Who is Nina Easton?
Posted by Ray on January 17, 2010 under Main | 
6 Comments to Read
I had personally never heard of this person before until I read an article in Time Magazine a day or so ago and let’s just say she did not start off on the right foot with me. Ms. Easton is apparently some right wing nut job from Fortune, I could be wrong, but usually when you are on Fox News all the time and rail against such things as unemployment insurance, well, you are a right wing nut job. There is nothing wrong with being nuts, some say I fit that category very well, but there is something wrong with being an idiot.
This woman actually cited a study that says people live off of unemployment insurance and they deliberately turn down good jobs for the riches of that weekly state check. Seriously? In the article she says that often people pass up lower paying jobs and “miraculously” find work right before their benefits run out, she just must be stupid, sorry, but she must be. Why take a lower paying job when you know you are simply going to leave it? That is why people turn down lower paying jobs. As far as people finding jobs right before their benefits run out, not shit Sherlock! A bad job is better than no job or benefits coming in right? My question is, did she even check to see if this was the unemployed persons dream job or not, somehow I doubt it. She advocates cutting benefits because it “disincentives” people from working, this proves she is a moron.
I do not know how unemployment insurance works, but I think it is like $400 a week in New York, so I assume it is similar in most states, certainly not too much more. Now, how or why would anyone choose to live on $400 a week unless they actually have to? I am sure some people can live on that, but most cannot since just putting food on the table for a family of 4 costs $150 a week or so, not to mention rent or mortgage payments. Essentially, these weekly checks cover the basics, that is it. Now, this keeps more houses out of foreclosure, a very good thing right now, it keeps people from going hungry, it keeps people from taking bad jobs which reduces turnover and employers expenses, all good things!
Not to mention right now there are not enough jobs to go around, 6 people for every 1 job opening, that is not very good odds for anyone. I am not saying keep these benefits going indefinitely, but right now these benefits are critical to keeping the country from falling off a cliff. In fact, I would say that unemployment benefits are way more important than bailing out anymore banks in the near-term. Not to mention that the little guy deserves something, anything, from the trillions spent as they are, at the end of the day, just going to get stuck with the tax bill. However, cutting benefits and citing idiotic studies that are slanted for your own personal views is immoral and devoid of the reality on the ground.
I would further argue that Ms. Easton deserves to find out just how rough it is out there and join the ranks of unemployed. I am sure if she lived just a week in the life of a regular person she would have a very different view of things. I am not saying all right wing people are nut jobs, I am a libertarian if anything, but even I know you have to have reasonable social support systems for the times we live in. Right now, we need more support than usual, but for the people, not for banks or corporations. Congratulations Ms. Easton, you made it to my libraries Hall of Shame, want to guess what room that is in?
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Tags: fox news, nina easton, right wing nut job, unemployment insurance
Johnnymustardseed said,
In Minnesota it is $400 a week then they take taxes out of it so it ends up at around $320 a week. It scares me that people love Fox News and all their lies.
If a country can not take care of the many who are poor, it can not save the few who are rich.
Ray said,
I do watch Fox and I know they are right leaning, but MSNBC is left leaning and I watch them as well. I do not have a problem with a news organization leaning in a certain direction as long as they are honest about it. Is Fox fair and balanced? No, but no news network is which is my issue with the media. The founders gave the media exclusive powers to be the watchdog over Washington, but they squander it on BS. The bottom line is both parties are destroying this country because they want to appeal to solely their base while ignoring the real issues at hand. I would say that we do take care of our poor pretty well, versus other nations. Our poor have cable, color TV’s, food, housing and free medical care. While there are issues I would say that we still have a great system where one can make something of themselves no matter what their background. The disparity between rich and poor though is a huge issue, but we cannot socialize wealth or there will be no incentive to work. I say, let the rich live poor for awhile, the politicians as well, then we might be able to make some headway with our educational system and tax system to make it equitable for everyone. I am not a right wing nut job, I think you know that by now, but I am also not in favor of more government in my life either. I am very liberal on many social issues and a fiscal conservative. Yeah, $400 a week, wow, I moving there so I can get rich off the system! Kidding of course, but that is barely enough to pay basic bills and proves that unemployment insurance does not make people not want to work. Given today’s hardships, we should raises unemployment insurance coverage amounts, IMHO.
Johnnymustardseed said,
Ray our country is F***ed up. Republicans have effectively killed Health Care reform at the same time saying they want everyone to have health care. They controlled both the house and senate and the White House for about 10 years and did nothing. We were informed that our companies health insurance costs will go up 18.5% this year. We will discontinue health care for our employees. This will cost hospitals and the state money because those services will be used and not paid for, that is a fact. Health Care Reform was killed not because it is a bad thing it was killed by Tea Party jerkstores who think it is OK to use the N word to describe our president. Faux news rallies those people and have done so effectively. Brown being elected proves that. Disparity will tear this country apart, social disturbance will be putting it mildly. I believe that we are headed to civil war and what amazes me is the the right does not get the fact that there will be more desperate poor people than well armed rich people.
