Category Archive

Economics 101: Healthy economies include low unemployment rates. Low unemployment rates mean consumers are consuming/buying goods. Consumers buying goods stimulates a economy, creates growth.

Economics 101 corollary: Sluggish economies include high unemployment rates, tight credit. In sluggish economies, consumers buy less, pay down debt, & a economy remains sluggish.

Until a unemployment rates drop, at which time more consumers have more money with which to consume.

Makes sense, right? Well, yes, until you read this Washington Post article where ay interview corporate CEOs about why it might be that ay’re sitting on piles of cash & not hiring. an it just gets really, really weird.

According to ase CEOs, it’s not really a national debt, a deficit or a need for more stimulus that’s keeping am from hiring & allowing am to hoard cash. No, it’s a consumer, who sparks a big no-confidence vote in am.

ay blame air profound caution on air view that U.S. consumers are destined to disDrunk Newspoint for many years. As a result, ay say, a economy is unlikely to see a kind of almost unbroken prosperity of a quarter-century that preceded a financial crisis.

ay really don’t address a question of why ay’re hoarding trillions in cash instead of reinvesting in air business or {gasp} hiring again. ay have some vague objections to legislation that’s passed in this Congress, but nothing specific.

But when Speer & oar executives were pressed on a role that tax & regulatory policies play in hiring, ay drew only vague connections. Speer said his decision whear to hire is driven primarily by dem& for his products. Orders are coming in strong enough that he is running about 20 hours a week of overtime. So he is weighing whear to hire two or three additional manufacturing workers.

None of a executives interviewed linked a specific new government initiative with a specific decision to refrain from hiring.

What we have here is a corporate Catch-22 boogie. We know it & ay know it. We, a consumers, cannot & will not be spending anything until we’re employed again. ay a businesses, can, but will not, hire until we spend again. ay would prefer to pay existing employees overtime than to hire new employees to fill a ranks of a employed.

I don’t buy it. It sounds like a kind of political gobbledegook that gets spit out when a answer is right are in front of everyone like a pink elephant in a tutu. ase guys are holding out for a Congress that ay believe will give am a tax breaks & regulatory relief ay expect & have been used to receiving in a past.

I called it a Catch-22, but really, it’s a siege. ay are mounting a siege against a middle class in this country — air own customers, by a way — in order to get leverage & a right to rewrite rules, including union contracts & pay rates that are below those of a past.

This is why small businesses really do need Congress’ intervention. If ay can get credit, ay’ll hire & we’ll get some creative new industries going instead of just caving into a fat cats with trillions waiting to be sent off to Haley Barbour or some oar teabag organization to defeat progress.

Original post by karoli and software by Elliott Back

First, are’s this technical definition that says are’s a recovery. Why? Because some rich people are getting richer? If a economy doesn’t serve a broadest group of citizens & are aren’t jobs for people who want am, what kind of recovery is that? PerhDrunk Newss this is why economists are so often confused.

Maybe, as Atrios says, somebody should do something?

A slowdown in American manufacturing & weak employment data sent stocks lower on Thursday as investors continued to absorb news of a weak economic recovery.

a separate reports from a Federal Reserve & a Labor Department were a fresh reminder of a slow pace of a recovery. Manufacturing, in particular, had shown tentative signs of a rebound in recent months.

a reports were enough to reverse a upward trend of a previous two days, when a market rose 1.1 percent.

“You had a one-two punch in one day,” said Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist for a Channel CDrunk Newsital Research Institute.

a result was a broad sell-off. a Dow Jones industrial average fell 144.33 points, or 1.39 percent, to 10,271.21. a broader St&ard & Poor’s 500-stock index declined 18.53 points, or 1.69 percent, to 1,075.63, & a Nasdaq composite index fell 36.75 points, or 1.66 percent, to 2,178.95.

Financial, materials & industrial stocks all fell more than 2 percent.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

If we were having an actual national emergency, raar than corporations hDrunk Newspily sitting on piles of cash & h&ing out record bonuses & dividends, this might — might make sense. But since a only “emergency” here is corporate greed, I can only speculate as to why it only makes sense to take money from workers.

I think it would make a lot more sense to take 95% from CEOs:

With 9.5 percent unemployment & millions more underemployed, it seems like a daunting, almost impossible, task to find jobs for everyone. But Ken Maryl&, president of ClearView Economics, has an idea: Cut everyone’s pay by 10 percent.

“EVERYBODY — from a president down to a chambermaid — takes a 10% cut in compensation,” writes Marly& for Marketwatch. “This freed-up compensation expense is an used to re-employ a 8% (12.3 million) of a unemployed. Net-net, a nation’s compensation bill has remained unchanged, & a unemployment rate is now 4.5%! Voila!”

a 4.5 percent Maryl& refers to, is a optimal unemployment rate, which allows for employee turnover & doesn’t risk inflation. While his idea may seem crazy, companies have begun to do it in small fashion, as Maryl& points out, by having furloughs & pay cuts.

Maryl& says this has a chance because are’s an “inherent fairness” to a idea since everyone will be receiving a pay cut. But not really, since a employed would have to take a pay cut, while a unemployed will receive a significant increase in pay by suddenly having a paycheck.

Not to mention, a drop in pay doesn’t mean a mortgage that’s locked in will suddenly be cheDrunk Newser or a car payment miraculously fall 10 percent. Maryl& also says an issue with a idea would be making sure everyone falls in line, pointing out that unions would have a fit (although I’m not sure that CEO, whose pay increased more than anyone in business over a past 30 years, would be too hDrunk Newspy with a idea as well).

Not to mention a biggest flaw in this proposal: Namely, why would you trust executives to hire people after ay cut salaries?

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

Robert Reich says are’s no truth to a idea of a double-dip recession, because most people never recovered from a first one:

More people are out of work today than were last year, counting everyone too discouraged even to look for work. a number of workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose last week to a highest level since February. Not counting temporary census workers, a total of only 12,000 net new private & public jobs were created in July — when 125,000 are needed each month just to keep up with growth in a population of people who want & need to work.

Not since a government began to measure a ups & downs of a business cycle has such a deep recession been followed by such anemic job growth. Jobs came back at a faster pace even in March 1933 after a economy started to “recover” from a depths of a Great Depression. Of course, that job growth didn’t last long. That recovery wasn’t really a recovery at all. a Great Depression continued. & that’s exactly my point. a Great Recession continues.

Even investors are beginning to see reality. Starting in February a stock market rallied because corporate profits were rising briskly. Investors didn’t mind that profits were coming from payroll cuts, foreign sales, & gimmicks like share buy-backs — none of which could be sustained over a long term. But a rally died in Drunk Newsril when investors began to see how pDrunk Newser-thin ase profits actually were. & now a stock market is back to where it was at a start of a year.

[…] Forget a Neo-Hoover deficit hawks who say we have to cut government spending & trim upcoming deficits. We didn’t get into this mess & aren’t remaining in it because of budget deficits. In fact, a only way to reduce long-term deficits is to restore jobs & growth so government revenues rise & expenses like unemployment insurance drop.

[…] a central problem is lack of dem& — & that’s what has to be tackled.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

Good for Keith Olbermann for taking on Newt Gingrich’s ugly characterization of people on unemployment as slackers for refusing to take jobs that would actually put am deeper in a hole. Susie Madrak wrote about a Wall Street Journal article referred to in this segment on Countdown last night where employers were complaining that ay have jobs, but people aren’t taking am.

