Keith Olbermann exposes Newt Gingrich as the true welfare queen
Good for Keith Olbermann for taking on Newt Gingrich's ugly characterization of people on unemployment as slackers for refusing to take jobs that would actually put them deeper in the hole. Susie Madrak wrote about the Wall Street Journal article referred to in this segment on Countdown last night where employers were complaining that they have jobs, but people aren't taking them.
Newt Gingrich then piled on to the deadbeat drumbeat of the Republicans with this little salvo:
For instance, the extension of unemployment benefits has given people a perverse incentive to stay on unemployment rather than accept a job. The part-owner of a machine parts company, Mechanical Devices, is looking for as many as 40 new engineers, but is quoted in the article as saying many applicants at job fairs were “just going through the motions so they could collect their unemployment checks.” The article also quotes an engineer who admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because the salary would have been less than he made on welfare.
This story encapsulates the problem of the long-term unemployed. The depth and length of this recession is at risk of creating a permanent pool of unemployed Americans, who get so used to being unproductive that they are willing to accept welfare indefinitely instead of taking a job.
I would just like to say this to Newt directly: Screw you, idiot. The nerve of this man to point his finger at me and people like me is just infuriating. Because if anyone represents a welfare queen, it's Newt Gingrich.
Newt Gingrich lives on the donations of wealthy patrons, similar to a courtesan. He flies on private jets with those donations, rents his limos with those donations, eats at exclusive restaurants with those donations, and spews crap at people who paid for over 30 years into unemployment insurance and calls them welfare queens.
Who's the welfare queen? The guy who uses the safety net he paid for, or the guy who takes millions of dollars from oil companies, insurance companies, and other corporate interests to live high on the hog while doing nothing other than pointing his fingers at others?
Screw that. And screw him.
Full transcript of the Olbermann segment, where the man referred to in the WSJ article says basically the same thing in nicer words follows.
OLBERMANN: Good evening from New York. When it came time to invade, Republicans used cherry-picked intelligence for the war in Iraq. Now they're using cherry-picked intelligence to wage war on the middle class. In our fifth story, without the cloak of national security to hide behind, Republicans are about to meet one member of the middle class who is fighting back. We asked him to come on tonight, because it is the first time in this "blame the unemployed" strategy from the right that we can recall Republicans targeting an individual American. For months, Republican politicians have argued that extending unemployment benefits will slow job growth, because Americans would rather take a handout.
GREGG: You're clearly going to dampen the capacity of that growth if you basically keep an economy which encourages people to, rather than go out and look for work, to stay on unemployment.
KYL: Continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.
OLBERMANN: Two Republican candidates for Senate have gone further and said that Americans should start accepting lower salaries.
JOHNSON: When you continue to extend unemployment benefits, people really don't have the incentive to go take other jobs. you know, they'll just wait the system out until their benefits run out, then they'll go out and take, probably not as high-paying jobs as they would like to take, but that's how you have to get back to work.
ANGLE: you can make more money on unemployment than you can going down and getting one of those jobs that is an honest job, but it doesn't pay as much. and so that's what's happened to us, is that we have put in so much entitlement into our government that we really have spoiled our citizenry.
OLBERMANN: It is the continuation of president bush's economic philosophy that american workers into their old age, that working, you know, three jobs just to make ends meet is fantastic.
WOMAN: I'm a divorced single mother with three grown adult children. I have one child, Robby, who is mentally challenged, and I have two daughters.
GEO W. BUSH: Fantastic. I mean, we are living longer and people are working longer, and the truth of the matter is, elderly baby boomers have got a lot to offer to our society. and we shouldn't think about giving up our responsibilities in society. Isn't that right?
WOMAN: That's right. ?
BUSH: You don't have to worry.
WOMAN: That's good, because i work three jobs and i feel like i contribute --
BUSH: you work three jobs?
WOMAN: three jobs, yes.
BUSH: uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that.
WOMAN: Yes. thank you.
BUSH: Get any sleep?
WOMAN: Not much. Not much.
OLBERMANN: But now as we mentioned, Republicans have targeted one individual American who's struggling to make ends meet and held him up as part of the problem.
Former house speaker Newt Gingrich writing yesterday,
" The extension of unemployment benefits has given people a perverse incentive to stay on unemployment rather than accept a job. He continued, "The Wall Street Journal" quotes an engineer who admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because the salary would have been less than he made on welfare. This story encapsulates the problem of the long-term unemployed, the depth and length of this recession is at risk of creating a permanent pool of unemployed Americans who get so used to being unproductive that they are willing to accept welfare indefinitely instead of taking a job.
The man who turned down those offers will tell his own side of the story in just a minute and the reasons for turning down a job are not always as simple as Mr. Gingrich is.
"The Journal" interviewed Rick Hellowell about his company's difficulty finding people. He says, The jobs include starting pay of about $30,000 a year. He speculates that Americans might be hesitant to move to Dubai where the jobs are based. Speculates.
