Millions of hardworking Americans will be cut off from the emergency lifeline of federal unemployment insurance, unless Congress acts to fully renew the program before it expires at the end of February.

Congress has never cut back or allowed these programs to expire when unemployment was anywhere near this high for this long.

Yet, as a Congressional conference committee takes it up, House Republicans have pushed for drastic benefit cuts and harsh new requirements — slashing federal unemployment insurance by more than half in the highest unemployment states, and stigmatizing jobless workers with mandatory drug testing.

Their plan would erect harmful new barriers to benefits, making it harder for ordinary Americans to access their unemployment insurance.

Please enter your information on nelp.org, including your phone number. You will receive a call, hear a brief message and then you will be connected to your Members of Congress.

Tell your Members of Congress: Reject Cuts and Harsh Barriers to Unemployment Insurance Benefits — Fully Renew Unemployment Insurance Through 2012 Now! You can refer to the sample script on nelp.org - click here.

Or you can call 888-245-3381 to connect with those Members.

Sample talking points:

Hello, my name is ______________ and I am ________________’s constituent from ____________.

I am calling to urge _______________ to support swift action to fully renew federal unemployment insurance through 2012, and to oppose cuts and harmful barriers to benefits.

Please tell _____________ to urge Congressional conference committee members to reject reckless cuts and harsh barriers to unemployment insurance benefits — and fully renew unemployment insurance through 2012 now. Thank you.

That’s how I really felt for the past 6 months.  

I remember when I graduated from college in May of 2011, I had absolutely no job lined up.  I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do.  The job market was horrible and the economy was and still is recovering from the economic/financial crisis.  There were some of my friends who landed great jobs, some who landed jobs that they just took because it was a job, and some who had no jobs.  

Ever since I was young, I was brainwashed in believing that a college diploma will land you a job and security.  Now we all know that that is a lie.  It’s simply not true.  There’s absolutely no such thing as job security…

 Bank of America is planning lay offs for over 30,000 people.  Big banks such as Goldman, Deutsche, UBS, and many more are following the same lead.  Some of those people have been loyal workers for over 20 years.  Now they’re laid off, with families and mortgages to worry about.  I remember my uncle telling me back in 2008 that his boss got laid off and that his boss packed up all his things in a little box and cried.  One-third of the workforce where my uncle was at got laid off.  I remember going to coffee shops and seeing a huge influx of dads and moms with their laptops looking for jobs online.  It was so sad.

But now we worry about the newly college grads.  Apparently, there’s a significant amount of people from my highschool who are still living at home (including myself) because they’re unemployed.

So what’s my advice to staying sane and not feeling discouraged?  Follow these steps…

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(Source: chrisisgrowing)