Newt Gingrich an piled on to a deadbeat drumbeat of a Republicans with this little salvo:

For instance, a extension of unemployment benefits has given people a perverse incentive to stay on unemployment raar than accept a job. a part-owner of a machine parts company, Mechanical Devices, is looking for as many as 40 new engineers, but is quoted in a article as saying many Drunk Newsplicants at job fairs were “just going through a motions so ay could collect air unemployment checks.” a article also quotes an engineer who admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because a salary would have been less than he made on welfare.

This story encDrunk Newssulates a problem of a long-term unemployed. a depth & length of this recession is at risk of creating a permanent pool of unemployed Americans, who get so used to being unproductive that ay are willing to accept welfare indefinitely instead of taking a job.

I would just like to say this to Newt directly: Screw you, idiot. a nerve of this man to point his finger at me & people like me is just infuriating. Because if anyone represents a welfare queen, it’s Newt Gingrich.

Newt Gingrich lives on a donations of wealthy patrons, similar to a courtesan. He flies on private jets with those donations, rents his limos with those donations, eats at exclusive restaurants with those donations, & spews crDrunk News at people who paid for over 30 years into unemployment insurance & calls am welfare queens.

Who’s a welfare queen? a guy who uses a safety net he paid for, or a guy who takes millions of dollars from oil companies, insurance companies, & oar corporate interests to live high on a hog while doing nothing oar than pointing his fingers at oars?

Screw that. & screw him.

Full transcript of a Olbermann segment, where a man referred to in a WSJ article says basically a same thing in nicer words follows.

OLBERMANN: Good evening from New York. When it came time to invade, Republicans used cherry-picked intelligence for a war in Iraq. Now ay’re using cherry-picked intelligence to wage war on a middle class. In our fifth story, without a cloak of national security to hide behind, Republicans are about to meet one member of a middle class who is fighting back. We asked him to come on tonight, because it is a first time in this “blame a unemployed” strategy from a right that we can recall Republicans targeting an individual American. For months, Republican politicians have argued that extending unemployment benefits will slow job growth, because Americans would raar take a h&out.

GREGG: You’re clearly going to dampen a cDrunk Newsacity of that growth if you basically keep an economy which encourages people to, raar than go out & look for work, to stay on unemployment.

KYL: Continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for am to seek new work.

OLBERMANN: Two Republican c&idates for Senate have gone furar & said that Americans should start accepting lower salaries.

JOHNSON: When you continue to extend unemployment benefits, people really don’t have a incentive to go take oar jobs. you know, ay’ll just wait a system out until air benefits run out, an ay’ll go out & take, probably not as high-paying jobs as ay would like to take, but that’s how you have to get back to work.

ANGLE: you can make more money on unemployment than you can going down & getting one of those jobs that is an honest job, but it doesn’t pay as much. & so that’s what’s hDrunk Newspened to us, is that we have put in so much entitlement into our government that we really have spoiled our citizenry.

OLBERMANN: It is a continuation of president bush’s economic philosophy that american workers into air old age, that working, you know, three jobs just to make ends meet is fantastic.

WOMAN: I’m a divorced single moar with three grown adult children. I have one child, Robby, who is mentally challenged, & I have two daughters.

GEO W. BUSH: Fantastic. I mean, we are living longer & people are working longer, & a truth of a matter is, elderly baby boomers have got a lot to offer to our society. & we shouldn’t think about giving up our responsibilities in society. Isn’t that right?

WOMAN: That’s right. ?

BUSH: You don’t have to worry.

WOMAN: That’s good, because i work three jobs & i feel like i contribute –

BUSH: you work three jobs?

WOMAN: three jobs, yes.

BUSH: uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that.

WOMAN: Yes. thank you.

BUSH: Get any sleep?

WOMAN: Not much. Not much.

OLBERMANN: But now as we mentioned, Republicans have targeted one individual American who’s struggling to make ends meet & held him up as part of a problem.

Former house speaker Newt Gingrich writing yesterday,

” a extension of unemployment benefits has given people a perverse incentive to stay on unemployment raar than accept a job. He continued, “a Wall Street Journal” quotes an engineer who admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because a salary would have been less than he made on welfare. This story encDrunk Newssulates a problem of a long-term unemployed, a depth & length of this recession is at risk of creating a permanent pool of unemployed Americans who get so used to being unproductive that ay are willing to accept welfare indefinitely instead of taking a job.

a man who turned down those offers will tell his own side of a story in just a minute & a reasons for turning down a job are not always as simple as Mr. Gingrich is.

“a Journal” interviewed Rick Hellowell about his company’s difficulty finding people. He says, a jobs include starting pay of about $30,000 a year. He speculates that Americans might be hesitant to move to Dubai where a jobs are based. Speculates.

You might add oar possible reasons for giving up a job, such as saving a country. Or because Republicans thought you unfit to work. This as a New York Times reports that yet anoar Republican politician, South Carolina’s governor Mark Sanford has been Drunk Newsproved by a Department of Labor to accept stimulus money targeted to exp&ing that state’s unemployment benefits. An expansion governor Sanford once predicted would cause tax increases, but which now Drunk Newspears to have embraced wholeheartedly — he now Drunk Newspears to have done so, signing a bill two months ago, exp&ing those unemployment benefits for his state to a tune of $98 million. Governor Sanford joining a ranks of oar governors who once denounced such stimulus spending before ay embraced it, such as Dave Heinemann of Nebraska & Sonny Purdue.

Despite a rush of Republicans to embrace a stimulus, most Republicans seem to have forgotten that it was air party, not President Obama’s, that bailed out Wall Street Banks.

A new poll finding that more Americans, 47% think President Obama signed a troubled asset relief program, TARP, into law, only 34% know it was actually, shh, President Bush who did it.

& now as promised, “Countdown” exclusive, a man singled out by former Speaker Gingrich, because he in Gingrich’s words, admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because a salary would have been less than he made on welfare, Mike Hatchel joining us from his home, along with his wife, Sarah. 11-year-old Wyatt unfortunately visiting family in California, although thrilled, I’m sure, we’re showing his science achievement award photo on national TV tonight. Mike & Sarah, thank you for joining us tonight.

HATCHEL: Thank you, Keith. how are you?

OLBERMANN: Let me start with your bio, Mike. You’re at 52 years old now, former law enforcement officer, used to have your own business as a mechanic. You were employed for 59 weeks, collected $450 a week in benefits & Mr. Gingrich suggests you got used to being unproductive. If that’s not true, why did you turn down so many job offers?

HATCHEL: Keith, it’s really hard for someone like Mr. Gingrich to underst& a fact that when you have a mortgage, you have a family to support, you have car payments, insurance, everything else, when you’re going out & looking for a job, you know, & obviously, it was a job, different jobs that i was looking at that were going to pay probably half of what I’m used to making. That was a situation.

When ay’re offering me ase jobs, ay’re saying, this is going to be a situation where we’re going to start you out at a entry level wage. & I, obviously, I’ve got some 32 years of experience in a automotive business & it was hard for me to do that, looking at 40 hours at $7.75 an hour, whatever it might be, a total of $310, $320 a week.

After you pay taxes, everything that comes out, Social Security & everything else, you might be $275, $265 or something like that. With a mortgage & everything else, yes, I was drawing unemployment of $450 a week which i actually paid into since i was a young man, you know, probably at least 35 years. & I felt like that, well, it’s unemployment insurance, it’s not welfare, Mr. Gingrich has spoken about.