You might add other possible reasons for giving up a job, such as saving the country. Or because Republicans thought you unfit to work. This as the New York Times reports that yet another Republican politician, South Carolina's governor Mark Sanford has been approved by the Department of Labor to accept stimulus money targeted to expanding that state's unemployment benefits. An expansion governor Sanford once predicted would cause tax increases, but which now appears to have embraced wholeheartedly -- he now appears to have done so, signing the bill two months ago, expanding those unemployment benefits for his state to the tune of $98 million. Governor Sanford joining the ranks of other governors who once denounced such stimulus spending before they embraced it, such as Dave Heinemann of Nebraska and Sonny Purdue.
Despite the rush of Republicans to embrace the stimulus, most Republicans seem to have forgotten that it was their party, not President Obama's, that bailed out Wall Street Banks.
A new poll finding that more Americans, 47% think President Obama signed the troubled asset relief program, TARP, into law, only 34% know it was actually, shh, President Bush who did it.
And now as promised, "Countdown" exclusive, the man singled out by former Speaker Gingrich, because he in Gingrich's words, admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because the salary would have been less than he made on welfare, Mike Hatchel joining us from his home, along with his wife, Sarah. 11-year-old Wyatt unfortunately visiting family in California, although thrilled, I'm sure, we're showing his science achievement award photo on national TV tonight. Mike and Sarah, thank you for joining us tonight.
HATCHEL: Thank you, Keith. how are you?
OLBERMANN: Let me start with your bio, Mike. You're at 52 years old now, former law enforcement officer, used to have your own business as a mechanic. You were employed for 59 weeks, collected $450 a week in benefits and Mr. Gingrich suggests you got used to being unproductive. If that's not true, why did you turn down so many job offers?
HATCHEL: Keith, it's really hard for someone like Mr. Gingrich to understand the fact that when you have a mortgage, you have a family to support, you have car payments, insurance, everything else, when you're going out and looking for a job, you know, and obviously, it was a job, different jobs that i was looking at that were going to pay probably half of what I'm used to making. That was the situation.
When they're offering me these jobs, they're saying, this is going to be a situation where we're going to start you out at the entry level wage. And I, obviously, I've got some 32 years of experience in the automotive business and it was hard for me to do that, looking at 40 hours at $7.75 an hour, whatever it might be, a total of $310, $320 a week.
After you pay taxes, everything that comes out, Social Security and everything else, you might be $275, $265 or something like that. With a mortgage and everything else, yes, I was drawing unemployment of $450 a week which i actually paid into since i was a young man, you know, probably at least 35 years. and I felt like that, well, it's unemployment insurance, it's not welfare, Mr. Gingrich has spoken about.
And I felt like, well, until such time as i can actually get a gainful job that's going to help me keep my house, keep my family fed, not necessarily anything other -- expensive, other than just doing those basic things. I was not going to take any other job.
KO: They seemed to leave out the idea that it is insurance and you did pay into it. Pay now and don't get it later.
HATCHEL: Yes, sir.
KO: If you had taken those lower-paying jobs, your family would be considerably worse off now than it actually is, correct?
HATCHEL: Yes, sir. I would hate to even think. With a mortgage payment, if you don't make the mortgage, they'll come take the house and we would be out on the streets, God knows doing what. But you know, it's just unreal. That's all you can do, is try to do the best you can. And when I found a situation where I did have a better offer, of course, I took it. you know, something I knew that would work for me.
KO: Sarah, let me ask you something, can you weigh in on how you reacted when we brought Mr. Gingrich's remarks to your attention today?
SARAH: I was appalled, frankly, that he would even consider welfare being a part of unemployment insurance. I saw my husband beat the streets of Robison County, a very poor county, to try to find work, to save our home. It's been a really bad couple of years.
KO: Whichever one of you wants to take this, can you give us some idea of your life financially, meaning you seem like a typical Smerican family. How is the classic American dream looking for you right now in terms of your retirement, your son's college is coming up in the not too distant future, how's that looking?
HATCHEL: Obviously, I mean, with the unemployment, after 59 weeks without a job, you know, the IRA accounts, that got drained. we basically have no retirement other than, hopefully, the government will have Social Security. We all know how big that might be in the future.
We're still struggling. I mean, you know, for not making enough wage and actually keeping everything up, insurance, you know, the mortgage, food on the table, you know, we actually struggle to the point where we lost one car. Not able to make the two car payments, so she had a vehicle and I had a vehicle, and quite honestly, we're still behind on our mortgage.
We're still trying to make that up, make sure we keep the house. Just haven't been able to get to the point where we can actually catch up with the back payments that we got behind on. It's really tough, you know. And we just continue to fight. I go to work. I feel like as long as I'm working and go to work every day, things are going to get better. And I hope my wife will get a job here soon. She's been out of work even longer than i have. Some 25 or 26 weeks. It's tough. It's tough in the south, as we would say.
Last question, Mike. Is there anything else you would like to say to Mr. Gingrich or the other Republicans who say that the unemployed stay that way for the benefits, that they're spoiled or lazy and should take those lower-paying jobs and get off the public dime?
HATCHEL: Keith, I think it's no surprise to us that, as it has been for quite some time, that our politicians are going to use that word, are not in touch with the American people. especially the middle class or the lower class people, because i mean, that's the only thing that's keeping us going.
When I was on unemployment, I would sit there in front of the television, read the newspaper, look online to make sure whether they were going to extend my benefits or not, so I could tell whether or not I needed to make other arrangements, maybe find some place to live or move some place that I could afford to live. and it was just, it was always tough, you know. when that's all you have to depend on, what are you going to do?
