Republicans playing political games with unemployed

[ProSense]

Republicans playing political games with unemployed

By Adam Serwer

There two things in the near term the government can do to keep unemployment from getting worse. And Republicans are on record as opposing both of them.

Recently, Obama suggested extending unemployment insurance and the payroll tax cut. While neither is likely to spur rapid growth, both could keep the unemployment crisis from getting worse.

Republicans, who seem committed to ensuring the economy gets worse in the near term in order to hurt Obama’s reelection chances, have come up with paltry excuses for doing nothing on either front. House Majority Whip Eric Cantor said that he was opposed to extending unemployment insurance because those people on unemployment benefits “would rather have a job.”

The cumulative effect of unemployment insurance, however, is that it boosts demand because those collecting benefits are likely to spend the money immediately — which means, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, that local businesses are “less apt to lay off workers and cut back on orders from their suppliers during a downturn; and in the early stages of a recovery, they are more apt to hire additional workers and step up their orders.” It’s one of these areas where economic ignorance makes for persuasive talking points but terrible policy.

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[Davis_X_Machina]

1. Giving up the UI extension in December...

....in order to let the Bush tax cuts expire, was the official DU line back in December.

So I don't see how a failure to extend UI can be that big a problem.