Dear UCubed Leaders:

You are on the cutting edge of a revolution in this country. No, I am not talking about the violent overthrow of a government. I am looking at the new way Americans can make their Democracy work for them.

This week, the GOP-led Congress passed a clean debt ceiling increase. It took the issue off the table until March 2015 and long after the midterm elections occur.

Why did they do that?

They were afraid of you. They were afraid of what you might do if they engaged in brinkmanship once again. They were afraid to compromise so they kicked returning veterans and the unemployed to the curb. And they were afraid that, with Democrats needing to win only 17 seats in the House, they could be booted from power.

So, they caved.

Only 28 GOP members voted to increase the debt ceiling. The rest were so scared of you that they may have soiled themselves casting “nays”.  They know that, if the Tea Party doesn’t tar and feather them in a primary, you will go after them in the general election.

For those GOP members are the same ones who cut off extended unemployment insurance, cut deeply into food stamps and voted against every jobs bill since they voted to bail out Big Banks in 2008. They shafted the weakest among us and sucked-up to the most powerful because that made them feel invincible.

And yet, their profiles in cowardice mark them for what they really are. They are frightened little men and a few women whose self-doubts and self-loathing are masked by fancy but empty suits, makeup for high definition TV and perfectly coifed hair. And, like ventriloquists’ dummies, they are mere mouthpieces for the powerful interest that own them lock, stock and barrel.

They are running scared. And with good reason – they are afraid of you!

In unity – strength,

Rick

Rick Sloan
UCubed President

 

U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson says everyone on her street had a job when she was a little girl growing up in 1950s Miami.

“But nowadays, there’s a brand new community and there are people down the street who lost their jobs,” said Wilson.

Wilson and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) were announcing the creation of the first-ever “Full Employment Caucus.” Watch the Machinists News Network video of the announcement on Capitol Hill by clicking here.

The pair says the new caucus will give members of Congress a platform to propose legislation, like the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment and Training Act (H.R. 1000), to end the unemployment crisis.

The task won’t be easy. They say 24 million new jobs are needed to end the unacceptably high rate of unemployment and underemployment.

“One of the primary vehicles and pathways out of poverty is a job,” said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA). “That’s what people want. People don’t want to have to rely on food stamps, Section 8 or Medicaid. People want a job.”

Click here to watch “Full Employment Caucus Established in Congress.”

 

 

The official Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) unemployment rate fell to 6.7% from November’s figure of 7.0%, with the decline almost entirely the result of people leaving the workforce.  They state that as of December 31, 2013 (based on a separate monthly survey of households, there were on 10.4 million unemployed persons.

However, the BLS does not include among unemployed persons workers who are either  marginally-attached workers or are underemployed.

If included the summary of Real Unemployment for December 2013:

• The number of Real Unemployed Persons decreased by 111,000 to 20.6 million

•  The Real Unemployment Rate decreased by 0.1% to 13.1%.

 

 

Dear UCubed Leaders:

The malls are filled with glitter and gift boxes. The mail contains flashy cards and sales catalogues.  Every newspaper and television show touts the extravagances available to the wealthiest among us.

And yet, these are the longest nights and toughest days of the year for the unemployed and underemployed. They cannot escape the commercialization of the Holiday Season. Nor can they block out the anxieties and doubts they feel as they look towards the New Year.

So, reach out to them. Give them the one gift that cannot be purchased online or in any story – the gift of your friendship. Let them know that you know how hard it is to be looking for work right now. Let them know that they are not alone. Let them know their fight is your fight, too.

Each life you touch will never forget your thoughtfulness. More than you will ever know, that one act can pierce even the darkest of nights and illuminate what is truly invaluable in these tough times.

In unity – strength,

Rick

Rick Sloan
UCubed President

 

 

Dear UCubed Leader:

Next year, America’s NOT Working Class faces two tough decisions.

To vote or not to vote is the first decision. If past is prologue, 40 million fewer  Americans will vote in 2014 than in 2012. Many of those non-voters will hail from the NOT working class precincts.

