Reply #1: More lazy unemployed spongers...

[rfranklin]

NJ Republican leader: Reduce unemployment benefits
By Associated Press - Dec 14, 2010 By The Associated Press
ISELIN, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey's jobless benefits are too generous and should be reduced, a Republican leader in the Assembly told business owners Tuesday.

Residents collecting $550 per week have little incentive to look for a job, Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce told the Business and Industry Association. He said cutting benefits is one way to prop up the unemployment fund, which is now $1.7 billion in the red to the federal government.

"I'm one of the few people here ... who feel that benefits are too good for these people," said DeCroce of Morris County. "Why go to work? If you can go for 26 weeks collecting $550 a week, and you get an extension for another 26, that's close to $27,000 a year or $30,000 a year, and a lot of people figure, 'Why go to work?'"

Senate President Steve Sweeney disagreed. The Democrat said people in the construction trades, where unemployment is around 50 percent, would "go to work tomorrow."

The state's unemployment rate overall is 9.2 percent. The national rate is 9.6 percent.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2010-12-14/nj-republican-leader-reduce-unemployment-benefits.html