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Blame the unemployed: Senators bash jobless as lazy, drug addicted
Why won't Congress reauthorize unemployment benefits for people who've been jobless for more than six months???!!!
For the past several weeks, GOPers in the Senate, with the help of Nebraska Dem Ben Nelson, filibustered bills to reauthorize the benefits on account of concerns about adding the cost of the aid to the deficit.
This year, a handful of senators and representatives from both parties have said that they suspect that extended jobless benefits actually discourage people from job hunting.
It began in March with Senator Jon Kyl (R-Arizona), who said that jobless insurance "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work."
In May, Senator Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire) said that extended benefits undermine the economic recovery for the reason that they "basically keep an economy that encourages people to, rather than go out and look for work, to stay on unemployment." And Representative Jason Altmire (D-Pennsylvania), following pushing party leaders to trim a domestic aid bill, said that in light of four months of job growth "At some point, you have to take a step back and look at the relative value of unemployment benefits versus people looking for jobs."