Capital District Unemployed and Their Supporters Rally for Unemployment Benefits Extension and Against More Tax Cuts for the Rich
200,000 New Yorkers Could Be Left in the Cold if Congress Doesn’t Act
Albany, NY – As Congress returned this week for its post-election “lame-duck” session, unemployed workers, supported by community, labor, and religious organizations, rallied today to highlight the need for Congressional action this month to extend unemployment insurance benefits for millions of unemployed New Yorkers and other Americans, and to oppose an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. New York State estimates that some 200,000 New Yorkers, including 9,000 from the Capital District, will exhaust their unemployment benefits by the end of the year if Congress doesn’t act.
“If Congress doesn’t act this week, 200,000 unemployed New Yorkers and 9,000 Capital District residents will be out in the cold by the end of the year when they lose their unemployment benefits,” said Ivette Alfonso, a member of Capital District Citizen Action’s Board of Directors. “Unemployment benefits are a crucial lifeline for our neighbors who are out of work in this brutal economy in which more than one in ten of us are out of work through no fault of our own. The campaign season is over: Congress must get back to work to help those of us who are out of work.”
“I wake up every morning gripped by panic – not knowing what I am possibly going to do in four weeks if unemployment benefits are not extended,” said Sharron Tetraullt of Mt. Vernon, NY. “I still can’t believe Wall Street was bailed out and their CEOs are getting massive salaries and I may not have a roof over my head soon. And how supposed to contact me when I can’t pay my phone bill? It’s a daily struggle at this point to not be paralyzed by despair. I am 46, college educated with excellent references and great skills -I work hard and am a very honest and ethical – I don’t want to be on unemployment – I want a job.”
Some two million Americans will lose unemployment benefits beginning in December and another 1.2 million will face cuts in January if Congress doesn’t extend those benefits. Congress is beginning debate on unemployment benefits and the Bush era tax cuts this week in a “lame-duck” session. The unemployed workers and other sponsoring organizations of today’s rally support an extension of unemployment benefits for all of 2011, making permanent the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 for middle income Americans and ending the additional tax cuts for those making over $200,000 ($250,000 for couples): the upper two percent of American wage earners.
“To extend tax cuts for the wealthy at a time when the unemployment rate nationally is hovering just under 10% simply makes no sense,” said Ron Deutsch, Executive Director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness. “We need to confront Congressional Republicans – and some Democrats – on how they can reconcile their expressed concern over the federal deficit with their support for a proposal that will cost the U.S. Treasury over $700 billion over 10 years. Instead of handouts to wealthy people who don’t need tax cuts, we’ve got to extend benefits to laid off workers who will spend their benefits in their local communities.”
According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the economy grows by $1.91 for every dollar the government spends in unemployment benefits. The Economic Policy Institute has estimated that the expansion of unemployment benefits and related programs has created over a million jobs since the beginning of the current recession.
The sponsors of today’s rally were Citizen Action of New York (www.citizenactionny.org), Capital District Area Labor Federation, New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, Labor-Religion Coalition of the Capital District, MoveOn.org, and Hunger Action Network. Citizen Action and its allies are generating thousands of emails and calls to Senator Schumer and the New York House delegation this month calling for an unemployment extension and for the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. They are campaigning in conjunction with community and labor groups throughout the nation.
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