99ers
Encyclopedia
99ers is a colloquial term for unemployed people in the United States
, mostly citizens, who have exhausted all of their unemployment benefits, including all unemployment extension
s. As a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by Congress in February 2009, many unemployed people can receive up to 99 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits, hence the name "99ers".
An estimated 7 million people are affected.
):
or holds. This began in February 2010 with a blockage of an unemployment benefit funding bill vote (for already authorized and granted unemployment checks for those who had not exhausted their benefits) by a single Senator, Jim Bunning
(R-KY).
Following that precedent
, Senate floor votes on unemployment have required a supermajority
of sixty votes to bring the bills to the floor. Bunning's position was that he wanted the bill paid for out of previously allocated funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
. Senators who did not initially support Bunning's position have since used that argument to block or delay votes on unemployment extensions that could not achieve a supermajority to reach the floor for a vote.
Economists have cited that unemployment should not have the requirement of being paid for out of an existing stimulus package because it is stimulative and, therefore, to take away allocated funds from other projects would have a self-canceling effect.
The passage of the bill to fund eligible (non-exhausted) unemployment benefits required a special appointment of a replacement senator, Carte Goodwin
, by West Virginia
Governor Joe Manchin
, after the death of Senator Robert Byrd
(D-WV), whose vote was needed for the supermajority. This gave the Senate its 60th vote for the legislation and the funds were released to the states to pay unemployment compensation to those who were eligible and who had not yet exhausted benefits as of July 2010.
The passage of the bill did not provide for those who have exhausted their benefits (99ers).
On August 4, 2010, Senator
Debbie Stabenow
(D-MI) introduced a bill (S.3706) to extend unemployment past 99 weeks. The bill was referred to the Senate Finance Committee prior to the Senate breaking for their summer vacation:
The Americans Want to Work Act (S.3706)
A Senate bill introduced by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) on August 4, 2010 will, if passed, benefit those who have exhausted all of their benefits by providing an additional 20 weeks of unemployment benefits under a Tier 5. The bill has an unemployment rate threshold of 7.5% which requires states to have an unemployment rate at 7.5% or higher to qualify. The bill was announced by Senator Stabenow on MSNBC
's The Ed Schultz
Show (video). The bill is co-sponsored by Senators Charles Schumer
(D-NY), Harry Reid
(D-NV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Carl Levin
(D-MI), Bob Casey, Jr.
(D-PA), Christopher Dodd
(D-CT), Sherrod Brown
(D-OH), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Sheldon Whitehouse
(D-RI).
The proposed bill is designed to help 99ers by:
Tier 5 Unemployment Insurance (Under S.3706 Bill): What it does: Provides 20 weeks of additional unemployment insurance for states with 7.5% or higher unemployment. This tier will benefit the people who have exhausted all of their benefits.
Retroactive Eligibility: Would apply retroactively to everyone who has exhausted all of their previous tiers in recent months. However, benefits would not be paid retroactively. (Example: a claimant who exhausted his or her benefits three months ago would be eligible to begin Tier 5 at the date of enactment. He or she would not, however, be paid out for the three months in which no benefits were received. If a claimant is going to exhaust benefits in two weeks, he or she will move right onto Tier 5 and receive 20 weeks of benefits.)
Requirements: People who are unemployed still need to meet current UI law requirements such as job searches.
On August 10, 2010, Representative Shelley Berkley
(D-NV) introduced a House bill (H.R. 6901) to extend benefits for another 20 additional weeks for states whose unemployment rate exceeds 10 percent:
The Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act (H.R. 6091)
A House bill introduced by Representative Shelley Berkley
(D-NV-1) on August 10, 2010 will, if passed, benefit those who have exhausted all of their benefits by providing an additional 20 weeks of unemployment benefits under a Tier 5. The bill has an unemployment rate threshold of 10% which requires states to have an unemployment rate at 10% or higher to qualify. The bill is co-sponsored by Representatives Michael F. Doyle
(D, PA-14), Bob Filner
(D, CA-51), Barney Frank
(D, MA-4), Phil Hare
(D, IL-17), Dale Kildee (D, MI-5), Carolyn Kilpatrick (D, MI-13), John Lewis (D, GA-5), Jim McDermott
(D, WA-7), Laura Richardson
(D, CA-37), Linda Sánchez
(D, CA-39), Janice Schakowsky (D, IL-9) and Diane Watson
(D, CA-33).
's NewsHour. The 99er cause has been championed by Ed Schultz
on his MSNBC television show, where he lashed out at Congress, and hosted the announcement of Senator Stabenow's 99er bill on his MSNBC television show (video) and his radio program and by Rachel Maddow
on her television program where she replayed negative statements about the unemployed by Sharron Angle
, Senator Jon Kyl
(R-AZ), Rep. Steve King
, (R-IA), Rep. Dean Heller
(R-NV), Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer
(R-SC).
