Unemployed Comments on the WSJFollow

There are 803 comments and counting on the WSJ's report on the failure of Congress to pass the unemployment benefits extension.

Many of the comments are from Republicans (or at least people who claimed to be Republicans) freaking out because their own elected representatives have abandoned them in their time of need. They are baby boomers, people who have worked hard for 30-40 years, then found themselves laid off and unable to get any kind of job because of their age.

It'd be comedy gold if it wasn't such a serious and depressing topic. As it is, unless the Republicans in Congress get their **** together in the next few weeks, they're in for a nasty surprise in November. A lot of the blame is also being spread to Harry Reid and other members of the Senate, for not writing the UI benefit as a stand-alone bill, but the general theme of the comments falls into:

- Unemployed people are trying really hard to find jobs, of which there are none
- The majority of laid-off workers are older people, who are considered unemployable for full time work due to age
- Living off $330/week isn't exactly living on the high hog
- Congress is out of touch for not realizing what people are actually going through
- Republicans in Congress especially are heartless bastards, and people who have voted R their entire lives are giving up and voting for Dems, since they are the only ones that seem to care any more

Another good point brought up by someone who is still employed is that the increase in desperate unemployed citizens will directly lead to an increase in crime, making it more dangerous for the employed people.

Not if you just direct them to Quebec

You didn't read the comments. Here's a sample:



Given the spelling errors and the ******** about illegals taking his jobs, I'm gonna go ahead and bet he was a conservative baby boomer until he lost his job.

Here's one that regrets voting R:



And another (this one can spell, oooh, might be a liberal plant):



In response to that guy, we have this one:



Proper spelling and grammar, perhaps another liberal plant.

Or not.

The old saying was "A conservative is a liberal who has gotten mugged." I suppose we ought to change it to "A liberal is a conservative who has been unemployed for the last two years after working 35 years nonstop and suddenly finding himself laid off because he was the most expensive person to keep in the office."

Majivo,

What you're not buying all the elderlies sob stories?




I love how all these people are blaming the GOP. Especially since we don't control one branch of the govn. Nov is going to be fun.

Hey, ******** it was a republican filibuster that resulted in the law not being passed.

Duck,



It was the Democrats trying to pass more sh*t that caused it to be filibustered. Why not use the nuclear option?

Duck,

The Democrats try to steal more taxpayers money to continue to support the endlessly unemployeed and the GOP stops this and you think this is a bad thing?

Obviously the people don't want this because it didn't pass right? Isn't that what you liberals have been telling us republicans the last two years?

Duck,

Sucks when the other party refuses to work with you and you need them to get something done doesn't it? Maybe you'll stop putting people like Reid, Pelosi, Boxer, and Clinton in charge of the direction of this country. Democrats are going to get f*cked big time this Nov and you and every other liberal knows this and is p*ssed off. We are not going to let them pass another piece of god awful legislation this year. Cry and b*tch all you want.


I'll tell you what; you support repealing obamacare and I'll support extending these benefits. How's that sound?



Edited, Jul 1st 2010 5:30pm by knoxxsouthy

I was calling her out mainly because she was stooping to making some petty comments, and to be a little cheeky. Don't use me to make some petty, childish comments of your own.

BrownDuck,

I guess a question could be why are people not looking at the root cause(s) of the current state of the economy rather than focusing on a(nother) temporary band-aid when assessing what they are angry about?

Well you go right ahead. Luckily I don't have to spend time to make a case on this board of what an idiot you are.

Duck,

In this market? Let it burn. Of course i'm well insured.



Edited, Jul 1st 2010 5:50pm by knoxxsouthy

Hey, I even acknowledged in the OP that a lot of the griping is also about Harry Reid and everyone in the Senate, not just the R senators. "Throw the bums out" is the big theme of 2010, and that's going to hit a lot of people regardless of party affiliation.

Also, please note, I'm not the one who wrote those comments - but those ones had relatively decent spelling and grammar in them, hence they "they must all be liberal plants" joke. The ones linked from the WSJ blog range from capslock of rage to "didn't even pass 5th grade" levels of grammar. The majority of them have no party affiliation labels, but quite a few of them do.

gbaji and Moe are the only conservatives I converse with regularly on the Internet who seem to know what a spell check function is.

The best solution to this economic problem is open revolution.