Bill Armistead

Alabama Democratic Party Executive Director Bradley Davidson responded Tuesday to comments posted by new state Republican Party chairman Bill Armistead blaming the local unemployment situation on President Barack Obama, rather than Republican Gov. Robert Bentley and the Republicans who now control the state Legislature and the state Supreme Court.

“This is what Republicans like Karl Rove, George Bush, and Bill Armistead do – they make stuff up,” Davidson said.

When President Bush took office and inherited one of the strongest economies in American history, we were well on our way to paying off the national debt. When Bush left office, our economy was hemorrhaging 700,000 jobs a month — and his $800 billion big-bank bailouts did nothing to help.

“Apparently Bill Armistead and Shana Kluck have nothing better to do than regurgitate whatever misguided talking points they get sent by the Republican National Committee,” Davidson said. “Unfortunately for them, their bosses in D.C. aren’t paying any attention to what’s actually going on in Alabama.”

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Unless Congress acts before the Christmas holiday recess, basic lifeline aid for nearly 2 million workers who have lost jobs will be cut off Dec. 31 as the extended unemployment insurance benefits expire. In Alabama alone, this means 24,700 will lose unemployment benefits, according to a report just out from the AFL-CIO.

Over the course of 2012, an estimated 6 million U.S. workers struggling to find jobs will lose these essential benefits if Congress continues to focus on keeping tax cuts for the 1% who crashed our economy rather than helping the 99% by extending unemployment insurance.

“If Congress fails to act, the impact on families, communities and our economy will be devastating,” says Jenn Kauffman, field communications director for the AFL-CIO.

The average weekly benefit for an unemployed worker on the federal extension is about $297, which amounts to only half of the income needed to cover the most basic necessities of food, housing and transportation, as measured by the annual Consumer expenditure survey. In Alabama, the weekly benefit averages $203.67.

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Thirty-five percent of Americans name unemployment as the most important problem facing the country, the highest percentage since the economic slowdown began and higher than at any point since October 1983, according to the latest Gallup Poll on the subject. The economy in general was named second and the lack of health care third.

From the beginning of the economic slowdown through 2009, mentions of “the economy” in general were consistently the top issue. In the past year, as the country’s unemployment rate has stayed in the 9 percent range, the economy and unemployment have been the top concern of Americans for some time now.

In addition to unemployment and the economy, three other issues are mentioned by at least 10 percent of Americans in the Feb. 2-5 poll — health care, dissatisfaction with government, and the federal budget deficit. Although it has dominated the news lately, the situation in Egypt is mentioned by only a small number of respondents and does not rank among the top 10 problems, according to Gallup’s polling.

The top five problems overall are also the top five among each party group, though with some minor differences. Democrats are more likely than independents and Republicans to mention unemployment and are about twice as likely to mention health care. Republicans are more likely than independents or Democrats to mention the federal budget deficit, which ranks as the No. 3 issue among Republicans. Republicans are about equally likely to mention the economy and unemployment.

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Survivor Corps Supports Returning Troops and Their Families

Guest Column
by Dani Sevilla
SurvivorCorps.Org

Within the United States there are over one and a half million service members that have served in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 30,000 have been physically wounded, but many more have experienced less visible, psychological wounds.

Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder have emerged as signature injuries of these conflicts, with recent reports suggesting an increase in rates of suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, homelessness, and domestic violence among returning service members and veterans.

These traumatic affects of conflict, left unaddressed, could have far-reaching negative consequences for the individuals affected, their families, and our country. Survivor Corps’ work in some of the most conflict affected countries in the world has shown community reintegration to be the key factor in those that overcome their traumatic experiences, and those that are consumed by them.

Operation Survivor

Ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are creating a generation of veterans in the United States from all branches of the armed services and all 50 states who are struggling to overcome physical and psychosocial injuries. Most combat veterans convalescing in military hospitals across the country will survive physically, but getting on with their lives after returning home to their families and communities is proving a significant challenge for hundreds of thousands.

Among the 1.6 million who have served since 2001, suicide is on the rise, as is unemployment and incidents of substance abuse and domestic violence.

The successful reintegration of returning service members is an issue that will have a long-lasting impact on American society, and may become the single defining struggle facing this new generation of veterans.

Survivor Corps and its partners are determined to avoid the mistakes made when veterans returned from Vietnam, which resulted in tens of thousands of post-war suicides and over 200,000 men and women living on the streets.

To head off this tragic outcome, Survivor Corps will build peer support programs at the community level that will bring service members and veterans together for mutual support and encourage both individual responsibility and collective action to help others in need.

Survivor Corps is offering an alternative “treatment” that can be made readily available in all communities, regardless of proximity to traditional military or government centers of support. Our approach is nimble enough to address the needs of individual survivors, while still broad enough to build a coalition of survivors and service providers working to effect long-term positive change.

This new program will help the recovery and reintegration of hundreds of thousands of returning U.S. service members at a critical time for them and their country.

Click Here to read more about Operation Survivor