Both the New York Times and PBS NewsHour have covered the story.
On July 19, 2010, The Daily Beast
published Get America Back to Work which has gathered signatures of prominent economists, academics, journalists and historians, including five Nobel Prize
Laureate
s, in support of a statement calling for further stimulus to deal with long-term unemployment, citing Keynesian economics
in support of their position: The article was signed by one hundred prominent economists, historians, academics and journalists, including: Joseph Stiglitz, Alan Blinder
, John Cassidy
, Lizabeth Cohen
, Jim Hoge, Robert Reich
, Richard Parker
, Laura Tyson, Sir Harold Evans
, Sean Wilentz
, Kenneth Arrow
, Peter Beinart
, Sidney Blumenthal
, Nancy Folbre
, Simon Schama
and Robert Solow
(list).
On August 15, 2010, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio
) published an article entitled "They're Known as 'the 99ers,' and their numbers are growing in Ohio and nationwide".
In December of 2010 the BBC ran a story about the 99ers title "What happens when your unemployment Benefits stop?" The article included the views of Heidi Shierholz "We can kick people off and it will certainly make people more desperate to find a job. But in a labour market like this it's not going to make them more likely to find a job because the jobs aren't there."
Democratic supporters of additional unemployment extensions have pointed out that Republicans who are calling for unemployment benefits to be paid for out of existing funds are, in some cases, the same legislators who insist the Bush tax cuts
be renewed without funding. Republicans have countered the Bush tax cuts are stimulative and therefore do not require funding.
The requirement of a supermajority to bring bills to the floor has led to heated and controversial comments, including this exchange between Senators Jim Bunning
(R-KY) and Jeff Merkley
(D-OR), where Senator Merkley asked Senator Bunning to stop his repeated blocks of a unanimous consent motion to extend unemployment benefits, to which Senator Bunning replied: "Tough shit."
Several other politicians, lawmakers and commentators have made controversial statements portraying the long-term unemployed as lazy, unwilling to work, and/or on drugs, while some in favor of long term unemployment benefits have called opponents pro-death and pro-child hunger:
On May 24, 2010, Cynthia Tucker
of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, published: Unemployment benefits make people lazy? Not so, where she reported how the economist Mark Zandi
cited the lack of available jobs in response to a statement by Senator Judd Gregg
(R-NH) that unemployment benefits discouraged the unemployed from looking for work.
Several prominent economists have argued long term unemployment benefits are an incentive not to work, including President Obama's former White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers
, who once wrote in the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics: "The second way government assistance programs contribute to long-term unemployment is by providing an incentive, and the means, not to work. Each unemployed person has a 'reservation wage' — the minimum wage he or she insists on getting before accepting a job." A Brookings Institution
panel on economic activity said in March 2010 that jobless insurance extensions "correspond to between 0.7 and 1.8 percentage points of the 5.5 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate witnessed in the current recession." Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute
found nearly two percent of the current jobless rate is due to extensions of unemployment insurance and other federal policies.
99ers have responded to these and similar statements with their own stories of repeated and unsuccessful job hunting efforts where the number of applicants have far exceeded the available positions. The Economic Policy Institute's data supports the 99ers' and Mark Zandi's position in their March 2010 report of an average of five applicants for each opening.
The Economic Policy Institute
, using data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics
, has verified that, as of September, 2010, the U.S. economy would need to add 11.5 million jobs to make up for the shortfall due to the recession. In September, 2010, the private sector added 64,000 jobs.
reported in June 2010, that, for 99ers, a job can feel like a mirage: The Economic Policy Institute's March 2010 report cites an average of five applicants for each job opening.
, which has chronicled the phenomenon by combing through online employment listings on sites such as Craigslist
and Monster.com
, has found multiple listings that use the terms: "Must be currently employed, "no unemployed applicants will be considered" or "must have been employed within the last 6 months."
An employment recruiter for the search firm Goodwin and Associates told the Huffington Post that "some companies think that the best people are already working" and "Maybe the ones looking for jobs for some reason had a problem, or were let go for a reason, or quit for a reason, but the people companies want are the type that already have a job."
Statistics provided by the Economic Policy Institute and the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate the majority of long-term unemployed who lost their jobs due the recession have been let go through no fault of their own in mass lay-offs that were cited by their companies as having been for economic reasons.
The exclusionary jobs postings have prompted New Jersey
Assemblyman Peter Barnes (D-Middlesex
) to propose legislation that would impose fines of $10,000 per incident for companies that post job advertisements which say the unemployed shouldn't bother applying.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics
has released a report on the long-term experience of the jobless which cites that, while more younger workers were unemployed, the older worker was the most impacted by long-term unemployment, leading to concerns that ageism may factor in hiring discrimination.
