Holiday message: The unemployed need you!

We would have liked to print a happy message in this space, filled with good news and wishes for all of you to have a fantastic holiday season.

What better time is there than the end of the year to look back and reflect on everything that has been accomplished over the last 12 months?

What better time than the final week of December to get a good rest and recharge our batteries so we can jump into next year’s struggles, ready and rarin’ to go?

Unfortunately, these final days of 2011 are no time to rest. While House Republicans are at home merry making, eating and drinking, many of our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends and neighbors are suffering.

Millions are losing their only lifeline: unemployment insurance benefits.

On top of that, 160 million will, starting in January, get smaller paychecks.

We urge everyone to get on the phone and call Republican House Speaker Boehner’s office at 202 225 0600.

Republicans, after declaring their latest act of war against the 99 percent, flew out of the Capitol like bats out of hell. It is not certain, therefore, exactly who will answer the phone. So tell whomever it is that Speaker Boehner has become a national disgrace.

Tell whoever picks up that phone that Boehner must bring the lawmakers back and extend unemployment insurance immediately.

Tell whoever picks up that phone that the payroll tax cut for 160 million must also be extended.

Tell whoever picks up that phone that protecting millionaires from paying taxes, raising taxes on the middle class and cutting people off of their unemployment lifelines, the three things Republicans are best at, are not the things the people wanted them to do when they got to Washington.

Every one of the 229 House members who voted Tuesday to cut off unemployment benefits were Republicans. They are a disgrace to a great nation, and need to hear that from you. If millions tie up those phone lines the voice of the jobless will be amplified and heard. The voice of the middle class taxpayers will be heard. The criminal Republicans, beginning with Boehner, will be on notice that their days in office are numbered.

Tell whoever picks up that phone that Boehner must bring the lawmakers back and extend unemployment insurance and payroll tax cut immediately and stop protecting billionaires!

Tell whoever picks up that phone that the payroll tax cut for 160 million must also be extended.

Tell whoever picks up that phone that protecting millionaires from paying taxes, raising taxes on the middle class and cutting people off of their unemployment lifelines, the three things Republicans are best at, are not the things the people wanted them to do when they got to Washington.

Photo: Culminating of a week of protests and actions calling on Congress to create good jobs, stop cutting public services, make big corporations and the rich pay their fair share and extend unemployment benefits, a crowd of thousands marched to Speaker John Boehner’s Washington office and attempted to meet with the speaker to make sure that he hears from the 99%, not just the 1%. (SEIU/David Sachs)

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CONTRIBUTOR

PW Editorial Board

People’s World editorial board: Editor-in-Chief John Wojcik,  Managing Editor C.J. Atkins, Copy Editor Eric A. Gordon, Washington D.C. Bureau Chief Mark Gruenberg, Social Media Editor Chauncey K. Robinson, Senior Editor Roberta Wood, Senior Editor Joe Sims