If you're wealthy and don't need to work or are secure in your job, you may have reason to give thanks this weekend for Tom DeLay's tireless work on behalf of those with the most. But
if you've been unemployed for a while, good luck, your troubles may be getting worse:
At the last minute, Congressional leaders added legislation to their pre-adjournment agenda that would extend more than a dozen tax breaks scheduled to expire at the end of the year. But despite efforts to squeeze the tax-cut "extenders" package into the busy Congressional schedule before adjournment, Congressional leaders have shown no willingness to consider extending the temporary federal program to help the long-term unemployed, which, starting January 1, will not provide any benefits to those who exhaust their regular, state-funded benefits.
In addition, the House version of the tax-cut extension bill would continue a large, supposedly temporary corporate tax break that was enacted as part of the 2002 stimulus legislation. When it comes to the unemployment benefits, however, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay told BNA Daily Labor Report on November 19 that there is "no reason" for extending those benefits. The House approach implies that corporations need continued support amidst a still-weak economy, but that laid-off workers do not. This is despite the fact that firms might not use the tax breaks to hire new workers and that the unemployed workers who have their benefits run out will be receiving neither paychecks nor unemployment benefits.
Unless extended unemployment benefits are continued, starting in January the number of unemployed workers who will begin exhausting their benefits will probably exceed 80,000 per week.
Most of the Bushies just don't care about working people except at election time. But Tom DeLay is different; he seems to actually enjoy heaping pain on the less fortunate.