A rally sponsored by Unemployed Workers Action Group (UWAG.org) took place on Wall Street
in New York City on August 12, 2010 to support the S.3706 Tier 5 unemployment extension bill. It was held at Federal Hall
, 26 Wall St., New York City. and was attended by MSNBC's Ed Schultz and NYC's Labor Commission Representative, John Noyes:
On Sept. 16, 2010 a coalition of numerous 99er activist groups was formed to become one large united force to lobby Washington to pass legislation that would add weeks of benefits for all those who had exhausted all benefits without yet finding a job. They called themselves the American 99ers Union and have held a number of campaigns in which they encouraged thousands of 99er activists to fax, call and email Congress in support of a Tier 5 or other method of adding extended benefits for 99ers.
Also independent web-sites like http://www.99ers.net/ http://helpthe99ers.blogspot.com/ http://www.unemployedandangry.com/ and others have sprung up as network and meeting places to exchange ideas and remedies.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, mostly citizens, who have exhausted all of their unemployment benefits, including all unemployment extension
Unemployment extension
Unemployment extension is when regular unemployment benefits are exhausted and extended for additional weeks.Unemployment extensions are created by passing new legislation at the federal level often referred to as an "unemployment extension bill". This new legislation is introduced and passed...
s. As a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by Congress in February 2009, many unemployed people can receive up to 99 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits, hence the name "99ers".
An estimated 7 million people are affected.
Unemployment benefits
United States unemployment benefits during the financial crisis of 2007-2010 are calculated as follows (with the availability of extensions dependent on a state's unemployment rate (see: Bureau of Labor StatisticsBureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. The BLS is a governmental statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and...
):
| Unemployment Benefits | # of Weeks |
|---|---|
| Regular Unemployment Insurance Benefits | 26 |
| Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier 1 | 20 |
| Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier 2 | 14 |
| Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier 3 | 13 |
| Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier 4 | 6 |
| Extended Benefits (13 weeks + 7 additional) | 20 |
| Total Number of Weeks | 99 |
Legislation
Legislation to extend unemployment benefits has been blocked from coming to a vote on the floor of the Senate through minority Republican filibusterFilibuster
A filibuster is a type of parliamentary procedure. Specifically, it is the right of an individual to extend debate, allowing a lone member to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a given proposal...
or holds. This began in February 2010 with a blockage of an unemployment benefit funding bill vote (for already authorized and granted unemployment checks for those who had not exhausted their benefits) by a single Senator, Jim Bunning
Jim Bunning
James Paul David "Jim" Bunning is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher and politician.During a 17-year baseball career, he pitched from 1955 to 1971, most notably with the Detroit Tigers and the Philadelphia Phillies. When he retired, he had the second-highest total of career...
(R-KY).
Following that precedent
Precedent
In common law legal systems, a precedent or authority is a principle or rule established in a legal case that a court or other judicial body may apply when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts...
, Senate floor votes on unemployment have required a supermajority
Supermajority
A supermajority or a qualified majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level or type of support which exceeds a simple majority . In some jurisdictions, for example, parliamentary procedure requires that any action that may alter the rights of the minority has a supermajority...
of sixty votes to bring the bills to the floor. Bunning's position was that he wanted the bill paid for out of previously allocated funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, abbreviated ARRA and commonly referred to as the Stimulus or The Recovery Act, is an economic stimulus package enacted by the 111th United States Congress in February 2009 and signed into law on February 17, 2009, by President Barack Obama.To...
. Senators who did not initially support Bunning's position have since used that argument to block or delay votes on unemployment extensions that could not achieve a supermajority to reach the floor for a vote.
Economists have cited that unemployment should not have the requirement of being paid for out of an existing stimulus package because it is stimulative and, therefore, to take away allocated funds from other projects would have a self-canceling effect.
The passage of the bill to fund eligible (non-exhausted) unemployment benefits required a special appointment of a replacement senator, Carte Goodwin
Carte Goodwin
Carte Patrick Goodwin is an American politician and attorney who served as a United States Senator from West Virginia. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Goodwin was appointed by West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin on July 16, 2010, to fill the vacancy created by the death of Robert Byrd. ...
, by West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
Governor Joe Manchin
Joe Manchin
Joseph "Joe" Manchin III is the junior United States Senator representing West Virginia. Manchin, a Democrat, was Governor of West Virginia from 2005 to 2010...
, after the death of Senator Robert Byrd
Robert Byrd
Robert Carlyle Byrd was a United States Senator from West Virginia. A member of the Democratic Party, Byrd served as a U.S. Representative from 1953 until 1959 and as a U.S. Senator from 1959 to 2010...
