South By North Strategies, Ltd.

I wish I could find a way to adequately express the frustration I feel over the way Congress has all but turned its back on the unemployed. Even now, the only reason we’re hearing anything from Democrats about job creation is because there’s an election ahead. The legislation is timed for the politicians — it needs to maximize reelection chances — minimizing the struggles of the unemployed is a secondary consideration (if that). If the election were further away it’s unlikely we’d be hearing about this much at all. And Republicans are worse, they have no plans at all except to use unemployment as an excuse to further ideological goals (balanced budget amendments, tax cuts for the wealthy, etc.). How can politicians be so indifferent to the struggles that the unemployed face daily? Are they really so disconnected from the lives of ordinary people that they don’t understand how devastating this is to those who lost jobs due to the recession, people who can’t find a way to get hired again no matter how hard they try?
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Anyway, I can’t seem to find a way to say this with the shrillness it deserves, and I apologize for that, but I just don’t understand why the unemployment crisis isn’t a national emergency.