Back to Faux News they decry spending now but applauded all the money being spent to stimulate the economy when Bush was in charge. Imagine the $2 Trillion that went to Iraq being spent on job creation here. But when Obama wants to end that stupid war and spent money here he is soft on terrorist. It will all end badly!.
Ray said,
I am not disagreeing with you, except on health care reform as I believe it was a bad bill. Simply put, we can do better and there is no need to just have ‘something’ out there rather than nothing. Under the current Senate health care bill your health care costs would continue to increase, I guarantee it. Why? Because the bill did not take away the anti-trust exemption and there was no language on cost controls at all! We can do better. I agree that R’s are not helping right now, but there is also distortion coming from the D’s as well. They are padding the filibuster stats, on purpose, to make the R’s look worse than they are, I am not siding with them either. iraq was BS and we all know it, I knew it at the time, but what is done is done, unfortunately. We all know that Fox is right leaning, but MSNBC is left leaning, so what is the difference? We cannot bash one without bashing the other. From my view they both have inaccuracies in their reporting, that is what makes great news! However, since no one watches MSNBC, literally, no one busts them on it except when they scream racism about a black person brining a gun to a rally, they claimed it was a white guy. Then we have Joe Klein calling all Americans dumb because he doesn’t understand how government transfers work. Hell, some of my good friends are liberal, I am social liberal myself, but that article from Klein really summed up how top level liberals really feel about Americans, made me sick.
I also do not think you can say all Tea Party people are racist, we cannot generalize or I will be forced to call Reid a racist as well if we go down that road. I re-read that sing and it was wrong, but his point was about the government controlling us, again I disagree with what he wrote. Whether or not we head for social chaos is not even a question, we are one way or the other. But I do not see one party being the direct cause f it, it was both parties. Hell, they are the same thing on any given day using us as pawns. In my opinion all stimulus plans should be cancelled, I hated Bush’s as well as Obama’s, I am bipartisan on my feelings about waste.
Johnnymustardseed said,
You are right about MSNBC but don’t forget that they still have Morning Joe and where did crazy Glenn Beck come from? Back to Obama, I think it is unfair to blame him for this mess. What would you have him do? 30 % of Americans are in poverty. No stimulus whould it be 50%. I listened to Geitner today being haranged by politics as usual. I really don’t think people get how close to complete meltdown we came. That said we could melt down anyday going forward. If the FED stopped buying Treasuries BOOM. If the FED stopped giving banks free money BOOM. If the stock market wasn’t being propped up BOOM The BOOM will happen and no one wants to have it happen on there watch.
32% of Americans have “socialized” medicine.. Medicare ,it worked very well for my father. Do you think that a 54 year old white male and a 51 year old white female should have to pay $21,000 a year for health insurance? No preexisting conditions, god forbid anybody that does. Don’t get me wrong I am angry at Obama, I think his has turned to milk toast, but I believe he is between a rock and a hard place. Damned if he does damned if he dosen’t. I am not patronizing you but what would you do if you were him? Be specific. I really enjoy our back and forth . I hope you are feeling well. I meant to tell you one of my employees got H1N1 and almost died. He was out of work for a month. Glad I got it and recovered after two weeks.
Ray said,
I enjoy our back and forth as well. We agree more than you might think as well. As far as Beck is concerned, yes he is pandering and everyone should have figured that out by now, but I support what he is doing. Let me clarify, I support what he is doing when he talks about money and the monetary system, not a lot of the other “stuff” he talks about. I do believe Obama is a radical, but so was Bush, in a much worse way. I am most concerned with our civil liberties as they seem to be under assault from all sides.
As far as the meltdown is concerned, you are correct we almost completely imploded. If Paulson and the FDIC did not guarantee everything that Sunday night, banks were closed on Monday, the entire banking system would have collapsed. However, that may have been what we needed, I know it is radical thinking, but I am not alone in this theory as Elizabeth Warren also believes it would have been bad, but not as bad as most people think. Fortunately or unfortunately we will never know. The stimulus did help, I admit that, but not as much as Obama and Co. claim and we did steal a ton from future demand. My issue is with the fiscal issues as we just fork out money for everything when we are essentially broke! There will be a time when we can no longer kick the can down the road, I think we are almost there, and then 50% unemployment might be the ‘good ‘ol days.’
Health care reform needs to get done, but just not the way they are doing it, we agree on this just in different ways. I agree costs are out of control, but let’s put together a real plan that will control costs. We cannot control costs without being able to shop over state lines and dropping all the goodies insurance companies get, i.e. exemption from anti-trust laws, etc. Medicare does work, but we cannot control costs and any doctor will tell you that if it was not for private insurance they would not even take Medicare, they reimburse $26-$50 an appointment versus private insurers which is much higher. Do not get me wrong I am not siding with insurers, not at all, but I am saying we need them to a degree as the government cannot afford Medicare any longer. We know what we need to do, raise FICA taxes to help fix Medicare and get rid of fraud, even though fraud is a small amount it pisses me off!
We got tough issues and we have bad leadership, across the board, which is a recipe for disaster. I think we are heading for a Greece situation, but there is no one to bail us out. Perhaps if we got a real leader, one who does not care about reelection or their political future, in Washington we might be able to fix out problems, but I fear it is too late.
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