(D-WV), whose vote was needed for the supermajority. This gave the Senate its 60th vote for the legislation and the funds were released to the states to pay unemployment compensation to those who were eligible and who had not yet exhausted benefits as of July 2010.
The passage of the bill did not provide for those who have exhausted their benefits (99ers).
On August 4, 2010, Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Debbie Stabenow
Debbie Stabenow
Deborah Ann Greer "Debbie" Stabenow is the junior United States Senator from Michigan and a member of the Democratic Party. Before her election to the U.S. Senate, she was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Michigan's 8th congressional district from 1997 to 2001...
(D-MI) introduced a bill (S.3706) to extend unemployment past 99 weeks. The bill was referred to the Senate Finance Committee prior to the Senate breaking for their summer vacation:
The Americans Want to Work Act (S.3706)
A Senate bill introduced by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) on August 4, 2010 will, if passed, benefit those who have exhausted all of their benefits by providing an additional 20 weeks of unemployment benefits under a Tier 5. The bill has an unemployment rate threshold of 7.5% which requires states to have an unemployment rate at 7.5% or higher to qualify. The bill was announced by Senator Stabenow on MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
's The Ed Schultz
Ed Schultz
Edward Andrew "Ed" Schultz Is an American television and radio host and a liberal political commentator . He is the host of The Ed Show, a daily news talk program on MSNBC, and The Ed Schultz Show, a talk radio show, nationally syndicated by Dial Global, promising "straight talk."-Early...
Show (video). The bill is co-sponsored by Senators Charles Schumer
Charles Schumer
Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer is the senior United States Senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party. First elected in 1998, he defeated three-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato by a margin of 55%–44%. He was easily re-elected in 2004 by a margin of 71%–24% and in 2010 by a...
(D-NY), Harry Reid
Harry Reid
Harry Mason Reid is the senior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since 1987. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been the Senate Majority Leader since January 2007, having previously served as Minority Leader and Minority and Majority Whip.Previously, Reid was a member of the U.S...
(D-NV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Carl Levin
Carl Levin
Carl Milton Levin is a Jewish-American United States Senator from Michigan, serving since 1979. He is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
(D-MI), Bob Casey, Jr.
Bob Casey, Jr.
Robert Patrick "Bob" Casey, Jr. is the senior U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and a member of the Democratic Party. He previously served as Pennsylvania Treasurer, and Pennsylvania Auditor General. He is the son of former Governor Bob Casey, Sr..He is the first Democrat elected to a full term in...
(D-PA), Christopher Dodd
Christopher Dodd
Christopher John "Chris" Dodd is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States Senator from Connecticut for a thirty-year period ending with the 111th United States Congress....
(D-CT), Sherrod Brown
Sherrod Brown
Sherrod Campbell Brown is the senior United States Senator from Ohio and a member of the Democratic Party. Before his election to the U.S. Senate, he was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Ohio's 13th congressional district from 1993 to 2007...
(D-OH), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Sheldon Whitehouse
Sheldon Whitehouse
Sheldon Whitehouse is the junior U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party...
(D-RI).
The proposed bill is designed to help 99ers by:
- Creating an additional tier of benefits for those who have exhausted their unemployment insurance.
- Extends the HIRE Act payroll tax exemption through the end of 2011.
- Doubles the general business tax credit to encourage businesses to hire the hardest hit Americans.
Tier 5 Unemployment Insurance (Under S.3706 Bill): What it does: Provides 20 weeks of additional unemployment insurance for states with 7.5% or higher unemployment. This tier will benefit the people who have exhausted all of their benefits.
Retroactive Eligibility: Would apply retroactively to everyone who has exhausted all of their previous tiers in recent months. However, benefits would not be paid retroactively. (Example: a claimant who exhausted his or her benefits three months ago would be eligible to begin Tier 5 at the date of enactment. He or she would not, however, be paid out for the three months in which no benefits were received. If a claimant is going to exhaust benefits in two weeks, he or she will move right onto Tier 5 and receive 20 weeks of benefits.)
Requirements: People who are unemployed still need to meet current UI law requirements such as job searches.
On August 10, 2010, Representative Shelley Berkley
Shelley Berkley
Rochelle "Shelley" Berkley is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1999, and a candidate for U.S. Senate. She is a member of the Democratic Party.-Early life, education, and legal career:...
(D-NV) introduced a House bill (H.R. 6901) to extend benefits for another 20 additional weeks for states whose unemployment rate exceeds 10 percent:
The Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act (H.R. 6091)
A House bill introduced by Representative Shelley Berkley
Shelley Berkley
Rochelle "Shelley" Berkley is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1999, and a candidate for U.S. Senate. She is a member of the Democratic Party.-Early life, education, and legal career:...