Your life is in their hands, pretty much. and I don't think there's anyone out there just drawing unemployment just to be drawing it. I mean, obviously, they didn't ask to be laid off, you know and as far as I know, it's still unemployment insurance and we all pay into that.
It should be a situation where anyone who calls it welfare, I don't understand how he even calls it welfare. While we're on the term, i don't mean to speak out of turn, keith, he was talking about this company that was trying to hire 40 engineers.
KO: yes.
HATCHEL: That particular story they read, okay, they were actually machinists that the company was trying to hire, and most of the machinists I know, I have been in the automotive field all my life, and machinists make considerably more than $13 an hour.
That's what this company was offering for a machinist. I can understand why they wouldn't accept that. If they were working as machinists, I'm sure their unemployment was either at that level or more, and they were in the same situation that I was, had they taken a lesser paying job, they would have lost everything. even more so than we have. I just think that it's -- you know, Washington's not in touch with the actual people, I'm afraid. That's nothing new. It's been that way since I was a young child. I wish it was different, but it's not.
KO: Mike and Sarah Hatchell. I think we'll take the common sense wisdom of Mike the mechanic over Joe the plumber any day. We thank you for your time and for your willingness to come forward and obviously our best wishes to you and the family. Thank you much.
HATCHEL: Thank you, keith.
SARAH: Thank you, keith, very much. thank you for having us on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjHHgq6ZyVk
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpu5_3qk4KM
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Out of one side of their mouths the Repugs say the stimulus didn't create any jobs while out of the other side of their mouths they say the unemployed aren't taking all those new jobs because they're happier collecting unemployment benefits.
Perfect.
Who in hell is responding to the generic ballot polls showing these Repugs with a 5 or 6 point lead over Democrats to control Congress?
How deaf, dumb and blind to what is easily observable would you have to be to tell a polster yep, you'd rather have Repugs calling the shots in Congress after November?
They will not emphsize enough the obstructionism of the republicans.
..we're talking the general population of the USA here, that's how deaf, dumb and blind. This attention deficit disorder society will elect the republican'ts because they've been led to believe the stimulus isn't working. Well, it isn't working at least not quickly, it was never going to be a quick fix but because the electorate hasn't seen the economy rockin' again like they've been told it was during the w administration, they think its not working at all and never will. Same thing happened to Carter when reagan took over and look at how well that worked.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
many of the republicans who claim that the stimulus hasn't worked are front and center at ribbon cuttings. Look at how many are posing handing out checks?
Conservatives pimped this same bullshit myth about Black people while denying them equal opportunity for decades and ignorant Americans bought ridiculous lies.
Soulless fucks is right.
"The article also quotes an engineer who admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because the salary would have been less than he made on welfare."
Why would anyone take a job that pays less than they are currently making? I can't think of a single engineering job that has such a low pay scale, except of course the bs engineers like sanitation(garbage collector). Employers know they have workers over a barrel so they are reducing wages. Screw 'em. If the job doesn't pay enough to live on, in a decent area, don't take it.
It's a government job with lots of benefits.
like a lot of things the trash pick up is now privately owned companies not municipal.
it sucks for me cause instead of one garbage dad now it seems every neighbor has a dif pick up service and they work on dif days.
garbage trucks on mon, tues, wed, well you get the idea.
the security this website has for registration is goofy.
Any employer who offers a job, let alone an engineering job, that pays "less than welfare" should be put in the stocks for 99 weeks with a sign around the neck explaining their crime.
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
They were looking for machinists, who make a whole lot more than what was being offered.
not "less than welfare" ?
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
pays $30K/yr. I could be wrong about that, though. Never been on it.
so you're one of those elite lefties they keep telling us about, ehh?
the amount of welfare varies from state to state. Here in California two people such as a mother and child is $520 or $6240 per year.
Not even close to $30K per year.
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for one of the Masters of the Universe to threaten to move his entire operation to India if he has to pay 4% more on the last million of his $5 million annual salary and bonus, but we little people don't get to make decisions in our own self-interest. We're supposed to lose our homes if that's what it takes to fulfill the roles that Newt Gingrich has devised for us in his own little Dickensian worldview. We can die young in the streets, but with smiles on our faces, because Newt would approve.
he has sucked off the government teat since the 70s. He has no morals (see wives #1 & #2 and "Clinton, impeachment of") and no room to judge ANYONE else as to work or morals. In any dictionary, the words "Ultimate Hypocrite" should have his picture next to it.
He is a despicable human being (if, indeed, he is human--see "Men In Black").
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
Johnny Cash - The Man In Black
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
!! And Johnny Cash, too,--Um, Um, Um!
Newt Gingrich? Huge Yuck!!
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
Welfare queens don't ride around in cadillacs, they ride around in private jets.
if you take a lower paying job you will never make what you used to make. Potential employers look on your resume to see the last job you had. If your last job was as a McDonald's worker making minimum wage, you will never get that 6 figure salary you had as a nuclear scientist with a PhD.
The republicans suggesting that people move or work for minimum wage should try it themselves and see what happens.
Screw that. And screw him.
You sound like one of those bitter professional lefties.
