With more and more people facing destitution as their unemployment benefits run out, the reasons Republicans have given for not extending those benefits in a timely way suggest that another set of reasons underlies the ones loudly voiced.
Extending unemployment benefits would be a disincentive for people to find jobs, say opponents of the extension. Have any of them read that there are an average of five applicants for every job opening? That number isn’t put out by bleeding heart liberals; it’s the Department of Labor’s own figure for April. The good news is, it’s better than the number for March (6.2). But it’s a long way from being enough to give everyone a job.
Then we have Senatorial hopeful Rand Paul saying that people just have to bite the bullet and take jobs that aren’t quite as good as the ones they had before.
Good try, Rand, but do you listen to (or read) the news? They’re doing that already. Last September, CNN reported that people are taking 10 percent, 30 percent, 50 percent pay cuts, as well as demotions, just to have a job— though some experts warn that the longer a person stays in an inferior job, the less likely he or she is to regain the former level of status and pay.
And nobody has ever explained why Republicans who supported the outrageous levels of deficit the Bush administration ran up on off-budget wars and tax breaks for the rich now scream “Deficit” when people need extended benefits to keep from having to live on the street. Meanwhile, unemployment checks help the economy because they’re spent quickly and close to home, in businesses that hire workers and pay taxes.
Has anybody noticed how U.S. Rep. Mitch McConnell (R-mining industry), who called the House bill to prolong unemployment benefits the “Deficit Extenders’ Act,” is always talking about what the American people want? Here’s a new piece of information about what they want. Poll results published by June by Hart Research Associates say 74 percent of respondents believe unemployment and COBRA (health coverage) benefits shouldn’t be cut back. Only 21 percent said they should be cut back to trim the deficit.
So what’s the real Republican rationale for leaving American workers high and dry? Is it to do, as Carl Mitchell wrote on the My Humble Opinion blog, “as much collateral damage to the country as possible in the hopes of stoking anti-incumbency sentiment”?