(D-NV-1) on August 10, 2010 will, if passed, benefit those who have exhausted all of their benefits by providing an additional 20 weeks of unemployment benefits under a Tier 5. The bill has an unemployment rate threshold of 10% which requires states to have an unemployment rate at 10% or higher to qualify. The bill is co-sponsored by Representatives Michael F. Doyle
Michael F. Doyle
Michael F. "Mike" Doyle is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1995. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is based in Pittsburgh and includes most of Allegheny County....
(D, PA-14), Bob Filner
Bob Filner
Robert Earl Filner is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the 50th, serving since 1993, and Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party...
(D, CA-51), Barney Frank
Barney Frank
Barney Frank is the U.S. Representative for . A member of the Democratic Party, he is the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States.Born and raised in New Jersey, Frank graduated from Harvard College and...
(D, MA-4), Phil Hare
Phil Hare
Philip G. "Phil" Hare is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 2007 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
(D, IL-17), Dale Kildee (D, MI-5), Carolyn Kilpatrick (D, MI-13), John Lewis (D, GA-5), Jim McDermott
Jim McDermott
James Adelbert "Jim" McDermott is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1989. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The 7th District includes most of Seattle and Vashon Island, and portions of Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Tukwila, SeaTac, and Burien.He serves on the House Ways and Means...
(D, WA-7), Laura Richardson
Laura Richardson
Laura Richardson is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2007. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district encompasses the inland section of Long Beach, Carson, Compton and Signal Hill, as well as parts of other municipalities.She previously represented the 55th district in the...
(D, CA-37), Linda Sánchez
Linda Sánchez
Linda T. Sánchez is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2003. She is a member of the Democratic Party.-Early life, education and career:...
(D, CA-39), Janice Schakowsky (D, IL-9) and Diane Watson
Diane Watson
Diane Edith Watson is a former US Representative for , serving from 2003 until 2011. She is a member of the Democratic Party...
(D, CA-33).
Media coverage
News reports and interviews have been presented by various media outlets that include the New York Times, Washington Post and PBSPublic Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
's NewsHour. The 99er cause has been championed by Ed Schultz
Ed Schultz
Edward Andrew "Ed" Schultz Is an American television and radio host and a liberal political commentator . He is the host of The Ed Show, a daily news talk program on MSNBC, and The Ed Schultz Show, a talk radio show, nationally syndicated by Dial Global, promising "straight talk."-Early...
on his MSNBC television show, where he lashed out at Congress, and hosted the announcement of Senator Stabenow's 99er bill on his MSNBC television show (video) and his radio program and by Rachel Maddow
Rachel Maddow
Rachel Anne Maddow is an American television host and political commentator. Maddow hosts a nightly television show, The Rachel Maddow Show, on MSNBC. Her syndicated talk radio program, The Rachel Maddow Show, aired on Air America Radio...
on her television program where she replayed negative statements about the unemployed by Sharron Angle
Sharron Angle
Sharron Elaine Angle is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the Nevada Assembly from 1999 to 2007. She ran unsuccessfully as the 2010 Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Nevada, garnering 45 percent of the vote...
, Senator Jon Kyl
Jon Kyl
Jon Llewellyn Kyl is the junior U.S. Senator from Arizona and the Senate Minority Whip, the second-highest position in the Republican Senate leadership. In 2010 he was recognized by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for his persuasive role in the Senate.The son...
(R-AZ), Rep. Steve King
Steve King
Steven Arnold "Steve" King is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party.The district is located in the western part of the state and includes Sioux City and Council Bluffs....
, (R-IA), Rep. Dean Heller
Dean Heller
Dean A. Heller is the junior United States Senator from Nevada and a member of the Republican Party. Heller was appointed by Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval to a vacant seat created by the resignation of John Ensign. He was previously a member of the United States House of Representatives,...
(R-NV), Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer
André Bauer
Rudolph Andreas "André" Bauer was the 87th Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina from 2003 to 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party...
(R-SC).
Both the New York Times and PBS NewsHour have covered the story.
On July 19, 2010, The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast is an American news reporting and opinion website founded and published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as the short-lived Talk Magazine. The Daily Beast was launched on October 6, 2008, and is owned by IAC...
published Get America Back to Work which has gathered signatures of prominent economists, academics, journalists and historians, including five Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
Laureate
Laureate
In English, the word laureate has come to signify eminence or association with literary or military glory. It is also used for winners of the Nobel Prize.-History:...
s, in support of a statement calling for further stimulus to deal with long-term unemployment, citing Keynesian economics
Keynesian economics
Keynesian economics is a school of macroeconomic thought based on the ideas of 20th-century English economist John Maynard Keynes.Keynesian economics argues that private sector decisions sometimes lead to inefficient macroeconomic outcomes and, therefore, advocates active policy responses by the...
in support of their position: The article was signed by one hundred prominent economists, historians, academics and journalists, including: Joseph Stiglitz, Alan Blinder
Alan Blinder
Alan Stuart Blinder is an American economist. He serves at Princeton University as the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs in the Economics Department, Vice Chairman of The Observatory Group, and as co-director of Princeton’s Center for Economic Policy Studies,...
