Unemployment Programs of 40 States Going Broke

I wish I could find a ray of sunshine in all this political and recessional gloom, but I can’t help reporting what is actually happening in our country. Tomorrow I am going to post something positive, however, if it kills me! It’s  Christmas, dammit!

But for today, here is the bleak news about the current unemployment compensation programs across our great land. The  jobless toll in many states is draining unemployment compensation funds. According to federal projections, 40 state programs will go broke within two years and need $90 billion in loans to keep issuing the benefit checks.

Currently, twenty five states have run out of unemployment money completely and have borrowed $24 billion from the federal government to cover payments to their unemployed. By 2011, according to Department of Labor, forty state funds will have been emptied by joblessness.

It looks as if one more program in our stymied and in-debt government is failing. This is not just bad news for the unemployed. Since state unemployment-compensation funds are separated from general budgets, when there is a shortfall there are only two solutions, either cut benefits or raise payroll taxes.

I keep hearing screaming from the Republicans about how we are becoming a Socialist nation. I can’t help but agree. As the gap between the haves and the have-nots continues to widen, it looks as if the only solution will be for those more fortunate to pick up the slack of those less fortunate, or down on their luck, or however you would like to phrase it. What other solution is there?

I would love to hear your input on this difficult and frightening trend.