Workers in the Bush economy are being kicked while they’re down. Their jobs are being shipped overseas. Their productivity is up, but their wages remain flat. And they are grappling with record high costs of health care, groceries, gasoline, and college tuition.

The Emergency Extended Unemployment Compensation Act would provide up to 13 additional weeks of government unemployment benefits and even more support in those areas with the highest jobless rates. Relief would run through March of 2009. We have a moral obligation to provide assistance to workers that lose their jobs through no fault of their own.

This legislation follows the release of official statistics showing the largest month-to-month increase in the unemployment rate in more than 20 years. It now stands at 5.5 percent, one percent higher than this time last year. The economy has lost over 300,000 jobs in the first half of 2008 alone.

The number of long-term unemployed is higher now than in it was in 2002, when President Bush signed legislation extending unemployment benefits. Yet the Bush Administration has threatened a veto, saying unemployment numbers remain at an acceptable level.

When it comes to health and well-being of our workers, it is clear the President’s definition of “acceptable” falls somewhere between out of touch and downright cruel.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 4:02 pm and is filed under Politics, Labor .