By sitting on the sidelines, those non-voters accept the status quo – an unending jobs crisis and massive, structural unemployment – as the new normal.

However, if even one-tenth of those 40 million non-voters revolted and voted against this dysfunctional Congress, they could produce a political tsunami. A wave election, led by jobless households, could sweep away the obstacles to a full-blown jobs program and faster growth policies.

And that brings us to the second decision. Do we throw all the bums out? Or do we just throw some of them out?

Right now, polls indicate that voters want to throw them all out. More than four-fifths feel that way. Far fewer feel that their own representative or senators should be tossed out of office.

Tea Partying incumbents rely on that split decision. “Congress is awful,” they say, “but I’m okay” when, in fact, they ARE the problem. Their failure to problem solve in times of crisis, their unwillingness to compromise, their votes to obstruct every jobs bill and their demands for greater austerity prove they do not deserve re-election.

After seven years of recession and a molasses slow recovery, every Tea Party beholdened incumbent should be held accountable. So ask them one question:

What have you done for me recently?

If you are not satisfied with their answer, then make plans to vote twice next year, once in the primary and once in the general election. Then push and prod your friends to go vote. And let them know why you feel that your elected officials have failed you and your family.

That’s how we make democracy work for all of us.

In Unity — Strength,

Rick

Rick Sloan
UCubed President

 

 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has published their unemployment numbers for November 2013,  stating the official unemployment rate fell to 7.0% from October’s figure of 7.3%.  And, as of November 30, 2013, based on a separate monthly survey of “households,” there were 10.9 million unemployed persons.

However, as we not each month, these BLS figures do NOT reflect real unemployment, because they do not include:

• Marginally attached workers are workers who “while wanting and available for jobs, have not searched for work in the past four weeks but have searched for work in the past twelve months.”  Currently included among them are 0.9 million discouraged workers who did not look for work specifically because “they believe there are no jobs available or none for which they would qualify.”
• Underemployed workers cannot find full-time jobs or have had their hours cut back.

Making the adjustments necessary to determine the number of real unemployed persons and the real unemployment rate:

• The number of real unemployed persons decreased by 883,000 to 20.7 million.

• The real unemployment rate decreased by 0.6% to 13.2%.

 

Washington, D.C., December 5, 2013 – The Union of Unemployed (UCubed) warns the U.S. jobs crisis is a 35-year step in the wrong direction.

“Since the Great Recession started, 12.2 million Americans have left the labor force,” said Rick Sloan, UCubed President. “Some retired. Some retired prematurely. Some looked for a job for so long and with so little success that they gave up. Finding no jobs in their field, some tried grad school or a certificate program. Some became stay-at-home moms or dads. And some became unpaid caregivers to family members.

“But whatever the reason, this exodus from the labor force was unprecedented. Not since 1978 have so many Americans been out of the labor force on a percentage basis.

“We’re racing headlong back to the past.”

With over 163,000 activists who regularly connect with over 46 million Facebook friends, UCubed represents a significantly rising demographic of unemployed and underemployed Americans. UCubed was created to provide a structure for jobless individuals to take political, economic and social advantage of their growing numbers.

 

 

Dear UCubed Leader:

“We in America do not have government by the majority,” Thomas Jefferson once wrote. “We have government by the majority who participate.”

Today we are a nation of 314 million people. And the majority who participate numbered 66 million – that was President Obama’s winning vote total in 2012. Two years earlier, the majority who participate tallied 45 million votes – that was the number of votes cast for GOP congressional candidates. ¹

So, one in five Americans produced the victor in the 2012 presidential race. One in seven of us put John Boehner in control of the Congress. And we wonder why our Democracy is so dysfunctional?

We need look no further than the mirror. Some of us are addicted to voting, and carry the burden of those who opt out of our Democracy. Some do the absolute minimum by participating once every four years. And others couldn’t care less.

