The Reality of Radical Tea Party Politics Poses the Greatest Future Threat

Unemployment Running Out for Many in Michigan as National Crisis Looms

November 6, 2010
By: Dave Rogers

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The inflammatory rhetoric of the recent election campaign has caused our columnist to reflect on a half century plus career of covering politics in the light of vast economic shifts.)

The 99ers are on the brink.

And so are our new leaders. The ink is barely dry on election results as these leaders also approach the brink of a massive crisis.

The new fresh-faced governor, Rick Snyder, will soon find a frown creasing his visage as he confronts a horde of angry unemployed.

While we wish him the best we must first face the realism of the situation.

Some 142,733 Michigan workers are losing benefits between September and the end of November because they have reached the end of their 99 weeks, the maximum allowed under law.

The wave of jobless workers in Michigan without any income from unemployment benefits is putting new pressure on the public and private safety nets this winter, a new report from the Michigan League for Human Services (MLHS) concludes.

We have been observing for some time the creeping disease of structural unemployment in Michigan, and in the nation. Jennifer Granholm tried mightily to stop the sinking ship, and, contrary to some critics, did have a plan to address it that seemed to be working slowly.

But the people decided long ago to trade lower priced foreign cars for American jobs. They blissfully drove vehicles made not by their neighbors but by foreign workers at a fraction of the cost. And to buy cheap goods made by foreign slave labor.

Those chickens are coming home to roost, along with birds of many other feathers.

We don't need to draw you a picture of jobs flowing from our shores to China, of profiteers benefiting from outsourcing, of lobbyists controlling the Congress and state legislatures with what amounts to outright bribery.

It's hard not to sound like a crepe hanger but this economic tsunami has been coming on since at least 1980 and it has grown to monstrous proportions precisely because good folks feared to face it.

The economic folly of the casino economy in which the state gets only a pittance we will lay at the feet of Ms. Granholm. Along with former Gov. John Engler, she gave away the store to the Native Americans.

Settling for an 8-12 percent share of outrageous casino profits for the state is ridiculous, and grossly damaging.

And many of the the industrial retirees of mid-Michigan, pouring billions of dollars a year into two dozen casinos, may end up another huge state burden in their penniless "golden years."

It is no surprise that pawn shops and gold buyers are popping up faster than Starbucks in concentric circles around the casinos. Addicted gamblers by the hundreds are being stripped of their assets.

All this reckless money squandering was sold to us as "economic development," much as were the prisons that had to be fed by locking up ignorant, uneducated youth for minor parole violations or smoking pot.

Gov. Snyder may have to close casinos and prisons to stop the bleeding of the lifeblood of state residents. Education and massive job training and industrial stimulus initiatives are the only ways to change the course of a battleship on a crash course for disaster.

Does he have the courage, and will any legislators and business leaders help him? We can only hope and we will soon know the trajectory of our future -- up or down.

The unemployed are the immediate concern, however. By the end of April, the number of 99ers and others losing benefits as extensions expire is expected to grow to 324,264, unless Congress approves additional weeks of unemployment.

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Congress could act to add additional benefits beyond 99 weeks under legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and could add weeks for other workers by extending current Unemployment Insurance provisions.

But our bet is that Congress will be paralyzed by the new Tea Party minions who won't dare vote for any spending bill, especially one that gives unemployment benefits to hapless workers.

When Rand Paul or some other ideological autocrat filibusters a deficit increase or some other vital finance bill and your monthly Social Security check does not arrive, what will you do?

Some, we know, will reach for their blunderbusses under what the Tea Party folks call their Second Amendment solutions, and will head for Washington. Then the crisis will really crest.

While our salvation depends on collaboration and cooperation in Washington, the signals from some of those newly-elected is clear: NO COMPROMISE! MAKE SURE OBAMA IS A ONE TERM PRESIDENT!

This President, one termer or not, must find common cause with the Tea Party and conservative ideologues to combat the real enemy -- China. We need a deal to get our jobs back, at least some of them. And that will take tough, unified bargaining.

We have been watching the ideological struggle, basically between capital and labor, between the pseudo aristocrats and small "d" democrats, since 1957 when the Republican Senate in Michigan shut down state government on a matter of principle.

Michigan is approaching the same kind of crisis we observed as a young reporter covering the state capitol as a college student 1957-59. In those days we of the press corps called it the "Payless Paydays."

"Unemployment has been edging down, but it still remains in the double digits. These additional workers losing support for their families at a time when jobs remain scarce is frightening," said Sharon Parks, president and CEO of the Michigan League for Human Services (MLHS).

In Wayne County, 38,000 workers are expected to lose benefits, followed by Oakland with 20,000; Macomb, 18,000; Kent, 11,000 and in Genesee, 10,000. The report lists all 83 counties.

The League's report explains the tiers of unemployment:

Basic Unemployment is 26 weeks and workers who have collected less than 26 weeks by Nov. 30 will be eligible for those weeks (but may have some Extended Benefits in December).

Those in the four tiers of Emergency Unemployment (week 27 to week 78 of Unemployment Insurance benefits) will only be able to finish the current tier (but could possibly receive Extended Benefits in December).

Those in Extended Benefits (week 79 to week 99, or beginning at week 27 if Basic UI runs out in December) will see benefits end Jan. 1. Workers with questions about benefits can call the state's Claim Inquiry Hotline at 1-866-500-0017. Additionally, the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Project (www.miui.org) offers advice and assistance for those in Southeast Michigan, Saginaw, Genesee and Jackson counties. Call 734.274.4331 to set up an appointment.

For more information on unemployment, go to www.unemployedworkers.org or http://www.michigan.gov/uia.

At some point it will become painfully obvious that the Tea Party and ultra-conservative strategy of endlessly cutting taxes and unnecessarily further enriching the already wealthy is an exercise in futility.

I know this sounds incredibly depressing and cynical as honest voters look for change in Washington, but I came to an epiphany recently while lying in a CAT scanner in the hospital.

As I stared up into the innards of the huge, expensive equipment that was about to check the results of my recent major operation, I saw three words that frightened me more than my health problems.

Inside the scanner it said: "Made in China."

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