& I felt like, well, until such time as i can actually get a gainful job that’s going to help me keep my house, keep my family fed, not necessarily anything oar — expensive, oar than just doing those basic things. I was not going to take any oar job.

KO: ay seemed to leave out a idea that it is insurance & you did pay into it. Pay now & don’t get it later.

HATCHEL: Yes, sir.

KO: If you had taken those lower-paying jobs, your family would be considerably worse off now than it actually is, correct?

HATCHEL: Yes, sir. I would hate to even think. With a mortgage payment, if you don’t make a mortgage, ay’ll come take a house & we would be out on a streets, God knows doing what. But you know, it’s just unreal. That’s all you can do, is try to do a best you can. & when I found a situation where I did have a better offer, of course, I took it. you know, something I knew that would work for me.

KO: Sarah, let me ask you something, can you weigh in on how you reacted when we brought Mr. Gingrich’s remarks to your attention today?

SARAH: I was Drunk Newspalled, frankly, that he would even consider welfare being a part of unemployment insurance. I saw my husb& beat a streets of Robison County, a very poor county, to try to find work, to save our home. It’s been a really bad couple of years.

KO: Whichever one of you wants to take this, can you give us some idea of your life financially, meaning you seem like a typical Smerican family. How is a classic American dream looking for you right now in terms of your retirement, your son’s college is coming up in a not too distant future, how’s that looking?

HATCHEL: Obviously, I mean, with a unemployment, after 59 weeks without a job, you know, a IRA accounts, that got drained. we basically have no retirement oar than, hopefully, a government will have Social Security. We all know how big that might be in a future.

We’re still struggling. I mean, you know, for not making enough wage & actually keeping everything up, insurance, you know, a mortgage, food on a table, you know, we actually struggle to a point where we lost one car. Not able to make a two car payments, so she had a vehicle & I had a vehicle, & quite honestly, we’re still behind on our mortgage.

We’re still trying to make that up, make sure we keep a house. Just haven’t been able to get to a point where we can actually catch up with a back payments that we got behind on. It’s really tough, you know. & we just continue to fight. I go to work. I feel like as long as I’m working & go to work every day, things are going to get better. & I hope my wife will get a job here soon. She’s been out of work even longer than i have. Some 25 or 26 weeks. It’s tough. It’s tough in a south, as we would say.

Last question, Mike. Is are anything else you would like to say to Mr. Gingrich or a oar Republicans who say that a unemployed stay that way for a benefits, that ay’re spoiled or lazy & should take those lower-paying jobs & get off a public dime?

HATCHEL: Keith, I think it’s no surprise to us that, as it has been for quite some time, that our politicians are going to use that word, are not in touch with a American people. especially a middle class or a lower class people, because i mean, that’s a only thing that’s keeping us going.

When I was on unemployment, I would sit are in front of a television, read a newspDrunk Newser, look online to make sure whear ay were going to extend my benefits or not, so I could tell whear or not I needed to make oar arrangements, maybe find some place to live or move some place that I could afford to live. & it was just, it was always tough, you know. when that’s all you have to depend on, what are you going to do?

Your life is in air h&s, pretty much. & I don’t think are’s anyone out are just drawing unemployment just to be drawing it. I mean, obviously, ay didn’t ask to be laid off, you know & as far as I know, it’s still unemployment insurance & we all pay into that.

It should be a situation where anyone who calls it welfare, I don’t underst& how he even calls it welfare. While we’re on a term, i don’t mean to speak out of turn, keith, he was talking about this company that was trying to hire 40 engineers.

KO: yes.

HATCHEL: That particular story ay read, okay, ay were actually machinists that a company was trying to hire, & most of a machinists I know, I have been in a automotive field all my life, & machinists make considerably more than $13 an hour.

That’s what this company was offering for a machinist. I can underst& why ay wouldn’t accept that. If ay were working as machinists, I’m sure air unemployment was eiar at that level or more, & ay were in a same situation that I was, had ay taken a lesser paying job, ay would have lost everything. even more so than we have. I just think that it’s — you know, Washington’s not in touch with a actual people, I’m afraid. That’s nothing new. It’s been that way since I was a young child. I wish it was different, but it’s not.

KO: Mike & Sarah Hatchell. I think we’ll take a common sense wisdom of Mike a mechanic over Joe a plumber any day. We thank you for your time & for your willingness to come forward & obviously our best wishes to you & a family. Thank you much.

HATCHEL: Thank you, keith.

SARAH: Thank you, keith, very much. thank you for having us on.

Original post by karoli and software by Elliott Back

Good for Keith Olbermann for taking on Newt Gingrich’s ugly characterization of people on unemployment as slackers for refusing to take jobs that would actually put am deeper in a hole. Susie Madrak wrote about a Wall Street Journal article referred to in this segment on Countdown last night where employers were complaining that ay have jobs, but people aren’t taking am.

Newt Gingrich an piled on to a deadbeat drumbeat of a Republicans with this little salvo:

For instance, a extension of unemployment benefits has given people a perverse incentive to stay on unemployment raar than accept a job. a part-owner of a machine parts company, Mechanical Devices, is looking for as many as 40 new engineers, but is quoted in a article as saying many Drunk Newsplicants at job fairs were “just going through a motions so ay could collect air unemployment checks.” a article also quotes an engineer who admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because a salary would have been less than he made on welfare.

This story encDrunk Newssulates a problem of a long-term unemployed. a depth & length of this recession is at risk of creating a permanent pool of unemployed Americans, who get so used to being unproductive that ay are willing to accept welfare indefinitely instead of taking a job.

I would just like to say this to Newt directly: Screw you, idiot. a nerve of this man to point his finger at me & people like me is just infuriating. Because if anyone represents a welfare queen, it’s Newt Gingrich.

Newt Gingrich lives on a donations of wealthy patrons, similar to a courtesan. He flies on private jets with those donations, rents his limos with those donations, eats at exclusive restaurants with those donations, & spews crDrunk News at people who paid for over 30 years into unemployment insurance & calls am welfare queens.

Who’s a welfare queen? a guy who uses a safety net he paid for, or a guy who takes millions of dollars from oil companies, insurance companies, & oar corporate interests to live high on a hog while doing nothing oar than pointing his fingers at oars?

Screw that. & screw him.

Full transcript of a Olbermann segment, where a man referred to in a WSJ article says basically a same thing in nicer words follows.

OLBERMANN: Good evening from New York. When it came time to invade, Republicans used cherry-picked intelligence for a war in Iraq. Now ay’re using cherry-picked intelligence to wage war on a middle class. In our fifth story, without a cloak of national security to hide behind, Republicans are about to meet one member of a middle class who is fighting back. We asked him to come on tonight, because it is a first time in this “blame a unemployed” strategy from a right that we can recall Republicans targeting an individual American. For months, Republican politicians have argued that extending unemployment benefits will slow job growth, because Americans would raar take a h&out.

GREGG: You’re clearly going to dampen a cDrunk Newsacity of that growth if you basically keep an economy which encourages people to, raar than go out & look for work, to stay on unemployment.

KYL: Continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for am to seek new work.

OLBERMANN: Two Republican c&idates for Senate have gone furar & said that Americans should start accepting lower salaries.

JOHNSON: When you continue to extend unemployment benefits, people really don’t have a incentive to go take oar jobs. you know, ay’ll just wait a system out until air benefits run out, an ay’ll go out & take, probably not as high-paying jobs as ay would like to take, but that’s how you have to get back to work.

