The House and Senate have recently agreed upon a deal to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance. It seems that our congress is moving our nation in the right direction. The winds of innovation are slowly breezing through Washington and breathing new life into outdated unemployment mandates. And while the changes may be mild they are an important foothold in the future progression of this country.
College students especially know the perils of job hunting. Combine an unemployed recent graduate with a failing economic market and the added expense of college loans to repay, and you get an overstressed, often under-utilized and discontented young citizen.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) believes the payroll tax cut is a great victory for those who may find themselves face to face with the want-ads.
“I am pleased that the House and the Senate have come to a deal on the extension of the payroll tax cut and of unemployment insurance,” Merkley said in a statement on his website. “This bill ensures that 40,000 out-of-work Oregonians won’t lose their lifeline to pay for basic living expenses while searching for a job.”
For many people, that lifeline is the only thing keeping them afloat. And while floating is a good start, it is far more important to know how to swim.
Under the provisions of this new bill, training to acquire new skills and unemployment insurance would be provided for those people actively seeking employment or starting a business. This way, a recent graduate could potentially avoid the emotional defeat of taking an undesirable job, outside the area of his or her expertise.
This bill might be the kick this country needs to move the population out of a common societal acceptance of workplace unhappiness.
Idealistically, it would mean people would no longer feel obligated to accept dead-end, low paying jobs out of necessity. It would revive the old “American Dream” mentality.
Hands-on training and the development of “real-world” skills could provide competitive edge to a prospective employee. Combined with added incentives to businesses to hire jobless applicants, this bill provides an opportunity to level the playing field for job hunters.
But still, this payroll tax cut bill could be seen like a master tossing scraps to his dogs. The “powers that be” want to appease the people by providing a single shred of hope that these new provisions will potentially end some of the struggle and uncertainty in their lives.
Because if you keep a dog hungry for too long, you may just find yourself a victim of their frustration.
Obama has already proven, to many who voted him into office, that he is not necessarily the person they were expecting. Under the Obama administration, we still have azn overwhelming U.S. military presence in the Middle East, Gitmo defiantly operational and the continuation of the Patriot Act. Not something to be expected from the man who ran a campaign on a platform of ending all the aforementioned.
So they throw us a bone, give us a small victory so that we can clutch on to the hope that perhaps somebody in our nation’s capital is on our side. Maybe the system can work to protect even the smallest, the most downtrodden of our people.
They give in just enough so we think maybe our congress is more than a bunch of corporate toadies who facilitate the greed of the top 1 percent, while devaluing the lives of everyone else.
They keep us hanging on like we’re The Supremes. To keep us pacified.
Of course, I’m not that cynical.