There's a fresh breeze blowing across the country these days, and it's called President Obama.
For the first time that I can remember, campaign rhetoric about "I'm going to do this" and "I'm going to do that" was more than just words. The Obama administration actually seems to be putting the wheels in motion on many of Obama's campagin promises and fulfilling his pledges, methodically and deliberately.
Although I'm still employed, and will continue to be so (God willing), I think the help he's extending to those out of work is quite valuable. Extended benefits, we've gotten that before, but also a $100 monthly increase AND, best of all in my opinion, is the 65% subsidized COBRA healthcare premiums for nine months.
Now that's meaningful. It feels like a real safety net.
A friend of mine who's been out of work since last July shells out $750 a month to keep his COBRA. Scary, isn't it? That kind of money could put a dent in anyone's budget. This same person, a single guy who worked in the oil shipping business at a Stamford, Connecticut firm, is willing, at this point, to relocate anywhere in the world for his next job. It's become a matter of survival, he said.
Another friend spent several years after an earlier layoff from the IT field driving an airport limousine. The pay never matched what he once made professionally, but it paid the bills, or at least some of them. Then, after a point at which i might have suggested leaving IT for good, he landed a job at Macy's, only to be laid off again after less than a year. He's back to driving the limo, except that there's not much work there either, since the recession has curtailed travel for many.
I'm also in touch with two 50ish women, both writers, laid off by my own employer more recently, back in mid-December. They seem in good spirits, but neither has had any interviews.
President Obama's stimulus for working people, the payroll tax credit, doesn't seem as meaningful as the benefits for those out of work. True, a payroll credit is better than a lump-sump check, since it's been said that many people simply saved those one-time payments, but at $400 for a single person, the payroll tax credit will only mean an extra $15 in each of my paychecks. It's barely a blip on the screen. Whether it gets spent or saved is anyone's guess.
For the first time that I can remember, campaign rhetoric about "I'm going to do this" and "I'm going to do that" was more than just words. The Obama administration actually seems to be putting the wheels in motion on many of Obama's campagin promises and fulfilling his pledges, methodically and deliberately.
Although I'm still employed, and will continue to be so (God willing), I think the help he's extending to those out of work is quite valuable. Extended benefits, we've gotten that before, but also a $100 monthly increase AND, best of all in my opinion, is the 65% subsidized COBRA healthcare premiums for nine months.
Now that's meaningful. It feels like a real safety net.
A friend of mine who's been out of work since last July shells out $750 a month to keep his COBRA. Scary, isn't it? That kind of money could put a dent in anyone's budget. This same person, a single guy who worked in the oil shipping business at a Stamford, Connecticut firm, is willing, at this point, to relocate anywhere in the world for his next job. It's become a matter of survival, he said.
Another friend spent several years after an earlier layoff from the IT field driving an airport limousine. The pay never matched what he once made professionally, but it paid the bills, or at least some of them. Then, after a point at which i might have suggested leaving IT for good, he landed a job at Macy's, only to be laid off again after less than a year. He's back to driving the limo, except that there's not much work there either, since the recession has curtailed travel for many.
I'm also in touch with two 50ish women, both writers, laid off by my own employer more recently, back in mid-December. They seem in good spirits, but neither has had any interviews.
President Obama's stimulus for working people, the payroll tax credit, doesn't seem as meaningful as the benefits for those out of work. True, a payroll credit is better than a lump-sump check, since it's been said that many people simply saved those one-time payments, but at $400 for a single person, the payroll tax credit will only mean an extra $15 in each of my paychecks. It's barely a blip on the screen. Whether it gets spent or saved is anyone's guess.
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