What's the point at railing at Newt Gringrich? What? Has he offended your sensibilities because you THINK he's a hypocrite. He's not a hypocrite at all. He is true to his beliefs and his values.
If you want to rail at crooks and liars, then rail at the members of the so-called "party of the progressives", who talk out of the both sides of their mouths.
Newt and those like him promote and vote for what they believe in. They don't talk about caring about the unemployed and then bitch and moan that they are "powerless" to do something to help them. They don't come on progressive blogs and pay lip service to supporting women's issues, child health issues, homosexual issue, minoritiy issues and then put forward half hearted effort on those behalfs and then make excuses like WATBs about how it's "soooo hard" to get it done. They don't attack their base for being "unrealistic".
No, Newt is an honorable man. You should spend your time and effort directing your anger at those really deserving of it.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Newt is the best person to ever be alive. You're dead on. He talks about family values, then screws over multiple wives. Talks about how welfare and socialism are terrible, but pushes for more tax cuts for the rich.
He reeks of honor like the homeless guy down the street reeks of $2 wine.
I should not be angry because I differ with you and others about how to get things done. At least, I shouldn't be angry with Newt at all, but I should be angry at myself and go punch myself in the face five or six times -- maybe seven for good measure -- before I go out and confess before God and man that I was oh, so wrong to believe that smaller steps ahead were still steps ahead because I'm not Republican enough?
Gotcha.
Just because you say someone is honorable, does not make it so. When one's words are so much different from actions honor is gone. Newt has probably not met this test of "honor" since a very early age, thus he so eagerly and blithely became a political tool for very rich and powerful interests, and why he finds it so easy to leave old wives for new ones, and many other moral compromises we can all easily document. Not much honor that I can see in this man's life.
Not on the rug, man.
Newt's not a hypocrite. He BELIEVES what he says. You guys disagree.
Nancy Pelosi fully supports the public option, then throws it over the side when things get hard.
You tell ME. Who's the hypocrite?
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Newt doesn't believe his family values shit. Newt doesn't believe in half the shit he says. He was even exposed by his ex wife about this shit.
Of course, you've missed the point, but that's something that you've become accustomed to, after being wrong so often. Don't hate me for saying that, I took it directly from your hero Newt.
The unspoken coda to your argument is this: You would deny sick people access to affordable health care in exchange for the public option. That was your line in the sand. Mine was pre-existing conditions exclusions going away.
Differing lines do not define hypocrites. They're just differing lines.
Newt, on family values:
August 11, 2010
He was impeaching Clinton for an OTJ BJ while getting the same, preaching family values while cheating on his family.
Newt Gingrich, the spiritual leader of the GOP is exposed as a fraud by his second wife, Marianne
Sounds pretty hypocritical to me. And HE knows it too.
me-oww!
has a point, a persons personal behavior does not define what they believe, it simply means they may not be able to live up to their own ideals.
i know libertarians who really believe the crap they spew, they are really sincere, they are just wrong.
there is so much name-calling being done here, if a conservative were to come on here all their preconceptions about liberals would be confirmed. i know they do the same thing, obama the "socialist. muslim, fascist" sort of thing, but i have never heard anyone call him stupid or retarded.
do you realize how shallow much of the reasoning on this site seems to someone who analyzes issues? do you realize the invective rained down upon anyone who disagrees with your supposed "progressive" status quo? talk about "profiling", a person brings up an issue here, and they are called a troll, a plant, etc. etc.
i have work to do, lunchtime is over!
I reread my post, and it seems to me, I did not. Did I rain down invective on him? I source my rebuttal to his argument which I understood to be "Newt Gingrich believes what he says."
And I was called a troll just yesterday, FWIW.
BTW, "Actions speak louder than words" is an old saying for a reason. "Do as I say, not as I do" has long been a recognition of hypocrisy. A person's behaviour does indicate their true beliefs, much more so than their words.
Newt Gingrich BELIEVES others should behave as he dictates, but he also BELIEVES he is above those rules. That doesn't mean he believes what he says. He just believes it applies to lesser beings than himself, because that's how he justifies the actions he commits, the actions he finds repugnant in others.
So if I disagree with another poster on the site, according to you, I am calling them a troll? Because attaching your reply to mine and delivering that "do you realize..." lecture sure makes it look that way.
me-oww!
It's so easy to get a rise out righteous lefties. ;o)
...and yet, they come back for more.
No wonder the Democratic Party can shit all over their base.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
The Dem party is a large, diverse base. It is a very messy process to get things done. A black and white view of this process is a bit naive, don't you think?
Not on the rug, man.
Sigh. Productive, not. Edifying not. But I'm glad you had fun at other people's expense. Liberal value, not.
FYI, I wasn't outraged by what you said, I'd hardly call trying to explain something to someone who seemed to be bereft in the knowledge of what hypocrisy 'a rise.' You give yourself too much credit on that.
As for 'righteous lefties,' bite me. You were being an asshole just now, masquerading as a serious poster, then recharacterising reactions to fit your own narrative. Who else does shit like that?
me-oww!
Oh...ouch!
Maybe I'll go right a book about how easy it was to pass Civil Rights legislation.
[Quit flame baiting other posters. If you would like to continue to act childishly, we can accommodate you with a time out-Sitemonitor]
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
I've read some of Liberal AND Proud's posts before... and I think I remember agreeing with him quite a bit. i wonder if this is not him... someone copped his ID?