, John Cassidy
John Cassidy
John Cassidy is a professional comedian, magician, and balloon artist who holds several Guinness World Record speed records for balloon sculpting. In November 2007, Cassidy inflated and sculpted a record 747 balloons in one hour...
, Lizabeth Cohen
Lizabeth Cohen
Lizabeth Cohen is the current Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies and Chair of the History Department at Harvard University. Currently, she teaches courses in 20th century America, material and popular culture, and gender, urban, and working-class history. She has also served as the...
, Jim Hoge, Robert Reich
Robert Reich
Robert Bernard Reich is an American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997....
, Richard Parker
Richard Parker
-People:*Richard Parker , American economist and member of The Nation Editorial Board*Richard Parker , British sailor and leader of the Nore Mutiny*Richard A...
, Laura Tyson, Sir Harold Evans
Harold Evans
Sir Harold Matthew Evans is a British-born journalist and writer who was editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981. He has written various books on history and journalism...
, Sean Wilentz
Sean Wilentz
Robert Sean Wilentz is the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor of History at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1979.-Background:Born in 1951 in New York City, where his father Eli and uncle Ted owned a well-known Greenwich Village bookstore, the Eighth Street Bookshop, Wilentz earned...
, Kenneth Arrow
Kenneth Arrow
Kenneth Joseph Arrow is an American economist and joint winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with John Hicks in 1972. To date, he is the youngest person to have received this award, at 51....
, Peter Beinart
Peter Beinart
-Early life and education:Beinart was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of South African immigrants. His mother, Doreen, works at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and his father, Julian Beinart, is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His stepfather is theatre...
, Sidney Blumenthal
Sidney Blumenthal
Sidney Blumenthal is a former aide to President of the United States Bill Clinton and a widely published American journalist, especially on American politics and foreign policy....
, Nancy Folbre
Nancy Folbre
Nancy Folbre is a feminist economist who focuses on economics and the family, non-market work and the economics of care.She is currently an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst....
, Simon Schama
Simon Schama
Simon Michael Schama, CBE is a British historian and art historian. He is a University Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University. He is best known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC documentary series A History of Britain...
and Robert Solow
Robert Solow
Robert Merton Solow is an American economist particularly known for his work on the theory of economic growth that culminated in the exogenous growth model named after him...
(list).
On August 15, 2010, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
) published an article entitled "They're Known as 'the 99ers,' and their numbers are growing in Ohio and nationwide".
In December of 2010 the BBC ran a story about the 99ers title "What happens when your unemployment Benefits stop?" The article included the views of Heidi Shierholz "We can kick people off and it will certainly make people more desperate to find a job. But in a labour market like this it's not going to make them more likely to find a job because the jobs aren't there."
Controversy
Republican legislators have insisted that additional unemployment benefits be paid for out of existing funds. This is a departure from how unemployment benefits have been funded in the past.Democratic supporters of additional unemployment extensions have pointed out that Republicans who are calling for unemployment benefits to be paid for out of existing funds are, in some cases, the same legislators who insist the Bush tax cuts
Bush tax cuts
The Bush tax cuts refers to changes to the United States tax code passed during the presidency of George W. Bush and extended during the presidency of Barack Obama that generally lowered tax rates and revised the code specifying taxation in the United States...
be renewed without funding. Republicans have countered the Bush tax cuts are stimulative and therefore do not require funding.
The requirement of a supermajority to bring bills to the floor has led to heated and controversial comments, including this exchange between Senators Jim Bunning
Jim Bunning
James Paul David "Jim" Bunning is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher and politician.During a 17-year baseball career, he pitched from 1955 to 1971, most notably with the Detroit Tigers and the Philadelphia Phillies. When he retired, he had the second-highest total of career...
(R-KY) and Jeff Merkley
Jeff Merkley
Jeffrey Alan "Jeff" Merkley is the junior United States Senator from Oregon. A member of the Democratic Party, Merkley was a five-term member of the Oregon Legislative Assembly representing House District 47, located in eastern Multnomah County within the Portland city limits...
(D-OR), where Senator Merkley asked Senator Bunning to stop his repeated blocks of a unanimous consent motion to extend unemployment benefits, to which Senator Bunning replied: "Tough shit."