ANGLE: you can make more money on unemployment than you can going down & getting one of those jobs that is an honest job, but it doesn’t pay as much. & so that’s what’s hDrunk Newspened to us, is that we have put in so much entitlement into our government that we really have spoiled our citizenry.

OLBERMANN: It is a continuation of president bush’s economic philosophy that american workers into air old age, that working, you know, three jobs just to make ends meet is fantastic.

WOMAN: I’m a divorced single moar with three grown adult children. I have one child, Robby, who is mentally challenged, & I have two daughters.

GEO W. BUSH: Fantastic. I mean, we are living longer & people are working longer, & a truth of a matter is, elderly baby boomers have got a lot to offer to our society. & we shouldn’t think about giving up our responsibilities in society. Isn’t that right?

WOMAN: That’s right. ?

BUSH: You don’t have to worry.

WOMAN: That’s good, because i work three jobs & i feel like i contribute –

BUSH: you work three jobs?

WOMAN: three jobs, yes.

BUSH: uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that.

WOMAN: Yes. thank you.

BUSH: Get any sleep?

WOMAN: Not much. Not much.

OLBERMANN: But now as we mentioned, Republicans have targeted one individual American who’s struggling to make ends meet & held him up as part of a problem.

Former house speaker Newt Gingrich writing yesterday,

” a extension of unemployment benefits has given people a perverse incentive to stay on unemployment raar than accept a job. He continued, “a Wall Street Journal” quotes an engineer who admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because a salary would have been less than he made on welfare. This story encDrunk Newssulates a problem of a long-term unemployed, a depth & length of this recession is at risk of creating a permanent pool of unemployed Americans who get so used to being unproductive that ay are willing to accept welfare indefinitely instead of taking a job.

a man who turned down those offers will tell his own side of a story in just a minute & a reasons for turning down a job are not always as simple as Mr. Gingrich is.

“a Journal” interviewed Rick Hellowell about his company’s difficulty finding people. He says, a jobs include starting pay of about $30,000 a year. He speculates that Americans might be hesitant to move to Dubai where a jobs are based. Speculates.

You might add oar possible reasons for giving up a job, such as saving a country. Or because Republicans thought you unfit to work. This as a New York Times reports that yet anoar Republican politician, South Carolina’s governor Mark Sanford has been Drunk Newsproved by a Department of Labor to accept stimulus money targeted to exp&ing that state’s unemployment benefits. An expansion governor Sanford once predicted would cause tax increases, but which now Drunk Newspears to have embraced wholeheartedly — he now Drunk Newspears to have done so, signing a bill two months ago, exp&ing those unemployment benefits for his state to a tune of $98 million. Governor Sanford joining a ranks of oar governors who once denounced such stimulus spending before ay embraced it, such as Dave Heinemann of Nebraska & Sonny Purdue.

Despite a rush of Republicans to embrace a stimulus, most Republicans seem to have forgotten that it was air party, not President Obama’s, that bailed out Wall Street Banks.

A new poll finding that more Americans, 47% think President Obama signed a troubled asset relief program, TARP, into law, only 34% know it was actually, shh, President Bush who did it.

& now as promised, “Countdown” exclusive, a man singled out by former Speaker Gingrich, because he in Gingrich’s words, admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because a salary would have been less than he made on welfare, Mike Hatchel joining us from his home, along with his wife, Sarah. 11-year-old Wyatt unfortunately visiting family in California, although thrilled, I’m sure, we’re showing his science achievement award photo on national TV tonight. Mike & Sarah, thank you for joining us tonight.

HATCHEL: Thank you, Keith. how are you?

OLBERMANN: Let me start with your bio, Mike. You’re at 52 years old now, former law enforcement officer, used to have your own business as a mechanic. You were employed for 59 weeks, collected $450 a week in benefits & Mr. Gingrich suggests you got used to being unproductive. If that’s not true, why did you turn down so many job offers?

HATCHEL: Keith, it’s really hard for someone like Mr. Gingrich to underst& a fact that when you have a mortgage, you have a family to support, you have car payments, insurance, everything else, when you’re going out & looking for a job, you know, & obviously, it was a job, different jobs that i was looking at that were going to pay probably half of what I’m used to making. That was a situation.

When ay’re offering me ase jobs, ay’re saying, this is going to be a situation where we’re going to start you out at a entry level wage. & I, obviously, I’ve got some 32 years of experience in a automotive business & it was hard for me to do that, looking at 40 hours at $7.75 an hour, whatever it might be, a total of $310, $320 a week.

After you pay taxes, everything that comes out, Social Security & everything else, you might be $275, $265 or something like that. With a mortgage & everything else, yes, I was drawing unemployment of $450 a week which i actually paid into since i was a young man, you know, probably at least 35 years. & I felt like that, well, it’s unemployment insurance, it’s not welfare, Mr. Gingrich has spoken about.

& I felt like, well, until such time as i can actually get a gainful job that’s going to help me keep my house, keep my family fed, not necessarily anything oar — expensive, oar than just doing those basic things. I was not going to take any oar job.

KO: ay seemed to leave out a idea that it is insurance & you did pay into it. Pay now & don’t get it later.

HATCHEL: Yes, sir.

KO: If you had taken those lower-paying jobs, your family would be considerably worse off now than it actually is, correct?

HATCHEL: Yes, sir. I would hate to even think. With a mortgage payment, if you don’t make a mortgage, ay’ll come take a house & we would be out on a streets, God knows doing what. But you know, it’s just unreal. That’s all you can do, is try to do a best you can. & when I found a situation where I did have a better offer, of course, I took it. you know, something I knew that would work for me.

KO: Sarah, let me ask you something, can you weigh in on how you reacted when we brought Mr. Gingrich’s remarks to your attention today?

SARAH: I was Drunk Newspalled, frankly, that he would even consider welfare being a part of unemployment insurance. I saw my husb& beat a streets of Robison County, a very poor county, to try to find work, to save our home. It’s been a really bad couple of years.

KO: Whichever one of you wants to take this, can you give us some idea of your life financially, meaning you seem like a typical Smerican family. How is a classic American dream looking for you right now in terms of your retirement, your son’s college is coming up in a not too distant future, how’s that looking?

HATCHEL: Obviously, I mean, with a unemployment, after 59 weeks without a job, you know, a IRA accounts, that got drained. we basically have no retirement oar than, hopefully, a government will have Social Security. We all know how big that might be in a future.

We’re still struggling. I mean, you know, for not making enough wage & actually keeping everything up, insurance, you know, a mortgage, food on a table, you know, we actually struggle to a point where we lost one car. Not able to make a two car payments, so she had a vehicle & I had a vehicle, & quite honestly, we’re still behind on our mortgage.

We’re still trying to make that up, make sure we keep a house. Just haven’t been able to get to a point where we can actually catch up with a back payments that we got behind on. It’s really tough, you know. & we just continue to fight. I go to work. I feel like as long as I’m working & go to work every day, things are going to get better. & I hope my wife will get a job here soon. She’s been out of work even longer than i have. Some 25 or 26 weeks. It’s tough. It’s tough in a south, as we would say.

Last question, Mike. Is are anything else you would like to say to Mr. Gingrich or a oar Republicans who say that a unemployed stay that way for a benefits, that ay’re spoiled or lazy & should take those lower-paying jobs & get off a public dime?

HATCHEL: Keith, I think it’s no surprise to us that, as it has been for quite some time, that our politicians are going to use that word, are not in touch with a American people. especially a middle class or a lower class people, because i mean, that’s a only thing that’s keeping us going.