~albabe (The Writer/Artist Formally Known As Al Gordon)
http://www.comicon.com/gordon/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gordon
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
just one minute, half the time i don't pay attention to who posts what, more of a detached intellectual exercise. no offense to anyone in particular.
we don't know what goes on in the newts mind, but yes, he probably hasn't done an honest day's work in his life, he is a troublemaker that is for sure.
how many politician are in it because of ego?
more to the point, it is workers who create value, yes owners provide jobs, but it is all part of the whole; question becomes, who is the "parasite" as the randians like to proclaim. yes, the point of the original post is well taken; still, don't write these reactionaries off, many of them are quite sincere.
He specifically told his wife that people should do what he says... not what he does. I think that defines hypocrisy.
And as for the reasoning on this site... Yours might be ok... but your facts are not facts.
Hope lunch was nice.
~albabe (The Writer/Artist Formally Known As Al Gordon)
http://www.comicon.com/gordon/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gordon
Of course Newt and I disagree, but that is beside the point. You were talking about honor. If he believed what he speaks of, he would follow it up with actions. He does not.
Regarding Nancy, you are making an invalid comparison. Nancy STILL supports a public option, but she knew it was a political impossibility to get it thru the Senate.
Nancy lives much more closely to how she talks than Newt, from all reports and appearances, making her, in my mind, far more "honorable" than Newt, regardless of her political positions.
Not on the rug, man.
Nancy STILL supports a public option, but she knew it was a political impossibility to get it thru the Senate.
I know...it's SO HARD.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
About how it was possible to get a public option in the health care bill. So far, what I'm getting from you is that you'd support killing it and leaving the status quo in place if you couldn't have that one provision that covered almost no one anyway.
If the Democrats showed some real fire, and took on the Health Insurance companies directly...then deals could have been cut with just enough GOP votes to get the fucker passed. That's how. As majority party, you control the purse strings. You can PUNISH people if they don't accept your deal.
Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi...AND the White House played along with the GOP politics and used the "spirit of bipartisanship" as political cover so as to NOT piss off the insurance companies and keep the left base at bay by bitching that ...OHHHH..it's HARD.
THAT is what happened. YOU KNOW IT, and I know it.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Because there are these folks, who also comprise that "majority" in the term "majority party", and stand diametrically opposed to everything you just laid out. Like it or not, they're part of the overall coalition of this weirdly fragmented coalition called "Democrats", and they weren't moving for much of anything. So tell me again how that works. What tactics would have pushed them over the edge?
It's SOOO hard.
Civil Rights was soooo easy. You only had to push it through and get all those Southern Democrat votes. And we know they didn't outnumber the Blue Dogs, don't we.
C'mon. You want to get your back up. Fine. I have MINE up. Why? Because EVERY OTHER THREAD in this blog is about how the Dems have sold out to the corporations.
THAT'S why the public option didn't pass. Cause the DLC strategy is to not in any way jeopardize what they see as this windfall by being GOP-lite.
PERIOD. END OF STORY.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Evidently it's more important for you to be right than to actually have facts to back it up.
I stand warned, but not corrected.
The Democrats are either such pussies or political amateurs that they couldn't address THUGS wrecking town halls...and a strategy built around killing everyone's grandmother.
Puleeeease.
Or they are SO in the tank with the GOP lite, we can suck off the corporations as well as the GOP and get paid handsomely, strategy that they don't WANT to succeed for the people.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
He may believe it, but he doesn't LIVE it. Spouting 'family values' and then having his entire life be contrary to them makes him a hypocrite.
... as I said above... he doesn't believe what he says. He talks morals and then cheats on his wife. He's a slime-ball hypocrite.
Who are you and what did you do with Liberal and Proud?
~albabe (The Writer/Artist Formally Known As Al Gordon)
http://www.comicon.com/gordon/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gordon
It looks like more than a few people shot big ol' holes in your argument.
I guess I should read ahead before I shoot my mouth off. My bad.
~albabe (The Writer/Artist Formally Known As Al Gordon)
http://www.comicon.com/gordon/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gordon
Even his ex-wife says that Newt says one thing and does another. He is NOT honorable. He is merely a wh0re for corporate interests. There is NO honor in standing up for money. There is much honor in treating your fellow man with respect and Newt has yet to show any respect to any human being unless he has lots of money in his pockets.
You must be joking... the guy that cheated on all of his wives... in their bed... and then when they found out,he told them that they need to put up with that?
He's not a Conservative... he's a Profiteer who talks out of both sides of his mouth. "Do what I say... not what I do." He's the perfect Authority Complex driven freak.
Newt's an ass... a Hypocrite Lying ass... and that's nothing like being "honorable."
~albabe (The Writer/Artist Formally Known As Al Gordon)
http://www.comicon.com/gordon/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gordon
is an ignorant tub of lard. When he gives up the retirement money he gets from the time he was in office fucking over the US with the contract he put out on the country, he might be a bit more...nah. forget it. He's a narcissistic liar and a cheat who right now is focusing on something he wants, that will enrich him personally, so he can keep
lecturinglying to America's stupid arsed mofos who have not yet lost their jobs and homes about UEI equaling welfare while wearing $5,000 dollar suits and $300 ties.me-oww!
