At President Obama’s insistence, Sen ate Democrats today are expected to almost quadruple the amount of time out-of-work Americans can receive unemployment insurance benefits — adding yet another $34 billion to this year’s incomprehensible $1.4 trillion budget deficit.
Jobless Americans will be grateful for the cash — hence the plan’s popularity on Capitol Hill — but their long-term prospects won’t be helped very much by the bill.
Neither will the economy.
The bill OKs more federal borrowing to pay for extended jobless benefits.
The federal-state unemployment program, introduced in the 1930s, allows workers who lose their jobs to apply for weekly government checks — though they generally need to show that they’re looking for new jobs.
Meant as temporary job-loss insurance, the standard program grants out-of-work Americans benefits for up to 26 weeks.
But Democrats seem to want to turn the program into another open-ended welfare entitlement. The bill they’re about to pass would provide funding to let folks continue collecting checks for as many as 99 weeks.
Yesterday, Obama called attention to the nearly 10 percent of the workforce now looking for jobs — folks he and
fellow Democrats have largely ignored for the past 18 months.
These workers are “filled with a sense of uncertainty,” he said. “The only thing that will fully lift that sense of uncertainty is the security of a new job.”
He’s right. But then, why does he so strongly back a bill that essentially sucks capital out of the private sector to cover its cost — when that money could be invested to create new jobs?
Dems seem to think any spending will boost the economy. But they’re already 16 months into their nearly $1 trillion “stimulus” package — and unemployment continues to hover near 10 percent.
Their answer? Spend more money.
Yet the extra outlays have clearly weakened the nation’s fiscal footing. Deficits are set to top $600 billion a year, on average, through 2020 — pushing a $13 trillion national debt to nearly $20 trillion.
Last year’s deficit was nearly 10 percent of GDP, the highest since World War II.
When will it all end?
If Obama and his Democratic pals re ally want to spur job growth, they can start curbing taxes, spending and deficits — and returning money to the private sector. Or easing government regulation. Or tempering economic uncertainty, rather than pushing bills that destabilize the economy.
That would be a jobs program most Americans would be more than happy to get behind.