The repugicans Have Thrown 2 Million People Off of Unemployment Benefits Since Dec 28

2 million and counting. That’s the number of people who’ve been kicked off their unemployment benefits after repugicans deliberately let the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program expire, according to a new analysis from Ways and Means Committee Democrats.
“The estimate includes the number of people in each state who have lost coverage since the program’s Dec. 28 expiration. Every week, 72,000 people, on average, are losing their unemployment benefits nationwide without an extension of the program.”
If this isn’t happening to you or someone you know, you might not realize that these are real people. People who want to work and are looking for work, and have been kicked to the gutter by repugican values. Here’s a state by state breakdown of these real people, provided by the Ways and Means Committee Democrats.
State: Estimated Number of People Losing UI Thru March 8
AK: 8,608
AL: 19,267
AR: 15,838
AZ: 25,754
CA: 339,101
CO: 31,468
CT: 35,035
DC: 7,215
DE: 5,446
FL: 109,654
GA: 76,362
HI: 4,131
IA: 11,300
ID: 6,831
IL: 116,136
IN: 28,969
KS: 10,746
KY: 24,769
LA: 12,601
MA: 79,777
MD: 33,862
ME: 6,723
MI: 76,580
MN: 22,269
MO: 34,944
MS: 18,092
MT:4,991
NC*: NA
ND: 2,377
NE: 4,392
NH: 2,504
NJ: 124,569
NM: 9,731
NV: 26,023
NY: 178,177
OH: 57,869
OK: 10,638
OR: 31,221
PA: 109,061
PR: 39,777
RI: 8,323
SC: 22,785
SD: 508
TN: 31,423
TX: 105,409
UT: 6,231
VA: 21,969
VI: 1,762
VT: 1,485
WA: 38,876
WI: 39,777
WV: 10,731
WY: 2,023
Total:
2,054,110
*North Carolina was ineligible for the federal unemployment insurance
But if that’s not enough reason to care, perhaps knowing that repugicans refusing to renew long term emergency unemployment benefits will cost us all 240,000 jobs this year will increase the stakes.
This is the repugican economy — nothing for the people, everything for the corporations. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (r-KY) even tried to use unemployment benefits to kill Obamacare, so if Democrats will stab Americans in the back and kill another program that is helping people and has boosted both personal income and spending, the repugicans would consider not filibustering emergency help.
On February 6th of this year, McConnell led his Senate repugicans into no votes on yet another thing that used to have bipartisan support during economic hardship — the extension of long term benefits for the unemployed. This was bipartisan because not only did it help the people directly, but it helps the economy as well. The repugican Senators blocked a three month extension on benefits for the long term unemployed. “Democrats were united in support of restoring unemployment benefits, but only one repugican, Dean Heller of Nevada voted to extend the benefits.”
It goes without saying that House repugicans have blocked the effort numerous times. If you see a program that might help the economy and does for sure help people, you can just forget it even being put up for a vote in this House. And the Senate will operate just like the House if repugicans win the majority, as we can see from the repugican Senate Minority Leader’s votes.
Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) laid out the cost of one repugican vote, “A financial crisis is confronting more and more families every day that repugicans fail to support an extension of this vital program. One repugican vote in the Senate is all that stands in the way of two million people and their families coming one critical step closer to seeing their financial lifeline restored as they look for work.”