While I enjoy watching both shows, I wish they'd be more accurate in their facts. Both hosts stated employees pay into unemployment insurance. Employers pay the US tax for a maximum of 26 weeks (the extensions paid by the US), while employees pay into disability insurance. The UI payment is taxable to the employee, while DI is not. Mr Hatchel may have paid into UI as an employee of his mechanic business, but that is unknown and an somewhat unusual situation, IMO.
not welfare (not that welfare is a bad thing, as Thugs would have you believe), regardless of who pays. It's the cost of having the privilege of being able to do business and make money in this country. Just like rent on the building[s] from which one does business, other state, local and federal taxes, and wages.
me-oww!
I agree UI is a cost of doing business and we all pay for it as cost of product or buying services. I just I expect more intelligence and accuracy from the News Entertainers I choose to watch than from the News Hour or Fox Noise propaganda.
Yeah I hear ya
Fri, 08/13/2010 - 11:56 — miss_kitty
I meant to put that in my response. They DO need to be accurate. I totally agree with your point.
me-oww!
The employer pays the FUTA tax, not the employee.
Annoyed Sitemonitor...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Just once I want to see it before it's deleted!
Give me your email...I'll let you know in advance when I'm going to post. ;o)
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
''middle class'' and ''underclass''? Where the hell is the ''working class''? Who disappeared them? Or is the term ''middle class'' just an attempt to make people feel better about themselves while holding the shitty end of the stick? It's a shame the chattering class bought into this deception. I'm looking at you, bloggers, pundits and reporters.
Ronnie Raygun declared war on the unions in the 80s. Before that, a working class man who belonged to a union could: buy a house, buy a car, send his kids to college, go on vacation, save for retirement. Now working class people can barely rent a shitty apartment and buy food, let alone do all of that.
We now have "The privileged, monied class" and everyone else.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
And it was selling life insurance to over 65's. I asked how much the pay was, (natch) and the guy said "Nothing. You get paid on the policies you sell." I was disgusted. preying on old people and whoring myself. I didn't take the job, I have honor.
Good guys don't do well in the life insurance sales profession.
I once worked as an admin for an attorney who did claims work for a company that sold truck broker insurance...he always told me: "We're here to sell insurance, not to pay claims."
Naturally, he was a die-hard Republican.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
And I was expected to use my own car to travel to the "prey" but, if I didn't sell a policy, I worked for free, great job huh?
gingrich is a compulsive liar. we've known that for years only to be recently reminded by his ex-wife. i'm sick and tired of this opportunistic hypocrite.
I will say this, as I watched this last night what really pissed me off was when Mr. Hatchell blamed the "politicans" in Washington. Doesn't he know exactly who it is that keeps blocking unemployment extensions? Does he really blame Democrats as well? He stated that he watched the votes as they basically held his life in their hands yet, he couldn't bring himself to point the finger at Republicans? You can say it Mr. Hatchell! They're the ones who are fisting you! It was still a great segment though. I saw a quote from that asswipe Beck on Media Matters where he trashed this guy for not taking the lower paying job and just starting over. That of course would mean losing your home and likely moving to neighborhoods that might be cheaper but, also more run down and even dangerous.
It's still a crime down there to side with Democrats. It's nearly as grievous a crime as having a non-completely white friend, or not wearing your hood at a 45 degree angle when doing your salute.
I was pretty much thinking that as I watched last night. It's really pathetic. Score one for the President who stated as much and was trashed for saying that "They cling to their guns and god and continually vote against their interest." As someone who's Agnostic and despises guns, it's probably a good thing that I was born in New Jersey and have never been down South.
want to blame the whole congress without pointing out the obstructionism. KO could have pointed that out and I blame him if he didn't.
He gave them every opportunity. They simply couldn't or wouldn't say it. I guess Keith didn't want to appear as though he was putting words in their mouths. I do wish that he'd asked them who their Congressmen and Senators were. That may have done the trick.
and we should all keep in mind that unemployment is a global problem.
UN - Unemployment at Record Levels Globally0:54
United Nations
The UN International Labor Organization (ILO), says 2009 had the highest amount of unemployment since the great depression with 34 million having lost their jobs in 2009 as a result of the global economic crisis.
http://www.newslook.com/videos/229459-un-unem...
Produced: 07/14/2010
why we haven't thought about suing the government over this. You do in fact pay into unemployment insurance from the moment you get a job yet, you're only getting up to 99 weeks? What if you've worked steadily for 20, or 30 years? If the unemployment rate nationally isn't below 7.2% the government has always provided it. That is up until Obama took office. Now, these heartless Republicans don't seem to give a damn even with unemployment in their states higher than lots of the Blue States. And yet, many of their idiot constituents keep voting for them anyway. I wonder why?
...but regardless, your question is valid. What if you've worked steadily for 20 or 30 years (or 35, in my case)? Since when is making an insurance claim a sign of being a deadbeat? The whole conversation makes me grind my teeth.
The idea of welfare is a community idea... not some fantasy like the "pull your self up by your bootstraps" fable that the Objectivists and Libertarians spout. Community is Important... especially during hard times.