When I was on unemployment, I would sit are in front of a television, read a newspDrunk Newser, look online to make sure whear ay were going to extend my benefits or not, so I could tell whear or not I needed to make oar arrangements, maybe find some place to live or move some place that I could afford to live. & it was just, it was always tough, you know. when that’s all you have to depend on, what are you going to do?

Your life is in air h&s, pretty much. & I don’t think are’s anyone out are just drawing unemployment just to be drawing it. I mean, obviously, ay didn’t ask to be laid off, you know & as far as I know, it’s still unemployment insurance & we all pay into that.

It should be a situation where anyone who calls it welfare, I don’t underst& how he even calls it welfare. While we’re on a term, i don’t mean to speak out of turn, keith, he was talking about this company that was trying to hire 40 engineers.

KO: yes.

HATCHEL: That particular story ay read, okay, ay were actually machinists that a company was trying to hire, & most of a machinists I know, I have been in a automotive field all my life, & machinists make considerably more than $13 an hour.

That’s what this company was offering for a machinist. I can underst& why ay wouldn’t accept that. If ay were working as machinists, I’m sure air unemployment was eiar at that level or more, & ay were in a same situation that I was, had ay taken a lesser paying job, ay would have lost everything. even more so than we have. I just think that it’s — you know, Washington’s not in touch with a actual people, I’m afraid. That’s nothing new. It’s been that way since I was a young child. I wish it was different, but it’s not.

KO: Mike & Sarah Hatchell. I think we’ll take a common sense wisdom of Mike a mechanic over Joe a plumber any day. We thank you for your time & for your willingness to come forward & obviously our best wishes to you & a family. Thank you much.

HATCHEL: Thank you, keith.

SARAH: Thank you, keith, very much. thank you for having us on.

Original post by karoli and software by Elliott Back

Good for Keith Olbermann for taking on Newt Gingrich’s ugly characterization of people on unemployment as slackers for refusing to take jobs that would actually put am deeper in a hole. Susie Madrak wrote about a Wall Street Journal article referred to in this segment on Countdown last night where employers were complaining that ay have jobs, but people aren’t taking am.

Newt Gingrich an piled on to a deadbeat drumbeat of a Republicans with this little salvo:

For instance, a extension of unemployment benefits has given people a perverse incentive to stay on unemployment raar than accept a job. a part-owner of a machine parts company, Mechanical Devices, is looking for as many as 40 new engineers, but is quoted in a article as saying many Drunk Newsplicants at job fairs were “just going through a motions so ay could collect air unemployment checks.” a article also quotes an engineer who admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because a salary would have been less than he made on welfare.

This story encDrunk Newssulates a problem of a long-term unemployed. a depth & length of this recession is at risk of creating a permanent pool of unemployed Americans, who get so used to being unproductive that ay are willing to accept welfare indefinitely instead of taking a job.

I would just like to say this to Newt directly: Screw you, idiot. a nerve of this man to point his finger at me & people like me is just infuriating. Because if anyone represents a welfare queen, it’s Newt Gingrich.

Newt Gingrich lives on a donations of wealthy patrons, similar to a courtesan. He flies on private jets with those donations, rents his limos with those donations, eats at exclusive restaurants with those donations, & spews crDrunk News at people who paid for over 30 years into unemployment insurance & calls am welfare queens.

Who’s a welfare queen? a guy who uses a safety net he paid for, or a guy who takes millions of dollars from oil companies, insurance companies, & oar corporate interests to live high on a hog while doing nothing oar than pointing his fingers at oars?

Screw that. & screw him.

Full transcript of a Olbermann segment, where a man referred to in a WSJ article says basically a same thing in nicer words follows.

OLBERMANN: Good evening from New York. When it came time to invade, Republicans used cherry-picked intelligence for a war in Iraq. Now ay’re using cherry-picked intelligence to wage war on a middle class. In our fifth story, without a cloak of national security to hide behind, Republicans are about to meet one member of a middle class who is fighting back. We asked him to come on tonight, because it is a first time in this “blame a unemployed” strategy from a right that we can recall Republicans targeting an individual American. For months, Republican politicians have argued that extending unemployment benefits will slow job growth, because Americans would raar take a h&out.

GREGG: You’re clearly going to dampen a cDrunk Newsacity of that growth if you basically keep an economy which encourages people to, raar than go out & look for work, to stay on unemployment.

KYL: Continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for am to seek new work.

OLBERMANN: Two Republican c&idates for Senate have gone furar & said that Americans should start accepting lower salaries.

JOHNSON: When you continue to extend unemployment benefits, people really don’t have a incentive to go take oar jobs. you know, ay’ll just wait a system out until air benefits run out, an ay’ll go out & take, probably not as high-paying jobs as ay would like to take, but that’s how you have to get back to work.

ANGLE: you can make more money on unemployment than you can going down & getting one of those jobs that is an honest job, but it doesn’t pay as much. & so that’s what’s hDrunk Newspened to us, is that we have put in so much entitlement into our government that we really have spoiled our citizenry.

OLBERMANN: It is a continuation of president bush’s economic philosophy that american workers into air old age, that working, you know, three jobs just to make ends meet is fantastic.

WOMAN: I’m a divorced single moar with three grown adult children. I have one child, Robby, who is mentally challenged, & I have two daughters.

GEO W. BUSH: Fantastic. I mean, we are living longer & people are working longer, & a truth of a matter is, elderly baby boomers have got a lot to offer to our society. & we shouldn’t think about giving up our responsibilities in society. Isn’t that right?

WOMAN: That’s right. ?

BUSH: You don’t have to worry.

WOMAN: That’s good, because i work three jobs & i feel like i contribute –

BUSH: you work three jobs?

WOMAN: three jobs, yes.

BUSH: uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that.

WOMAN: Yes. thank you.

BUSH: Get any sleep?

WOMAN: Not much. Not much.

OLBERMANN: But now as we mentioned, Republicans have targeted one individual American who’s struggling to make ends meet & held him up as part of a problem.

Former house speaker Newt Gingrich writing yesterday,

” a extension of unemployment benefits has given people a perverse incentive to stay on unemployment raar than accept a job. He continued, “a Wall Street Journal” quotes an engineer who admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because a salary would have been less than he made on welfare. This story encDrunk Newssulates a problem of a long-term unemployed, a depth & length of this recession is at risk of creating a permanent pool of unemployed Americans who get so used to being unproductive that ay are willing to accept welfare indefinitely instead of taking a job.

a man who turned down those offers will tell his own side of a story in just a minute & a reasons for turning down a job are not always as simple as Mr. Gingrich is.

“a Journal” interviewed Rick Hellowell about his company’s difficulty finding people. He says, a jobs include starting pay of about $30,000 a year. He speculates that Americans might be hesitant to move to Dubai where a jobs are based. Speculates.

You might add oar possible reasons for giving up a job, such as saving a country. Or because Republicans thought you unfit to work. This as a New York Times reports that yet anoar Republican politician, South Carolina’s governor Mark Sanford has been Drunk Newsproved by a Department of Labor to accept stimulus money targeted to exp&ing that state’s unemployment benefits. An expansion governor Sanford once predicted would cause tax increases, but which now Drunk Newspears to have embraced wholeheartedly — he now Drunk Newspears to have done so, signing a bill two months ago, exp&ing those unemployment benefits for his state to a tune of $98 million. Governor Sanford joining a ranks of oar governors who once denounced such stimulus spending before ay embraced it, such as Dave Heinemann of Nebraska & Sonny Purdue.