Several other politicians, lawmakers and commentators have made controversial statements portraying the long-term unemployed as lazy, unwilling to work, and/or on drugs, while some in favor of long term unemployment benefits have called opponents pro-death and pro-child hunger:
- Orrin HatchOrrin HatchOrrin Grant Hatch is the senior United States Senator for Utah and is a member of the Republican Party. Hatch served as the chairman or ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1993 to 2005...
proposed an amendment that would require unemployment beneficiaries to pass a drug test to qualify for programs: "Drugs are a scourge on our society — hurting children, families and communities alike. This amendment is a way to help people get off of drugs to become productive and healthy members of society, while ensuring that valuable taxpayer dollars aren’t wasted.”
- Glenn BeckGlenn BeckGlenn Edward Lee Beck is an American conservative radio host, vlogger, author, entrepreneur, political commentator and former television host. He hosts the Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks...
: "Some of [the 99ers] I -- frankly, I bet, should be ashamed to call them Americans"
- Alan GraysonAlan GraysonAlan Mark Grayson is a former U.S. Representative for , serving from 2009 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party and loves cookies. After losing the election he moved to Austin to start stand-up comedy and a cookie business. The district Grayson represented lies in central Florida...
: "I will say this to Republicans who will block this [unemployement benefits extension] bill now for months, and kept food out of the mouths of children. I will say to them now, may God have mercy on your souls."
- Sharron AngleSharron AngleSharron Elaine Angle is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the Nevada Assembly from 1999 to 2007. She ran unsuccessfully as the 2010 Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Nevada, garnering 45 percent of the vote...
: "“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 and said you don’t want the jobs that are available.”
- Rand PaulRand PaulRandal Howard "Rand" Paul is the junior United States Senator for Kentucky. He is a member of the Republican Party. A member of the Tea Party movement, he describes himself as a "constitutional conservative" and a libertarian...
: "As bad as it sounds, ultimately we do have to sometimes accept a wage that's less than we had at our previous job in order to get back to work and allow the economy to get started again. Nobody likes that, but it may be one of the tough love things that has to happen."
- Tom CorbettTom CorbettThomas W. Corbett is the 46th and current Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. He is a former Attorney General of Pennsylvania and was elected to that office in 2004 and reelected in 2008...
: "People don’t want to come back to work while they still have some unemployment. That’s becoming a problem. The jobs are there, but if we keep extending unemployment, people are just going to sit there."
- Rush LimbaughRush LimbaughRush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host, conservative political commentator, and an opinion leader in American conservatism. He hosts The Rush Limbaugh Show which is aired throughout the U.S. on Premiere Radio Networks and is the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United...
: "Extended unemployment benefits do nothing but incentivize people not to look for work"
On May 24, 2010, Cynthia Tucker
Cynthia Tucker
Cynthia Tucker is an American columnist and blogger for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate. She received a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2007 "for her courageous, clear-headed columns that evince a strong sense of morality and persuasive knowledge of the...
of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, published: Unemployment benefits make people lazy? Not so, where she reported how the economist Mark Zandi
Mark Zandi
Mark Zandi is an Iranian American economist and co-founder of Moody's Economy.com, a widely-cited source of economic analysis.. Moody's Economy.com is part of Moody's Analytics. Prior to founding Economy.com, Zandi was a regional economist at Chase Econometrics.He was born in Atlanta, Georgia of...
cited the lack of available jobs in response to a statement by Senator Judd Gregg
Judd Gregg
Judd Alan Gregg is a former Governor of New Hampshire and former United States Senator from New Hampshire, who served as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. He is a member of the Republican Party and was a businessman and attorney in Nashua before entering politics...
(R-NH) that unemployment benefits discouraged the unemployed from looking for work.
Several prominent economists have argued long term unemployment benefits are an incentive not to work, including President Obama's former White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers
Lawrence Summers
Lawrence Henry Summers is an American economist. He served as the 71st United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He was Director of the White House United States National Economic Council for President Barack Obama until November 2010.Summers is the...
, who once wrote in the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics: "The second way government assistance programs contribute to long-term unemployment is by providing an incentive, and the means, not to work. Each unemployed person has a 'reservation wage' — the minimum wage he or she insists on getting before accepting a job." A Brookings Institution
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...
panel on economic activity said in March 2010 that jobless insurance extensions "correspond to between 0.7 and 1.8 percentage points of the 5.5 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate witnessed in the current recession." Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, who remains president and CEO, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries, Inc., the largest privately held...
found nearly two percent of the current jobless rate is due to extensions of unemployment insurance and other federal policies.