I was on Unemployment here in SF for two weeks when I was 19... I'm self employed now - 38 years... so I can't get it. And everything I've done for work has changed. The Advertising business is in the dumpster... same with Commercial Art (most businesses hire 18 year old Art Students who are in the classes I teach)... and I also write and draw comic books... and the main Comic companies that I've worked for don't hire us old guys anymore.
This economy is awful... and finding work is the worst of the worst. It's insanely time-consuming and demeaning.
~albabe (The Writer/Artist Formally Known As Al Gordon)
http://www.comicon.com/gordon/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gordon
collected by yours truly in my life, exactly 2, because i could not live off the money; but that was then, this is now, if i lose my current job the unemployment office will be the first place i go...where i live they give you interview tickets for jobs that pay at least 80% of your former job, if you don't make those appts. or turn down a job paying that 80%, they review your case and can cut you off, at least that is the way it used to be.
now i have had teeth pulled, because i could not afford to have them fixed, it was a choice between food for the kids, or fixing my teeth.
47% of Americans think Obama signed the bank bailout!!
I just asked a co-worker if she remembered when Obama signed the bailout, she remembered. I asked "you remember OBAMA signing it" she said yes. Do you remember when he signed it? 2008 was it? i said it was bush, obama wasnt even in office until 2009. She did the research, it was in october 2008, he wasnt even ELECTED for another month, much less in office!!
not as embarrassing as the 77% of highschool students in Oklahoma last year who didn't know who the first president of the United States was. Have they never seen a one dollar bill?
not in this economy...
me-oww!
Maybe they're on the Chickens for Check ups barter system?
deduction that's on all of my paystubs?
Federal is an employer-paid tax. You don't pay it. It's possible your state deducts for their own program, though.
I wondered what that was.
we might not directly pay for it, but, in the end, those costs are transferred to the consumer
My wife has been unemployed for a YEAR. She was making $65,000 at her last job. Since being laid off, she has been collecting unemployment and has been attending school for re-training.
Over the past 6 months, she has applied for literally over 1000 jobs--no exaggeration. They are for positions that she is more than qualified for and that pay half what her last job paid. Out of all of these job applications, she has received a total of THREE interviews. At her last interview this week for a $17 per hour job in social work, she was informed that they had over 80 candidates for ONE position.
I don't know about other states, but here in WA the state unemployment office audits people who collect benefits to make sure you're applying for at least three jobs per week IN YOUR FIELD. That means if you have a BA in Fine Arts, you can't apply for three accounting positions per week then claim that you've applied for the required jobs to keep your unemployment. And, if you're offered a job in your field, you have to take it or you lose your unemployment benefits.
So fuck you Newt, Sharron Angle, and all you other right-wing dickheads. Don't lecture us on work, something you know nothing about.
Can everyone see where we're headed? Manufacturing jobs (except for weapons manufacturing) have gone overseas and corporations are violating human rights and severely underpaying foreign workers. Chinese workers are committing suicide or dropping dead right on the assembly line after working 12-24 hour shifts and living 10 to a room with no access to showers (they're allowed to "sponge" themselves). So many Americans are unemployed or underemployed but we're expected to take ANY job that's available in order to appear that we're not lazy, unproductive leeches expecting the government to support us. I was laid off from teaching and the only opening I found would require me to move to another city, not something I can afford to do. (And I'm sure dozens of people applied for that one position.) Yet I have people suggesting I work as a sub. Assuming I could sub every day of the week, I would make about $250 a week before taxes.
So let me get this straight... crush the unions, close factories, ship jobs overseas, the jobs you can't ship overseas fill with undocumented workers to keep wages low, frighten the undocumented workers to leave and complain when the unemployed can't afford to take the vacant low wage jobs....hmmmmmm.did I miss anything here? Oh yeah BLAME IT ON OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATS
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Well played! While most of ignorant America still bashes Jimmy Carter and worships at the feet of the Patron Saint Ronnie, they, we, us allowed our country to be forever swept into the hands of the power elite.
The only class that was continually successful over the last four decades has been the top 1 or 2 %. Yet half of us remain tools, getting caught up in non-issues while our livelihoods and opportunities continue to vanish.
Not on the rug, man.
I saw the change under Reagan when I lost a good job to the corporate raiders during the "mergers and acquisition" era and saw cities like Dayton Ohio and Detroit become the Rust Belt. The Family farms had to sell out to the corporate farms. Then the Media quit reporting the news and became editorial and newspapers failed and consolidated. Now they are going for the internet. Will we have the guts to stop them? The government won't bite the hand that feeds them unless we make them.
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
He is not honorable. He is a remora attaching himself to those with money and power but no scruples. I quote Exeter to Newt regarding his mythical sense of honor:
"Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt,
And any thing that may not misbecome
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at."
I have a good job, but I haven't lost my support or empathy for those in need of one. I'd rather have my taxes go for UI benefits than overpriced defense contractors.
Men are basically smart or dumb and lazy or ambitious. The dumb and ambitious ones are dangerous and I get rid of them. The dumb and lazy ones I give mundane duties. The smart ambitious ones I put on my staff. The smart and lazy ones I make my commanders.
I agree UI is a cost of doing business and we all pay for it as cost of product or buying services. I just I expect more accuracy from the News Entertainers I watch than from the News Hour or Fox Noise.