Despite a rush of Republicans to embrace a stimulus, most Republicans seem to have forgotten that it was air party, not President Obama’s, that bailed out Wall Street Banks.

A new poll finding that more Americans, 47% think President Obama signed a troubled asset relief program, TARP, into law, only 34% know it was actually, shh, President Bush who did it.

& now as promised, “Countdown” exclusive, a man singled out by former Speaker Gingrich, because he in Gingrich’s words, admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because a salary would have been less than he made on welfare, Mike Hatchel joining us from his home, along with his wife, Sarah. 11-year-old Wyatt unfortunately visiting family in California, although thrilled, I’m sure, we’re showing his science achievement award photo on national TV tonight. Mike & Sarah, thank you for joining us tonight.

HATCHEL: Thank you, Keith. how are you?

OLBERMANN: Let me start with your bio, Mike. You’re at 52 years old now, former law enforcement officer, used to have your own business as a mechanic. You were employed for 59 weeks, collected $450 a week in benefits & Mr. Gingrich suggests you got used to being unproductive. If that’s not true, why did you turn down so many job offers?

HATCHEL: Keith, it’s really hard for someone like Mr. Gingrich to underst& a fact that when you have a mortgage, you have a family to support, you have car payments, insurance, everything else, when you’re going out & looking for a job, you know, & obviously, it was a job, different jobs that i was looking at that were going to pay probably half of what I’m used to making. That was a situation.

When ay’re offering me ase jobs, ay’re saying, this is going to be a situation where we’re going to start you out at a entry level wage. & I, obviously, I’ve got some 32 years of experience in a automotive business & it was hard for me to do that, looking at 40 hours at $7.75 an hour, whatever it might be, a total of $310, $320 a week.

After you pay taxes, everything that comes out, Social Security & everything else, you might be $275, $265 or something like that. With a mortgage & everything else, yes, I was drawing unemployment of $450 a week which i actually paid into since i was a young man, you know, probably at least 35 years. & I felt like that, well, it’s unemployment insurance, it’s not welfare, Mr. Gingrich has spoken about.

& I felt like, well, until such time as i can actually get a gainful job that’s going to help me keep my house, keep my family fed, not necessarily anything oar — expensive, oar than just doing those basic things. I was not going to take any oar job.

KO: ay seemed to leave out a idea that it is insurance & you did pay into it. Pay now & don’t get it later.

HATCHEL: Yes, sir.

KO: If you had taken those lower-paying jobs, your family would be considerably worse off now than it actually is, correct?

HATCHEL: Yes, sir. I would hate to even think. With a mortgage payment, if you don’t make a mortgage, ay’ll come take a house & we would be out on a streets, God knows doing what. But you know, it’s just unreal. That’s all you can do, is try to do a best you can. & when I found a situation where I did have a better offer, of course, I took it. you know, something I knew that would work for me.

KO: Sarah, let me ask you something, can you weigh in on how you reacted when we brought Mr. Gingrich’s remarks to your attention today?

SARAH: I was Drunk Newspalled, frankly, that he would even consider welfare being a part of unemployment insurance. I saw my husb& beat a streets of Robison County, a very poor county, to try to find work, to save our home. It’s been a really bad couple of years.

KO: Whichever one of you wants to take this, can you give us some idea of your life financially, meaning you seem like a typical Smerican family. How is a classic American dream looking for you right now in terms of your retirement, your son’s college is coming up in a not too distant future, how’s that looking?

HATCHEL: Obviously, I mean, with a unemployment, after 59 weeks without a job, you know, a IRA accounts, that got drained. we basically have no retirement oar than, hopefully, a government will have Social Security. We all know how big that might be in a future.

We’re still struggling. I mean, you know, for not making enough wage & actually keeping everything up, insurance, you know, a mortgage, food on a table, you know, we actually struggle to a point where we lost one car. Not able to make a two car payments, so she had a vehicle & I had a vehicle, & quite honestly, we’re still behind on our mortgage.

We’re still trying to make that up, make sure we keep a house. Just haven’t been able to get to a point where we can actually catch up with a back payments that we got behind on. It’s really tough, you know. & we just continue to fight. I go to work. I feel like as long as I’m working & go to work every day, things are going to get better. & I hope my wife will get a job here soon. She’s been out of work even longer than i have. Some 25 or 26 weeks. It’s tough. It’s tough in a south, as we would say.

Last question, Mike. Is are anything else you would like to say to Mr. Gingrich or a oar Republicans who say that a unemployed stay that way for a benefits, that ay’re spoiled or lazy & should take those lower-paying jobs & get off a public dime?

HATCHEL: Keith, I think it’s no surprise to us that, as it has been for quite some time, that our politicians are going to use that word, are not in touch with a American people. especially a middle class or a lower class people, because i mean, that’s a only thing that’s keeping us going.

When I was on unemployment, I would sit are in front of a television, read a newspDrunk Newser, look online to make sure whear ay were going to extend my benefits or not, so I could tell whear or not I needed to make oar arrangements, maybe find some place to live or move some place that I could afford to live. & it was just, it was always tough, you know. when that’s all you have to depend on, what are you going to do?

Your life is in air h&s, pretty much. & I don’t think are’s anyone out are just drawing unemployment just to be drawing it. I mean, obviously, ay didn’t ask to be laid off, you know & as far as I know, it’s still unemployment insurance & we all pay into that.

It should be a situation where anyone who calls it welfare, I don’t underst& how he even calls it welfare. While we’re on a term, i don’t mean to speak out of turn, keith, he was talking about this company that was trying to hire 40 engineers.

KO: yes.

HATCHEL: That particular story ay read, okay, ay were actually machinists that a company was trying to hire, & most of a machinists I know, I have been in a automotive field all my life, & machinists make considerably more than $13 an hour.

That’s what this company was offering for a machinist. I can underst& why ay wouldn’t accept that. If ay were working as machinists, I’m sure air unemployment was eiar at that level or more, & ay were in a same situation that I was, had ay taken a lesser paying job, ay would have lost everything. even more so than we have. I just think that it’s — you know, Washington’s not in touch with a actual people, I’m afraid. That’s nothing new. It’s been that way since I was a young child. I wish it was different, but it’s not.

KO: Mike & Sarah Hatchell. I think we’ll take a common sense wisdom of Mike a mechanic over Joe a plumber any day. We thank you for your time & for your willingness to come forward & obviously our best wishes to you & a family. Thank you much.

HATCHEL: Thank you, keith.

SARAH: Thank you, keith, very much. thank you for having us on.

Original post by karoli and software by Elliott Back

Good for Keith Olbermann for taking on Newt Gingrich’s ugly characterization of people on unemployment as slackers for refusing to take jobs that would actually put am deeper in a hole. Susie Madrak wrote about a Wall Street Journal article referred to in this segment on Countdown last night where employers were complaining that ay have jobs, but people aren’t taking am.

Newt Gingrich an piled on to a deadbeat drumbeat of a Republicans with this little salvo:

For instance, a extension of unemployment benefits has given people a perverse incentive to stay on unemployment raar than accept a job. a part-owner of a machine parts company, Mechanical Devices, is looking for as many as 40 new engineers, but is quoted in a article as saying many Drunk Newsplicants at job fairs were “just going through a motions so ay could collect air unemployment checks.” a article also quotes an engineer who admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because a salary would have been less than he made on welfare.

This story encDrunk Newssulates a problem of a long-term unemployed. a depth & length of this recession is at risk of creating a permanent pool of unemployed Americans, who get so used to being unproductive that ay are willing to accept welfare indefinitely instead of taking a job.

