Will The GOP Get Away With Its Economic Sabotage?

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/dave-johnson/53813/will-the-gop-get-away-with-its-economic-sabotage

Will The GOP Get Away With Its Economic Sabotage?
by Dave Johnson | January 23, 2014 - 10:41am

Republicans smell an election opportunity – but only if they can keep the economy down, jobs down and wages down. Most recently to keep people and the economy miserable they filibustered long-term unemployment assistance, and are working to cut back from the meager 26 weeks of assistance the states offer.

The New York Times explains in “States Cutting Weeks of Aid to the Jobless,” “(L)ast July, North Carolina sharply cut its unemployment program, reducing the maximum number of weeks of benefits to 20 from 73 and reducing the maximum weekly benefit as well.”

When North Carolina did this, a huge number of people just gave up looking for work and disappeared from the workforce. This made it look like the unemployment rate went down because only people who are actively looking are counted in the statistics. But what actually occurred was an increased need for food stamps and other aid. This, of course, doesn’t save the government money because, instead of paying unemployment, they are paying for this assistance.

As Republicans explain it, their idea is that people getting unemployment assistance are too “comfortable.” So the have to force these lazy, comfortable people into conditions that are so bad they will take any nasty, low-wage, humiliating, dangerous job. Of course, this means they will work for even less than the people who are already in such jobs. Meanwhile, the reality is that there is only one job for every three people looking for work.

[Scuba]

1. They already have.

[elleng]

2. Dems have work to do but unfortunately

repugs are the masters of propaganda.