Today, I signed the unemployment insurance extension to restore desperately needed assistance to two and a half million Americans who lost their jobs in the recession. After a partisan minority used procedural tactics to block the authorization of this assistance three separate times over the past weeks, Americans who are fighting to find a good job and support their families will finally get the support they need to get back on their feet during these tough economic times. Now it’s time for Congress to act on more proposals that support our economic recovery, including passing critical aid to our states and support to small businesses. Small businesses are the engine of job growth, and measures to cut their taxes and make lending available should not be held hostage to partisan tactics like those that unconscionably held up unemployment insurance.
From the Michigan UIA:
"We have teams of staff ready to process claims for the federal extensions and estimate that within two weeks, we should have most if not all federal unemployment benefit payments in the hands of those who are eligible for them,” UIA Director Stephen Geskey said in a statement released today.
Two main groups of people are affected:
* 9,500 workers who exhausted their state unemployment benefits after the federal programs expired. If you're in this group, you will be receiving a letter with special instructions on how and when to apply for the federal extensions.
* 60,000 unemployed workers who had been receiving Extended Benefits until that program ended with the week ending July 3. If you're among this group, you simply need to continue contacting the MARVIN system once every two weeks. If you stopped contacting MARVIN when benefits were halted, the UIA staff will contact you directly for the information needed to pay you for any back weeks of unemployment to which you are entitled.
If you don't receive your payments or are not contacted by the agency within the next two weeks, you are supposed to call 1-866-500-0017 and select option #3 to speak with someone on the staff.
If there is any justice in this world, this stunt from the Republicans should come back to bite them in the ass this fall. By showing their true colors, pushing for more tax cuts for the wealthy while denying average Americans relief, they have angered the prized "Independent" voter along the way. Keep up the good work, GOP!
According to polls, more people are identifying themselves as Independents (40 percent) than either Democrats (30 percent) or Republicans (26 percent). Also, in more than half of polls taken, Independent voters are more likely to be unemployed than either Democrats or Republicans. Fifty-nine percent of Independent voters support an extension of federal unemployment benefits.
Democrats need to hammer home this difference in the parties, right here, right now. The GOP is there to serve wealthy interests alone, and they have grown so arrogant that they will make no apologies for that fact - the welfare of regular working folks like you be damned. They don't care if you lose your home. They don't care if you can't feed your kids. They don't care about you at all, and they reveal their true goals here every single time they act to obstruct any sort of economic recovery taking place.
Whether the Dems take advantage of this simple truth, well, that remains to be seen.