99ers have responded to these and similar statements with their own stories of repeated and unsuccessful job hunting efforts where the number of applicants have far exceeded the available positions. The Economic Policy Institute's data supports the 99ers' and Mark Zandi's position in their March 2010 report of an average of five applicants for each opening.
The Economic Policy Institute
Economic Policy Institute
The Economic Policy Institute is a 501 non-profit, liberal, nonpartisan think tank that seeks to broaden the public debate about strategies to achieve a prosperous and fair economy...
, using data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. The BLS is a governmental statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and...
, has verified that, as of September, 2010, the U.S. economy would need to add 11.5 million jobs to make up for the shortfall due to the recession. In September, 2010, the private sector added 64,000 jobs.
Hiring
Proponents of benefits extension point out that corporations are sitting on approximately 1.8 trillion in cash while not hiring. MSNBCMSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
reported in June 2010, that, for 99ers, a job can feel like a mirage: The Economic Policy Institute's March 2010 report cites an average of five applicants for each job opening.
Discrimination
Job postings with statements that only workers who are currently employed or those who've been unemployed for less than six months will be considered -- thereby decreasing opportunities for the long-term unemployed -- have been documented. The Huffington PostThe Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
, which has chronicled the phenomenon by combing through online employment listings on sites such as Craigslist
Craigslist
Craigslist is a centralized network of online communities featuring free online classified advertisements, with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, services, community, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums....
and Monster.com
Monster.com
Monster.com is one of the largest employment websites in the world, owned and operated by Monster Worldwide, Inc. Monster is one of the 20 most visited websites out of 100 million worldwide, according to comScore Media Metrics...
, has found multiple listings that use the terms: "Must be currently employed, "no unemployed applicants will be considered" or "must have been employed within the last 6 months."
An employment recruiter for the search firm Goodwin and Associates told the Huffington Post that "some companies think that the best people are already working" and "Maybe the ones looking for jobs for some reason had a problem, or were let go for a reason, or quit for a reason, but the people companies want are the type that already have a job."
Statistics provided by the Economic Policy Institute and the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate the majority of long-term unemployed who lost their jobs due the recession have been let go through no fault of their own in mass lay-offs that were cited by their companies as having been for economic reasons.
The exclusionary jobs postings have prompted New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
Assemblyman Peter Barnes (D-Middlesex
Middlesex, New Jersey
Middlesex is a Borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 13,635.Middlesex was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 9, 1913, from portions of Piscataway Township, based on the results...
) to propose legislation that would impose fines of $10,000 per incident for companies that post job advertisements which say the unemployed shouldn't bother applying.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. The BLS is a governmental statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and...
has released a report on the long-term experience of the jobless which cites that, while more younger workers were unemployed, the older worker was the most impacted by long-term unemployment, leading to concerns that ageism may factor in hiring discrimination.
Organizing
The 99ers have begun to organize, both online and in rallies. There is an online petition with over 40,000 signatures. 99ers have testified before Congress and have started numerous online sites from which to organize, meet others in their situation and to share links to resources.A rally sponsored by Unemployed Workers Action Group (UWAG.org) took place on Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
in New York City on August 12, 2010 to support the S.3706 Tier 5 unemployment extension bill. It was held at Federal Hall
Federal Hall
Federal Hall, built in 1700 as New York's City Hall, later served as the first capitol building of the United States of America under the Constitution, and was the site of George Washington's inauguration as the first President of the United States. It was also where the United States Bill of...
, 26 Wall St., New York City. and was attended by MSNBC's Ed Schultz and NYC's Labor Commission Representative, John Noyes:
"Today on Wall Street, people who have been out of work for nearly two years rallied to ask: where's the recovery for the Middle Class? Today, I attended a rally of professional Americans who have been displaced by corporate greed and out-of-touch politicians; a passionate crowd of 99ers rallied at the Federal Hall, here in New York, in the shadow of Wall Street. They had one basic question: Where are the jobs? I'd like to tell these people that Washington is listening, but the reality is that members of Congress are back home trying to save their own jobs. You can see the passion in the eyes of the 99ers today. They just want a chance to work. That's it." Ed Schultz, MSNBC's The Ed Show – Video.
On Sept. 16, 2010 a coalition of numerous 99er activist groups was formed to become one large united force to lobby Washington to pass legislation that would add weeks of benefits for all those who had exhausted all benefits without yet finding a job. They called themselves the American 99ers Union and have held a number of campaigns in which they encouraged thousands of 99er activists to fax, call and email Congress in support of a Tier 5 or other method of adding extended benefits for 99ers.
Also independent web-sites like http://www.99ers.net/ http://helpthe99ers.blogspot.com/ http://www.unemployedandangry.com/ and others have sprung up as network and meeting places to exchange ideas and remedies.