Current Event #2: Obama and Unemployment

The unemployment rate has risen to about 8.9%, but, the actual rate of people getting laid-off has dropped from around 600,000 people to less than 550,000 people in the month of April. Even though the economy is showing some positive growth, President Obama said that the road to recovery will take a while. However, he has suggested a plan for the unemployed to be able to get back into college (to finish their degrees or for training) and still be able to keep their unemployment benefits, which they tend to have to forfeit once they go back to college. Also, financial aid packages would be increased (like those offered by the government) and offered more widely to low-income students. Increasing the benefit amounts to people shouldn’t be a problem for states because they received several billions of dollars for that purpose win the stimulus bill was passed earlier this year.

The author clearly explained the basics of Obama’s plan for the unemployed without getting into too much detail or confusion. So overall the article wasn’t too bad. It’s nice to hear that people unemployed are getting more help from the government. I was sort of skeptical at first while I was reading the article about the funding and increasing in benefits or financial aid packages, but then the article mentioned the recovery plan Obama initiated in February this year. What really bothered me was that low-income students would be getting more help, too. Honestly, that’s great with people that can prove their low income and struggle, but what about the struggling middle class that isn’t rich enough or poor enough to get anything? They’re not poor enough to receive about 4/5th of most forms of financial aid and they certainly can’t afford to pay for higher education on their own. The article did mention making it easier for the unemployed that couldn’t receive aid because of previous income amount, but I would like see what happens before I believe that everyone will be getting help, equally.

In my personal opinion though, I feel that President Obama is trying to tackle too many things at once. He went from the economy earlier this year to speaking about abortion this week at Notre Dame. Everyone really had high expectations of him, unfortunately, and because he’s not living up to what they had expected, I’ve already begun to hear how incompetent Obama is. He has just completed his first 100 days in office and people already are getting impatient. It takes time to fix things, especially the state the economy is in. He wan a landslide victory in the popular vote back in November 2008, so people should keep mum and let him do his work.