As Unemployment Benefits Become Welfare: We Need More Bunnings, not Less
March 4th, 2010- Scott Miller
Just when you begin think the Republican leadership has finally come around to principed leadership on fiscal issues, they blow it… big time.
As you well know, every Republican politician has been tripping over themselves trying to prove that they were true fiscal conservatives. They would loudly decry, to any microphone or camera around, the massive spending and debt the liberals were piling on our children and grandchildren. But when it came time over this past weekend to back their collegue, Sen. Bunning, on his principled stand that any new unemployment benefits must be paid for, most in Bunning’s foxhole were beating a hasty retreat as soon as the liberal media fired their first shot.
Here’s a taste of the lib news coverage that scared those “pricipled” fiscal conservatives in the Republican party… from CNN
Over the last week, his block of an extension of unemployment benefits has angered much of America.
The Senate reached agreement Tuesday night to end Bunning’s filibuster of a measure that would extend $10 billion in benefits for unemployed workers and funding for road projects on a 78-19 vote.
The Kentucky Republican, who is retiring at the end of this term, had argued that he didn’t oppose extending the programs; he just didn’t want to add to the deficit.
Gloria Borger, CNN senior political analyst, who spoke with a Republican in the Senate on Tuesday, said members of the GOP felt Bunning had “the right idea” in questioning how the extension would be paid for but think “it is the wrong fight to wage right now.”
Bunning’s views, Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins said before the impasse was broken, did not represent the majority of the Republican caucus.
Ahhh yeah… Susan Collins… there’s a principled conservative for ya’. Not quite sure why one would look to her as having her pulse on the Republican caucus… but that’s just me.
How hard? How freakin’ hard would it have been to follow Sen. Bunning’s lead and expose the liberals as the disingenous slime they really are? The liberals had just passed, to much liberal fanfare, their so-called pay-go legislation less than ONE DAMN MONTH AGO, and then they waive their new rules on their first DAMN bill!
All Senator Bunning wanted was the liberals to pay for the $10 billion in new spending with cuts elsewhere. Are you telling me conservatives couldn’t have won that argument with the liberals?! It could have been, and should have been, a walk in the park, but no…. looks like we still have many in the Republican Senate who are afraid of their own shadows… or still really like to spend like Democrats when it really gets down to it.
The other problem, that needs to be raised, is this idea that we somehow can afford to endlessly pay unemployment benefits to people for not working. The unemployment program is quickly morphing into a new welfare program, sucking millions of Americans into a new dependant class.
This from the Washington Post:
Through a series of laws, including the $787 billion economic stimulus, people in states with high rates of unemployment are eligible to get jobless benefits for up to 99 weeks, an all-time high. But Congress did this in a piecemeal fashion, and it must pass legislation to keep benefits going for an estimated 1 million people who would otherwise become ineligible at the end of the month.
The Senate approved a measure that extended benefits from 79 to 99 weeks in a unanimous vote last year, but GOP lawmakers have not yet said whether they will continue to support the benefits, particularly if they are included in a larger jobs package. And some Democrats favor extending the benefits only temporarily, while another bloc wants an extension that would last the rest of the year.
Unemployment benefits usually last just 26 weeks and have been extended to about 70 weeks in previous economic slowdowns. But this time, Congress not only has extended them but also is spending more than $13 billion each month to fund them, because the federal government is taking on all the cost after the 26 weeks, which states pay for. About 12 million Americans are receiving benefits.
99 weeks? 2 years of paying 12 million people for not working? I don’t think it’s all that crazy to say that we simply can not afford to keep this going. We are not paying for those expenses, we are just racking up more debt. And even if we could afford it, is it really good public policy? To create that kind of dependency for such a long time I believe is counter productive. It has the potential to take away the strong sense of urgency that Americans need to have about getting right back to work after a job loss.
Don’t get me wrong, god knows it is tough out there for many without jobs, but there are jobs. It may not be exactly what someone was trained for. The job may not even be in their trade. Some may have to take 2 or 3 jobs to make things work, others may even take the opportunity to start their own business. One way or the other it will eventually be sink or swim time, and for most, the earlier their survival instincts are triggered the better. People do amazing things when they are faced with truly tough situations, so to take away that urgency I believe is counter productive.
Someone’s gotta’ say it.
From Wikipedia “Bipartisanship: In a two-party system, bipartisan refers to any bill, act, resolution, or any other action of a political body in which both of the major political parties are in agreement.”