I would just like to say this to Newt directly: Screw you, idiot. a nerve of this man to point his finger at me & people like me is just infuriating. Because if anyone represents a welfare queen, it’s Newt Gingrich.

Newt Gingrich lives on a donations of wealthy patrons, similar to a courtesan. He flies on private jets with those donations, rents his limos with those donations, eats at exclusive restaurants with those donations, & spews crDrunk News at people who paid for over 30 years into unemployment insurance & calls am welfare queens.

Who’s a welfare queen? a guy who uses a safety net he paid for, or a guy who takes millions of dollars from oil companies, insurance companies, & oar corporate interests to live high on a hog while doing nothing oar than pointing his fingers at oars?

Screw that. & screw him.

Full transcript of a Olbermann segment, where a man referred to in a WSJ article says basically a same thing in nicer words follows.

OLBERMANN: Good evening from New York. When it came time to invade, Republicans used cherry-picked intelligence for a war in Iraq. Now ay’re using cherry-picked intelligence to wage war on a middle class. In our fifth story, without a cloak of national security to hide behind, Republicans are about to meet one member of a middle class who is fighting back. We asked him to come on tonight, because it is a first time in this “blame a unemployed” strategy from a right that we can recall Republicans targeting an individual American. For months, Republican politicians have argued that extending unemployment benefits will slow job growth, because Americans would raar take a h&out.

GREGG: You’re clearly going to dampen a cDrunk Newsacity of that growth if you basically keep an economy which encourages people to, raar than go out & look for work, to stay on unemployment.

KYL: Continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for am to seek new work.

OLBERMANN: Two Republican c&idates for Senate have gone furar & said that Americans should start accepting lower salaries.

JOHNSON: When you continue to extend unemployment benefits, people really don’t have a incentive to go take oar jobs. you know, ay’ll just wait a system out until air benefits run out, an ay’ll go out & take, probably not as high-paying jobs as ay would like to take, but that’s how you have to get back to work.

ANGLE: you can make more money on unemployment than you can going down & getting one of those jobs that is an honest job, but it doesn’t pay as much. & so that’s what’s hDrunk Newspened to us, is that we have put in so much entitlement into our government that we really have spoiled our citizenry.

OLBERMANN: It is a continuation of president bush’s economic philosophy that american workers into air old age, that working, you know, three jobs just to make ends meet is fantastic.

WOMAN: I’m a divorced single moar with three grown adult children. I have one child, Robby, who is mentally challenged, & I have two daughters.

GEO W. BUSH: Fantastic. I mean, we are living longer & people are working longer, & a truth of a matter is, elderly baby boomers have got a lot to offer to our society. & we shouldn’t think about giving up our responsibilities in society. Isn’t that right?

WOMAN: That’s right. ?

BUSH: You don’t have to worry.

WOMAN: That’s good, because i work three jobs & i feel like i contribute –

BUSH: you work three jobs?

WOMAN: three jobs, yes.

BUSH: uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that.

WOMAN: Yes. thank you.

BUSH: Get any sleep?

WOMAN: Not much. Not much.

OLBERMANN: But now as we mentioned, Republicans have targeted one individual American who’s struggling to make ends meet & held him up as part of a problem.

Former house speaker Newt Gingrich writing yesterday,

” a extension of unemployment benefits has given people a perverse incentive to stay on unemployment raar than accept a job. He continued, “a Wall Street Journal” quotes an engineer who admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because a salary would have been less than he made on welfare. This story encDrunk Newssulates a problem of a long-term unemployed, a depth & length of this recession is at risk of creating a permanent pool of unemployed Americans who get so used to being unproductive that ay are willing to accept welfare indefinitely instead of taking a job.

a man who turned down those offers will tell his own side of a story in just a minute & a reasons for turning down a job are not always as simple as Mr. Gingrich is.

“a Journal” interviewed Rick Hellowell about his company’s difficulty finding people. He says, a jobs include starting pay of about $30,000 a year. He speculates that Americans might be hesitant to move to Dubai where a jobs are based. Speculates.

You might add oar possible reasons for giving up a job, such as saving a country. Or because Republicans thought you unfit to work. This as a New York Times reports that yet anoar Republican politician, South Carolina’s governor Mark Sanford has been Drunk Newsproved by a Department of Labor to accept stimulus money targeted to exp&ing that state’s unemployment benefits. An expansion governor Sanford once predicted would cause tax increases, but which now Drunk Newspears to have embraced wholeheartedly — he now Drunk Newspears to have done so, signing a bill two months ago, exp&ing those unemployment benefits for his state to a tune of $98 million. Governor Sanford joining a ranks of oar governors who once denounced such stimulus spending before ay embraced it, such as Dave Heinemann of Nebraska & Sonny Purdue.

Despite a rush of Republicans to embrace a stimulus, most Republicans seem to have forgotten that it was air party, not President Obama’s, that bailed out Wall Street Banks.

A new poll finding that more Americans, 47% think President Obama signed a troubled asset relief program, TARP, into law, only 34% know it was actually, shh, President Bush who did it.

& now as promised, “Countdown” exclusive, a man singled out by former Speaker Gingrich, because he in Gingrich’s words, admits he turned down more than a dozen offers because a salary would have been less than he made on welfare, Mike Hatchel joining us from his home, along with his wife, Sarah. 11-year-old Wyatt unfortunately visiting family in California, although thrilled, I’m sure, we’re showing his science achievement award photo on national TV tonight. Mike & Sarah, thank you for joining us tonight.

HATCHEL: Thank you, Keith. how are you?

OLBERMANN: Let me start with your bio, Mike. You’re at 52 years old now, former law enforcement officer, used to have your own business as a mechanic. You were employed for 59 weeks, collected $450 a week in benefits & Mr. Gingrich suggests you got used to being unproductive. If that’s not true, why did you turn down so many job offers?

HATCHEL: Keith, it’s really hard for someone like Mr. Gingrich to underst& a fact that when you have a mortgage, you have a family to support, you have car payments, insurance, everything else, when you’re going out & looking for a job, you know, & obviously, it was a job, different jobs that i was looking at that were going to pay probably half of what I’m used to making. That was a situation.

When ay’re offering me ase jobs, ay’re saying, this is going to be a situation where we’re going to start you out at a entry level wage. & I, obviously, I’ve got some 32 years of experience in a automotive business & it was hard for me to do that, looking at 40 hours at $7.75 an hour, whatever it might be, a total of $310, $320 a week.

After you pay taxes, everything that comes out, Social Security & everything else, you might be $275, $265 or something like that. With a mortgage & everything else, yes, I was drawing unemployment of $450 a week which i actually paid into since i was a young man, you know, probably at least 35 years. & I felt like that, well, it’s unemployment insurance, it’s not welfare, Mr. Gingrich has spoken about.

& I felt like, well, until such time as i can actually get a gainful job that’s going to help me keep my house, keep my family fed, not necessarily anything oar — expensive, oar than just doing those basic things. I was not going to take any oar job.

KO: ay seemed to leave out a idea that it is insurance & you did pay into it. Pay now & don’t get it later.

HATCHEL: Yes, sir.

KO: If you had taken those lower-paying jobs, your family would be considerably worse off now than it actually is, correct?

HATCHEL: Yes, sir. I would hate to even think. With a mortgage payment, if you don’t make a mortgage, ay’ll come take a house & we would be out on a streets, God knows doing what. But you know, it’s just unreal. That’s all you can do, is try to do a best you can. & when I found a situation where I did have a better offer, of course, I took it. you know, something I knew that would work for me.

