graduate with a professional degree and a professional license for my career field. I can't get a job in my field of work because there is no work in either the public or private sectors. I can't even get a minimum wage job. I live in a southern college town filled with over 35,000 students, a very large population of uneducated people living in poverty (my town has one of the highest poverty rates in the US) and a. large population of highly educated adults. All of these people are competing for very few jobs and even fewer jobs with any benefits at all.

I'm SOL.

:hug:

Why don't these idiots understand what we are going through?? My husband is getting close to 1 year on Unemployment. We are hurting big time. Thank God I still have a job.

Please take care of yourself and your family :hug:

:hug:

I never imagined that I would be in this situation. I have never had to worry about having a job in my field. I had my last job for 16 years and I loved my job and the people I worked with and the engineer that owned the firm.

You are so lucky to still have work. My boyfriend/partner still has a job but his company is really struggling in this economy. Oy!

Please take care too! I hope that your husband can find work soon. All best wishes for you and your family!

PS. I have a good friend who lived in Port St. Lucie! It is so nice down there!

I just wish there were more jobs here. We all could use a lot of good luck vibes. :hug:

First they have to destroy the people before they can help the people.

Trust them? They have run the state for 12 years now. They know what they are doing.

Trust them to screw the, as the BP executive called them, "The little People".

But this is what the majority of the voters of Florida wanted...and it seems it's what they've wanted for the last 12 years.

I guess Florida can be listed as "the dumbing down has worked" along with Arizona, Maine, and Wisconsin. Only 46 more states to go and we'll make Uganda look like that "Shining Beacon on the Hill"!

pRick scott won just enough votes to keep a recount from happening. Just enough.

Did you know Fla. has a law that keeps the votes from being hand counted?
They did that because in the 2000 election once the votes were hand counted, it was evident Gore won the majority of votes. The only way they could keep that from happening again was to outlaw hand counts, and they did.

Please, don't tell me you think the vote count was honest. You have no way to back up that claim, so don't even go there. Please.

but they will have to take their own medicine

and STFU

yup!