“Shame on Republicans for blocking the resumption of long-term unemployment benefits for 1.3 million Americans,” writes Democratic Party cheerleader and Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson.
“And shame on Democrats for letting them,” he adds, meaning that talking-head Ds on your TV set aren’t currently bloviating enough about this R treachery to suit Mr. Robinson … as if more is even frighteningly possible.
Robinson calls the GOP resistance to the extension of benefits paid beyond 52 weeks an “exercise in gratuitous inhumanity.” He tells of folks who lost good jobs during the ongoing economic unpleasantness, who have been looking for work unsuccessfully for over a year. “They are people whose lives have been buffeted by forces beyond their control,” he explains.
True enough, agonizing enough. Only a fool wouldn’t consider that, as I so often heard growing up, “there, but for the grace of God, go I.”
Robinson then asks, “Isn’t it in society’s interest to give them a chance?”
Well, what is that chance? A functioning, diverse job-creating market economy — not a politician-centered redistribution regime.
Robinson argues that (a) unemployment benefit payments will create jobs (so that unemployment, in a roundabout way, creates employment?), (b) it’s been done before (compelling, eh?), and © that the $25 billion dollar price tag is “little more than a rounding error.”
Which brings us back to the Democrats.
Republicans demand that Democrats prioritize spending — since money doesn’t grow on taxpayers — and find enough cuts to offset this itsy-bitsy, teensy-weensy “rounding error.”
The answering silence? Profound.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.