Thank you Jessica for another great article about us and for us!

Yes thanks for writing for us. We have a place to come to and think, talk, just vent.

Yeah thanks Jessica you hot little babe.

Thank you for continuing to bring this situation to light. I lost my job in July 2013 due to corporate downsizing. I have applied for hundreds and hundreds of jobs, those that I am qualified for, not even remotely qualified for, and mostly is seems, those that I am OVER qualified for. Had a number of interviews that ended the same way, "I'm sorry, but you are over qualified and we can't spend the money to train you knowing that you will leave when you find a better opportunity." I have worked since I was 15 years old, never needed unemployment insurance until now. And now that I need it in this pathetic job market, I'm left out to dry. The little bit of savings I managed to put away as a single mother is long gone, everything of any value that I owned has been sold. My bills are so overdue I honestly cant figure out why I still have lights and hot water. I've been forced to apply for food stamps to feed my 10 year old son, who once upon a time had 2 parents with good jobs, a beautiful house in the suburbs, and food in the pantry. I have tapped my resources, and I'm out of options. The 1st of June will be the 2nd month in a row I haven't paid rent and we will be evicted from the apartment we moved into 6 months ago. It's been a very tough year, and Boehner's refusal to put this to vote is going to put my son and I on the streets. Literally. Despair is setting in, someone please do something to get this passed.

From the HuffPo: WHY THE LONG-TERM JOBLESS PROBABLY WON'T BE GETTING THEIR BENEFITS BACK WASHINGTON -- The 2 million Americans who've missed out on long-term unemployment insurance since December probably won't be getting their benefits back. Last month, the Senate passed legislation that would give lump-sum payments to people cut off since December by reauthorizing federal programs retroactively from December through May. But even if the House moved on the Senate bill this week and allowed people to collect back-payments, the long-term jobless would only receive support for one more week before the benefits expired again. Now, the retrospective push is losing steam. Though they still say House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) should allow a vote on the Senate bill, the senators advocating for the legislation are wondering if it remains practical after all this time. "Or have we reached a point because of the delay that the prospective option is the only one that's viable," Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) told HuffPost on Tuesday. In other words, Reed and Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), the two senators from the states with the highest rates of unemployment, might abandon back payments in favor of restoring the safety net for people who become unemployed for long periods of time in the future. "We haven't come to any conclusions," Reed said. Reed and Heller may try to attach the federal benefits to unrelated transportation or tax legislation, but those are long shots. Since 2008, Democrats have successfully won reauthorizations of unemployment a dozen different times. Usually, the benefits have been combined with some other urgent, Republican-friendly piece of legislation -- a key ingredient that has been missing this time. In 2010, lawmakers attached the unemployment benefits to a two-year reauthorization of the expiring Bush-era tax cuts, and they added a one-year payroll tax break for workers. The payroll tax cut's looming expiration helped lawmakers cut another deal the following year, but Republicans also insisted on a slew of reforms to the unemployment system, including a reduction in the number of weeks of assistance. During recessions, Congress always gives extra weeks of benefits to people laid off through no fault of their own if they can't find work after using the standard 26 weeks of benefits offered by states. The deal cut early in 2012 pared the combination of state and federal benefits back from a maximum of 99 weeks to 73 weeks, and it set in motion more reductions that would happen automatically when state unemployment rates declined. At the end of 2012, the benefits once again hitched a ride with the Bush tax cuts in the "fiscal cliff" drama. Then, following a government shutdown last fall, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) got to work on a bipartisan budget agreement. Democrats did not insist on attaching the unemployment benefits to the budget deal, hoping they could be handled separately before the end of the year. The budget deal might have been their best chance to save the benefits from expiring at the end of December. "If they really wanted to get this done, they would've taken that week in December when the House was gone and the Senate was in and jammed us" by attaching the benefits and sending the bill back to the House, a House GOP leadership aide said, speaking anonymously in order to discuss the matter candidly. "We were certainly expecting them to do it, and that was their best chance." Instead, the Senate passed the budget deal clean, later addressing the benefits as standalone legislation. Democrats have been beating up Boehner for refusing to allow a vote on the Senate bill, hoping the pressure would change his mind. "The House could pass the legislation very quickly," Reed said Tuesday. "It is a bipartisan, fully paid-for Senate bill. It's more than ironic they were able to pass a multibillion-dollar tax bill unpaid for, but they can't deal with unemployment insurance for over 2 million Americans." The strategy hasn't worked. One reason for Boehner's impassiveness is that the national unemployment rate keeps going down. When the Labor Department announced the rate had sunk to 7 percent in November, Boehner seized on the news. “Today’s report includes positive signs that should discourage calls for more emergency government 'stimulus,'" Boehner said. Since then, the rate has declined to 6.3 percent. Yet the rate of long-term unemployment remains historically high. In April, 35.3 percent of the unemployed had been out of work six months or longer -- down from a peak of 45.3 percent in April of 2010, but still way higher than in any previous recession since World War II. The current percentage is also higher than at any other time that Congress has allowed long-term benefits to expire. After so many battles over reauthorizing unemployment benefits, it's possible some lawmakers are just getting tired of it. "Though there are many members on both sides of the aisle who would vote yes on an unemployment insurance bill that made it to the floor, the reality is that there is tremendous fatigue on this issue, especially on the right," Judy Conti, a lobbyist for the National Employment Law Project who routinely deals with lawmakers, said in an email. "Between the initial authorization of [long-term benefits] and all the expansions and reauthorizations, this is the 13th time Congress has been called on to deal with the benefits, including five different reauthorizations in 2010 alone," Conti said. "In fact, it's probably the case that members of Congress have dealt with unemployment insurance more than almost any other issue since even before the recession began."

