By Robert Laurie ——Bio and Archives--January 5, 2014
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Just a few days after Christmas, more than one million of our fellow Americans lost a vital economic lifeline – the temporary insurance that helps folks make ends meet while they look for a job. Republicans in Congress went home for the holidays and let that lifeline expire. And, for many of their constituents who are unemployed through no fault of their own, that decision will leave them with no income at all.Keep in mind that this statement comes from a well-heeled millionaire who's enjoying a partially taxpayer-funded 15-day vacation. Where did he go? Oh, that's right: home. To Hawaii. For Christmas.
He played golf eight out of 14 days. And he and the first lady, Michelle Obama, stepped out for dinner at a few of their favorite restaurants: Alan Wong’s, Morimoto Waikiki (twice!) and Nobu Waikiki. Island Snow, the president’s favorite spot for shave ice — the island’s syrupy, brightly colored and refreshingly sweet version of the snow cone — even had a message board in its back room reminding its employees to “wear Island Snow T-shirts all week long while the president is here!!” Last week, Mr. Obama finally joined his daughters, who had been making solo shave ice runs for most of the trip, at the shop, emerging with a cherry and lemon-lime confection in a paper cone. The president wished the crowd a “great 2014” and flashed the Hawaiian “shaka” greeting — an extended thumb and little finger often associated with surf culture — before wandering outside to enjoy his treat.He's also been snorkeling, hiking, and attending basketball games. However, it seems he's decided that - just because he's busy "hanging loose" in Waikiki - there's no reason he can't spare a few minutes to release a message attacking Republicans for their callous, monstrous, hubris. He's simply outraged that the GOP would head home without extending unemployment benefits to the people who've been injured by his policies.
We make this promise to one another because it makes a difference to a mother who needs help feeding her kids while she’s looking for work; to a father who needs help paying the rent while learning the skills to get a new and better job. And denying families that security is just plain cruel. We’re a better country than that. We don’t abandon our fellow Americans when times get tough – we keep the faith with them until they start that new job.Denying families long-term unemployment is cruel, but fighting tooth-and-nail for policies which deny them jobs is, apparently, no big deal. Considering the fact that Barack Obama's tenure has resulted in a non-existent "recovery" that boasts the smallest workforce since 1978, he may not want to spend too much time focusing on the people who've been forced to end their labor participation. Surely, the irony of a vacationing President lecturing conservative lawmakers about their vacations hasn't penetrated Obama's holiday bubble. Honestly, we're not even sure he's paying attention to anything he says anymore. He just talks, walks away, and does... whatever it is he does. For that, Hawaii is as good a place as any. “One of the reasons that the president, I think, likes it here is that he can have a sense of normalcy, even within his security bubble,” Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, told the New York Times. “He can still feel, perhaps, like he did when he was a teenager, just for a few moments at a time.” Let's hope that doesn't mean a visit from the Choom Gang.
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