Jefferson, ever the sage, believed that lethargy was “the forerunner of death to the public liberty.” He understood that:

“The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive.”

And, writing in 1787 as other politicians fretted about Shays Rebellion, he concluded his letter by asking “what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance?”

In 2014 midterm elections, 40 million registered voters will see no value in voting. Even in the next presidential contest, more than 50 million voting-age Americans will refuse even to register or vote.

So, perhaps the concept of our civic duty must expand. We owe democracy more than our own votes. We owe it an effort to corral non-voters, register them and encourage them to vote. Taken one step further, our civic duty should include informing them of the facts of our political life.

Jefferson relied on private letters and friendly newspapers to convey his message. With the advent of social media, we can – with a click – help our friends stay well informed.

It is the least we can do.

In unity – Strength,

Rick

Rick Sloan
UCubed President

^1. In 2012, Democratic congressional candidates won 60 million votes to 58.5 million votes for their opponents. Due to gerrymandering, the GOP continued to control the House of Representatives.

 

 

At the height of the Great Recession in 2009, nearly three-fifths (57%) of adults who were unemployed and looking for work were uninsured.  Things have not gotten appreciably better for the jobless since then.

UCubed estimates that 12 of the 21.6 million real unemployed Americans are also uninsured. And insuring the uninsured was – and remains – the primary goal of Affordable Care Act.

In spite of the website launch failures, UCubed urges the unemployed to go to www.healthcare.gov. Give it a try. If it doesn’t work at first, try, try again. And then keep trying some more.

Living without health insurance can shorten your life. It can lead to massive medical debts if you or a family member does get sick. It can increase your taxes once the individual mandate kicks in in 2014.

The Affordable Care Act offers unemployed and underemployed Americans what they so badly need: subsidized health insurance.

According to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, the premium subsidies of the Affordable Care Act are “offered on a sliding scale basis and will limit the cost of the premium.”  The actual premium depends on the federal poverty line and family size.

The Labor Center at UC Berkley has a nifty tool to find out what your premium would be: http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/healthpolicy/calculator/

A single person with an income up to the federal poverty line ($15,282 in 2013) would be eligible for Medicaid. A single person with an income up to $17,235 would pay a premium of $690 per year. A family of three with income up to $39,000 would pay a premium of $2,461 per year.

So what are you waiting for? Go check out www.healthcare.gov.

Being patient with a clunky website is far better than being a patient without any health insurance.

 

 

Dear UCubed Leaders:

During his first inaugural address in 1801, President Thomas Jefferson listed “the essential principles of our government” as:

“Equal and exact justice to all men… peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none… the support of the State governments in all their rights… the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor… a jealous care of the right of election by the people… absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority… a well-disciplined militia… the supremacy of the civil over the military authority… economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burthened… the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith… encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid… the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason… freedom of religion… freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus… and trial by juries impartially selected.”

Jefferson reminded his listeners that those principles “should be the creed of our political faith; the text of civic instruction; the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps, and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety.”

The era of Jeffersonian Democracy had begun.

And yet, Jefferson’s sixteen principles are mere abstractions. Unless each new generation takes concrete steps towards achieving equal and exact justice… honest friendships with all nations… care of the right of election… preservation of the public faith… and the other dozen ideals, our forward progress as a nation comes to a screeching halt. Our pathway to a more perfect Union remains strewn with imperfections large and small.

However, with the active engagement of the American people, we have made considerable progress over the last two centuries.  We can continue this progress, but the cost is higher than we care to admit.

In our Democracy, we must both pay back and pay forward. We owe more than a debt of gratitude to prior generations who fought and died for those principles; we owe them our commitment to finishing their unfinished work. To our grandchildren and great grandchildren, we owe a courageous effort to preserve, protect and perfect those principles as best we can.

What Democracy owes us is an opportunity to govern ourselves. What we do with that opportunity is entirely up to us.

In Unity — Strength,

Rick

Rick Sloan
UCubed President