Republicans to Unemployed People: Get a Job, You Moochers!

Now that the Senate has managed to override Sen. Jim Bunning's one-man filibuster on extending unemployment benefits, people in states with the highest unemployment rates are once again eligible for up to 99 weeks of coverage. During that time, they can receive 36 percent of the average weekly wage of an employed person. By many accounts, that's enough to survive on, but just barely. Yet certain Republican lawmakers seem convinced that people are refusing to look for work so they can stay poor.

It's true that dependence on unemployment benefits has increased dramatically during the recession: a front-page article in The Washington Post says that 11.4 million people now collect unemployment checks and that half of them have been on the rolls for more than six months -- costing the government $10 billion a month. That's not good for the government, and it's not good for the individuals. But to accuse people who have been barely scraping by for months of being too lazy to look for work turns back to the most damaging (and false) stereotypes of poor people: that they're living like kings off the government's dime. Let's be clear: nobody is getting rich on unemployment benefits. The most generous state, Massachusetts, pays $628 a week, about $30,000 a year. That may be plenty for a single person, but it's stretching it if you are responsible for a child or two or a sick parent. In Louisiana, the state with the lowest benefits, you'll make just $12,000 a year.

Furthermore, the myth that there are plenty of jobs out there if only people weren't so lazy is demonstrably false. There are six unemployed people for every available job, according to the National Employment Law Project. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded last month that unemployment benefits could discourage people from finding work, but only in some fantasyland with a surplus of jobs. In reality, the report said, unemployment benefits help the entire economy; they are "both timely and cost-effective in spurring economic activity and employment."

So why do Republican leaders keep insisting their constituents are essentially cheating the government?

Rep. Dean Heller of Nevada thinks unemployment benefits are "creating hobos." Rep. Steve King of Iowa warns of the danger of "turning the safety net into a hammock." Most recently, former Majority Leader Tom DeLay said, "unemployment benefits keeps people from going and finding jobs." When CNN's Candy Crowley asked if DeLay was saying that people are unemployed because they want to be, he responded "Well, it's the truth, and people in the real world know it." He's living in a different real world than those 11.4 million people barely scraping by.

Photo credit: Robert S. Donovan