I meant to put that in my response. They DO need to be accurate. I totally agree with your point.
me-oww!
isn't it funny how these rich republican **********s think it's so easy to take a job for much less pay then you can live on. even though they wouldn't give up their bullshit pay even if it was to pay a small portion of it into taxes.
If you are a republican then you are anti-American...go ahead...prove me wrong you lurkers.
neither you, or the engineer, paid anything into unemployment insurance, ever, unless you were the employer. unemployment insurance, at both the federal and state level, is 100% employer funded. you may be confusing that with FICA (social security) which is funded, 50/50, by both employers and employees. you might plausibly argue that, absent the expense incurred, by your employer's, funding unemployment insurance, you'd have earned more at those jobs, but lacking any substantive data supporting that assertion, it's pure speculation. more likely, those savings would've gone to the employer or its shareholders.
that doesn't take away from the fact that mr. gingrich is a ginormous asshole, he is. that he absolutely spouts what he gets paid to believe, makes him no less of an asshole.
It is true that the employer pays FUTA. State unemployment insurance is deducted from some paychecks too. However, that FUTA is paid on my behalf for services I perform in good faith. And it *is* insurance.
Newt and that woman in a cage fight. Seething anger... she would bloody eat him.
State unemployment from employees paychecks, the company matches. I pay the state unemployment every quarter, I pay the FUTA once a year to the Fed, company funded. It's the cost of doing business, these repub fucks need to STFU, and do what's right for the common good of the Country. You know, be patriotic and all...Assholes!
"He wrote this book here and the book says ; He made us all to be just like him So, if we're dumb, then god is dumb and maybe even a little ugly on the side".
Frank Zappa
Newt is a real hypocrite, no denying that.
I haven't read every comment above, but wanted to make clear to anyone under the mistaken impression that unemployment benefits are an entitlement due to some type of payroll deduction. Unemployment insurance is paid for by an employer tax and federal contributions.
If this has been mentioned above, I apologize.
Let's not emulate our lying cousins and keep our arguments supported by the facts. Do not claim you have paid into unemployment as an argument. You'll will be wrong and look foolish...
"Who in hell is responding to the generic ballot polls showing these Repugs with a 5 or 6 point lead over Democrats to control Congress"?
I have been asking this same question for months now but I have never gotten an answer.
When I saw this last night, I was so pissed that I sent gingrich the following email:
http://www.newt.org/contact
"Sir,
I saw your comments regarding people who are refusing jobs because they make more on "welfare."
You make me sick. You are a sad, pathetic little man. You have no idea what people are going through.
As Mike Hatchell said (the guy you apparently were talking about), this is not "welfare." Mr. Hatchell in particular has paid into the system for 35 years. It is insurance, not "welfare."
He has a mortgage for christ's sake. He's barely making ends meet with that so-called "welfare" he is getting. If he took a job which paid even less than that "welfare," how in the hell is he going to keep his house?
I heard some idiot on the Chris Matthews show about a month ago suggest that people without a job, say in New York City, should move to Nebraska to get a different type of job. I'm sure you agree with this utter nonsense. If someone has to move; if someone can't afford their mortgage and has to try to sell their home (or foreclose on it); how are they going to even sell their home in this market?
Most unemployed people want a job; they want a job that pays decently; they are not lazy.
You republicans really make me sick. You are so out of touch.
P.S.And don't forget that this economic mess started with bush. In particular, his tax cuts for the wealthy were unpaid for; his 2 wars were unpaid for. We had higher tax rates during the Clinton years yet had many, many more jobs created; we had much better economic times."
No response, yet. But I will say that a year ago, I sent gingrich an email, and one of his staffers did respond....but he was pissed at what I had said!
... unless you're working in the financial sector. (And even then probably only if you're in upper management.)
I heard a sound bite on the radio a few weeks ago where some employer was complaining that he couldn't find people to fill his open positions. If you were listening carefully you heard him say that he couldn't find "labor..." and then corrected himself and said "workers". So what he, apparently, really wanted was something more like day laborers that he could pay substandard, non-living wages to. It wouldn't surprise me to find that the sound bite was recorded in Arizona.
Reminds me of if the Pillsbury Doughboy had and evil twin.
The Bankers didn't have to accept a lower paying job...
God, just watch Bush talk to that woman with 3 jobs.
What a DICK!
And it's not just welfare queens that benefit from money confiscated by force of government, it's those fucking soldiers, and firemen, and cops, and prison guards, and food inspectors and border patrol agents and bridge inspectors and FBI agents and CIA agents and...well you get the point. I never gave permission for any of them to take my hard-earned money, so they're all welfare queens in my book. /obvious snark
Oh, and you're an asshole who is going on ignore.
I am glad to see that my appearence on Keith Olbermann's show has got so many involved. I had hoped to do just that. I would like nothing better than to call Mr. Gingrich out. All I know about him is what I see and hear form the left and right sides of the media. I do know that if he points his finger at me again claiming I am unproductive or lazy, I would invite him to say that to my face and see if he likes my response. My mother raised me as a southern gentleman, But, as I see it Newt Gingrich has already crossed the line once and insulted me. Next time I will have to defend myself.
Come on Newt, I double dog dare ya!!!!!
Mike the Mechanic
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Mike-the-Mechanic/150994044912611?ref=ts
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