It's very sad that the Congress would sit and let almost 3 million people suffer in the USA. A change must take place in this country now! We need to vote out everyone that will not help the citizens of the USA. I understand this country helps other nations, but we there is a need at home, it should be handled before help any other country or the wealthy of this country. Please everyone vote in November for a change and let's take back our country...

i've been out of work since last June when they sold my job to a 3rd party vendor. i apply to jobs every week, but there's simply too many people looking at the same jobs. if i ever get a pre-screen call, they now ask "what have i been doing since June", as if i'm just sitting around watching cartoons and smoking dope in my pajamas. Well i've resided and painted a neighbor's house, put up another friend's pool, done whatever i could to earn some cash or just dinner. I had $10k in savings in June, i'm down to $500 now. Next will be to cash my 401k which is a measly $30k I saved over the last 10 years. So much for saving for retirement. Honestly, I get so depressed I sometimes think about hanging myself in the tool shed. Right-wing zealots talk about the uemployed like we're lazy and deserve to be poor. Those lazy people are out there, but so many of us are not like them. I mean, we QUALIFIED for unemployment before it ran out. There's just not enough jobs because CEO's are paying themselves too much while forcing employees to work two position's worth of work. And they're so desperate, they do the additional work without complaining. please John B, just send out some hit squads and eliminate us. Why drive us mad as we slowly slip into poverty? Jeez I can only imagine if i had kids i'd be resorting to crime maybe. I can understand why people do. Desperate people can only do so much on their own. WE NEED HELP FROM THE PEOPLE HOARDING ALL THE DANG MONEY! whatever. keep it all. there's no place left for hard working Americans. they want minimum wage stooges coast to coast to do their nails and groom their dogs while they offshore their earnings and vacations, and let the poor keep fighting their wars. this country has become a disgrace of hypocrisy, greed, and ignorance.

I personally consider Boehner's actions against his now 2.8 million fellow Americans as a willful and deliberate act of treason and unnecessary hardship. If only the rest of the unemployed would take this cowards actions as a personal assault on the lives "and make no mistake it is" this EUC dilemma would get solved PDQ !!

I hate to be the blog pessimist but I think it's over! If they pass anything it will be for going forward, there will be no retro. It's not going to help those of us that are upside down. Might pay to put some food in our bellies...too bad many of us no longer have stoves to cook on!

AMERICA IS DONE AND IM THROUGH WITH THESE ASSHATS WHO CALL THEMSELVES POLITICIANS. THIS IS THE WORST ACTIONS OR NONACTIONS IN THE HISTORY OF CONGRESS. THE DEMOCRATS HAVE PLAYED THIS CARD TO MAKE THE REPUBLICANS SEEM EVIL. WELL IT GOES BOTH WAYS OBVIOUSLY WHEN THE DEMON-CRATS DENIED THE ATTACHEMENT??!!! THESE FOOLS ARE PLAYING HOUSE OF CARDS WITH REAL PEOPLES LIVES.