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Thom's blog
Billionaires won't be happy until America becomes Greece...
Billionaires don't need a social safety net, so they're using the right-wing spin machine to destroy it.
Back in December of 2013, Republicans gave Americans a really nasty Christmas present: they cut off long-term unemployment insurance for 1.3 million people. The party of Scrooge left Americans high and dry in the cold, and unable to provide for their families during what's supposed to be one of the most joyous times of the year.
Republicans blocked the extension of unemployment insurance in December of 2013 because they said it would encourage Americans to find a job and get back to work. The fact that there were no jobs to find didn't really matter to them.
Fast-forward to today, and the right-wing is claiming a big victory. The right-wing spin machine is using a working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research to claim that leaving millions of Americans without unemployment insurance actually helped job growth in 2014. The NBER paper says that, "The analysis based on this simple inference implies that the cut in benefits in 2014 can explain nearly all of the observed aggregate employment growth in 2014."
Naturally, the right-wing spin machine is taking the paper's findings and running with them. An article in the conservative Washington Examiner about the paper reads in part, "The study gives ammo to conservatives who argue that welfare benefits for able-bodied adults encourage people to live off government handouts instead of seeking work."
And, a piece over at The Wall Street Journal reads, "Since the states with the highest unemployment were targeted with the most federal benefits, the extra benefits harmed the people and regions that suffered the worst of the recession and weak recovery. Had Mr. Obama done the opposite, the stimulus might have recognized that people prefer the dignity of a job to claiming a government stipend for not having one. Both individuals and the larger economy would have been healthier."
This ridiculous meme that cutting unemployment insurance helps create job growth has been repeated over and over again on right-wing talk radio, in right-wing papers, on Fox So-Called News, and even on The Big Picture. But here's the thing. It's completely bogus.
-Thom
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Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... GOP reinvents Medicaid expansion (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)
Need to Know: Damn the indictment...full speed ahead for Perry- America's Lawyer Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire Radio 
Best of the Rest: Isn't it time for a universal fracking ban?- John Rumpler, Environment America
Daily Take: Billionaires won't be happy until America becomes Greece...
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Thursday's Daily Stack 
Hour One: Forget the indictment...full speed ahead for Rick Perry?- Mike Papantonio, Ring Of Fire Radio
Quote: " To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture." - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis". Quote: " It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man." - Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason".
Hour Two: The plot to destroy America and what we can do to stop it...
Hour Three: China's new crazy trade rules - why don't we regulate China's imports? |
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Friday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET
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Thom's Poll
Do unemployment benefits discourage people from finding a job?
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Watch & Listen to Thom
Rumble - Fox-So-Called News Lies Again
Can a New Thomas Jefferson Save Our Democracy?
How Will the Keystone XL Affect the Sioux?
The Good - The Bad - and the Very Very Minionettely Ugly
Crazy Alert! Rated XXX - Beer-busting buttocks!?
Or watch the Full "Big Picture" Show...
Full Show 1/28/2015: Can a new Thomas Jefferson save our Democracy?
In tonight's Big Picture Rumble, Thom talks about the racist death penalty, Republican's push for the middle class, Obamacare subsidies, and the falling U.S. budget deficit. Kris Ullman, Conservative Commentator/Activist, Sam Sacks, The District Sentinel, and Charles Sauer of The Market Institute join Thom on the panel.
Tara Houska , Founder of NotYourMascots.org talks tribal rights and the San Carlos Tribe's fight with big business and the U.S. government for their land. Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network talks about the native American push against the Keystone XL pipeline.
In his Daily Take, Thom asks, if a modern Thomas Jefferson can save American democracy.
Inflammation & Depression... What's the Connection?
The Origins of Fox's Freedom Obsession
Did Comcast Ghostwrite YOUR Mayor's Letter of Support to the FCC?
Stock Markets: "The Ultimate Game of Fear and Greed"
What's Wrong with the GOP Plot to Return to the Roaring 20s?
Predatory Politics in Texas: Will Rick Perry Toe the Koch Party Line? (w/ Mike Papantonio)
All About Fascism, Oligarchy & Plutocracy in America
Uncovered: Michelle Obama in Saudi Arabia |
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