Texas Gov. Rejects Stimulus Money for Unemployment

The question is ..........have you ever been on unemployment?
I have, in the year 2002..... right after the 9-11 of the previous year. It was no piece of cake: The amount I got was based upon a percentage of what I earned the previous year or so with a cap on which it would not go no matter how much in excess my previous earnings might have been. If I remember correctly, it came to about $500/month. On that I had to purchase COBRA, and pay all living expenses.... while continuing to qualify for unemployment by 'working it' with required so many applications for work, documenting every call, visit, application, interview, lead, turning in to the unemployment office at regular visits and any time they issued a special review...... which they did on me several times through this period of time.

I found a temporary 'sitting' job for an invalid, and took it just to feel a schedule of work habit in my life which was more comfortable than commutting from country to town at the convenience of potential employment leads, and availability of hiring personnel: Reported this pitiful income which was on a daily basis paid but not a full 40hr/wk job which I had been accustom too...... and got docked in unemployment, unemployment stopped, and a period to get it restarted with recalculations.

The picture is never as sweet or as gracious as the folks in the job services office might lead you to believe. (I hate to say this..... but frequently I got the impression..... just an impression however..... no fact to substantuate this..... that had I fit into some kind of minority grouping ......to include aged, or disability, or ethnic such as hispanic, or from a poverty background, or recognized need for 'retraining'..... I would have had some exceptional advantage of free schooling, free boarding allowances and transportation costs considered....possibly extending into welfare benefits, when the time limits for unemployment was up, under a different program with qualification for food stamps, until I was 'work ready' and that with assistance from the job's office....checking with each potential employer where I applied, to sort of 'muscle' why a job wasn't offered and encourage hiring. And as long as I was in pursuit and actively inrolled in an approved 'retraining' program, I would not have to work the employer contact list as hard.)

Like I say, I saw very little hope or advantage to the unemployment system for myself. Maybe its because I was registered as 'republican':laugh:

Fortunately, God had led me years earlier to get rid of credit cards, and I had some savings which I frugally used only as necessary.....stretching it out... barely lasting but lasting until I found a job and then paid for my own retraining and found a better paying job...... which set me ahead before getting set back by a hurracane and illness. But in all things :godisgood:

Whether or not this governor is good.... he's got the right idea in my own estimation. Why increase the obligations and mortgage the future prosperity of the people of the state against a present need when there are other programs already in place which may pick up where these leave off......if needed by those truely having need. If we borrow the sunshine from tomorrow because today shows promise of rain, how do we know if we will have enough sunshine left in 'tomorrow' to bring forth the fruit we planted today?

People on welfare have more options available, it seems, than people on unemployment..... But if eiligble for unemployment.....that would have to be used up first by the hard working unemployed folks of Texas, most probably, before they could qualify for welfare, food stamps, possibly Medicaid, and, perhaps 'retraining and placement'. I think there is no entitlement program which gives advantage to any person. Perhaps there are a few who benefit...... but I'm not entirely sure that it is because it was equitable...... but rather that someone succeded in qualifying where others failed in a system which is too frought with red tape for most of us to navigate through.

It should be of little surprise to most that the people who run these social agencies are already thouroughly indoctrinated in the system of socialism from the institutions of higher education by which they schooled and qualified for their occupations. Many truely love their jobs and want their particular agencies to succeed. Many have biases and opportunities to be subjective and are, without recognizing it in themselves when trying to help others. Many think that they have open minds and don't realize how narrow their own idea of people's dependancies vs people's abilities to adapt and cope if given half a chance are limited and biased towards dependance and control vs releasing the butterfly to properly develop in the coccoon of adversity and grow strong. What can I say? Jesus from the cross said 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do." and so it is with all of us ........ whether we feel blinded by our experiences and knowledge or broaden by them? We all are blinded by our biases: There is one truth..... God's Word..... all else.....even these words put to paper, fail.