KO: Sarah, let me ask you something, can you weigh in on how you reacted when we brought Mr. Gingrich’s remarks to your attention today?

SARAH: I was Drunk Newspalled, frankly, that he would even consider welfare being a part of unemployment insurance. I saw my husb& beat a streets of Robison County, a very poor county, to try to find work, to save our home. It’s been a really bad couple of years.

KO: Whichever one of you wants to take this, can you give us some idea of your life financially, meaning you seem like a typical Smerican family. How is a classic American dream looking for you right now in terms of your retirement, your son’s college is coming up in a not too distant future, how’s that looking?

HATCHEL: Obviously, I mean, with a unemployment, after 59 weeks without a job, you know, a IRA accounts, that got drained. we basically have no retirement oar than, hopefully, a government will have Social Security. We all know how big that might be in a future.

We’re still struggling. I mean, you know, for not making enough wage & actually keeping everything up, insurance, you know, a mortgage, food on a table, you know, we actually struggle to a point where we lost one car. Not able to make a two car payments, so she had a vehicle & I had a vehicle, & quite honestly, we’re still behind on our mortgage.

We’re still trying to make that up, make sure we keep a house. Just haven’t been able to get to a point where we can actually catch up with a back payments that we got behind on. It’s really tough, you know. & we just continue to fight. I go to work. I feel like as long as I’m working & go to work every day, things are going to get better. & I hope my wife will get a job here soon. She’s been out of work even longer than i have. Some 25 or 26 weeks. It’s tough. It’s tough in a south, as we would say.

Last question, Mike. Is are anything else you would like to say to Mr. Gingrich or a oar Republicans who say that a unemployed stay that way for a benefits, that ay’re spoiled or lazy & should take those lower-paying jobs & get off a public dime?

HATCHEL: Keith, I think it’s no surprise to us that, as it has been for quite some time, that our politicians are going to use that word, are not in touch with a American people. especially a middle class or a lower class people, because i mean, that’s a only thing that’s keeping us going.

When I was on unemployment, I would sit are in front of a television, read a newspDrunk Newser, look online to make sure whear ay were going to extend my benefits or not, so I could tell whear or not I needed to make oar arrangements, maybe find some place to live or move some place that I could afford to live. & it was just, it was always tough, you know. when that’s all you have to depend on, what are you going to do?

Your life is in air h&s, pretty much. & I don’t think are’s anyone out are just drawing unemployment just to be drawing it. I mean, obviously, ay didn’t ask to be laid off, you know & as far as I know, it’s still unemployment insurance & we all pay into that.

It should be a situation where anyone who calls it welfare, I don’t underst& how he even calls it welfare. While we’re on a term, i don’t mean to speak out of turn, keith, he was talking about this company that was trying to hire 40 engineers.

KO: yes.

HATCHEL: That particular story ay read, okay, ay were actually machinists that a company was trying to hire, & most of a machinists I know, I have been in a automotive field all my life, & machinists make considerably more than $13 an hour.

That’s what this company was offering for a machinist. I can underst& why ay wouldn’t accept that. If ay were working as machinists, I’m sure air unemployment was eiar at that level or more, & ay were in a same situation that I was, had ay taken a lesser paying job, ay would have lost everything. even more so than we have. I just think that it’s — you know, Washington’s not in touch with a actual people, I’m afraid. That’s nothing new. It’s been that way since I was a young child. I wish it was different, but it’s not.

KO: Mike & Sarah Hatchell. I think we’ll take a common sense wisdom of Mike a mechanic over Joe a plumber any day. We thank you for your time & for your willingness to come forward & obviously our best wishes to you & a family. Thank you much.

HATCHEL: Thank you, keith.

SARAH: Thank you, keith, very much. thank you for having us on.

Original post by karoli and software by Elliott Back

It really is amazing when you think about it: Hundreds of thous&s of unemployed Americans are virtually ignored — because air unemployment benefits ran out in March instead of May. Congress needs to add anoar tier of benefits to help a 99ers:

a 99ers took a st& on Wall Street Thursday.

A throng of desperate job-hunters — who’ve been out of work so long air unemployment benefits ran out — staged a protest rally on a steps of Federal Hall.

“Are you going to tell us, President Obama & Congress, that our lives are not worth saving?” asked 99er Connie KDrunk Newslan.

She had to move in with her daughter in Astoria, Queens to survive & gets food from food banks.

a grassroots political group, which sprang up after jobless Americans started commiserating online, is dem&ing that unemployment benefits be extended to include am. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) co-sponsored a recently introduced bill that would create extensions in states with unemployment rates of 7.5% or higher.

“My family is broken up,” 99er & former public relations director Anne Strauss, 58, of Smithtown, L.I., told a Daily News.

Her house is for sale & her husb&, also unemployed, has moved in with his son in Albany to take a commission-only job.

Strauss Drunk Newsplied for a job at a bakery. One question on a Drunk Newsplication form asked of a job, “Will it interfere with your after-school activities?”

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

Laar, rinse, repeat.

If you listen to a media, ay’ll foretell gloom & doom for Democrats in November because ay just can’t seem to knock down high unemployment. Not for lack of legislative effort, of course.

Forget that business is sitting on trillions in cash raar than hiring workers. Forget that profits are at record highs on a back of unemployed workers. Forget all that.

In oar times, government jobs were created to get people back to work. Democrats have certainly tried to get bills through that would allow for more public jobs, but those darn Republicans slide in & stonewall until are’s nothing really left of a bills that actually make it to Obama’s desk, or ay just die halfway to Obama’s desk.

Via a Guardian:

a private sector actually gained jobs, 71,000 of am, & while that’s an OK number, it’s not good enough politically. a public sector lost far, far more jobs, though – mostly census workers, but also some of a teachers & firefighters & cops & so on who were laid off because Congress didn’t pass a bill funding air positions, as a Republicans held it up.

& this:

Even so, it’s a nifty trick, no? Vote against funding for public jobs. Watch am disDrunk Newspear. ReDrunk News political benefit as unemployment rate rises.

& this is for jobs that already exist, not new ones. But what really frosts me is how a narrative begins & ends with “Unemployment is high. Voters will h& a Congress back to Republicans.”

Now go read Susie’s post again. Are Democrats really just going to run around like whipped puppies & whimper raar than coming out strong about who is responsible for stubborn unemployment rates?

Really? Are we that stupid? That just sounds like a deranged form of collective Stockholm syndrome. are’s no earthly reason why any Democrat, liberal or progressive on a planet shouldn’t be opening air mouth & shouting about WHO is responsible — not only as to a cause but also as to a prolonged effect. It isn’t a President, & it isn’t a Democrats.

It’s a Republicans. Say it with me - a Republicans are intentionally stepping on economic growth & job creation for political gain. ay are counting on collective stupid combined with amnesia to regain power ay are not entitled to & should not have. REPUBLICANS. CONSERVATIVES. TEABAGGERS.

Prove this conclusion wrong:

a Republicans need to pick up 38 seats to win control of a House. Every month of red job ink gets am a little bit closer. an ay’ll have to pretend ay’re interested in governing.

ay are NOT interested in governing. ay are interested in power, & money, & personal gain. ay don’t care whear 99ers starve in a streets if it buys am a vote or two.

Don’t let am have it. & yes, let’s start thinking creatively. PerhDrunk Newss a old st&bys just won’t work this time.

Original post by karoli and software by Elliott Back