Reid’s Deficit Addiction Is Blocking Unemployment Benefits Extension
J.D. Foster /
There’s only one reason nearly 2 million American former workers are without unemployment benefits today: Senator Reid (D-NV) and his Democratic colleagues’ addiction to deficit spending. The Senate is expected to try to extend these benefits soon. There are arguments pro and con, but if the benefits are extended, then the $34 billion cost should be paid for with spending reductions elsewhere. Surely in the great mass of over $3.5 trillion in federal spending built up over the years and to which President Obama, Reid, and Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) have diligently added, they can collectively find something of lesser import to cut.
Why extend these benefits? Not because of their beneficial effects on the economy, of which there are none. To argue otherwise is to accept fiscal alchemy whereby instead of turning lead into gold, the government tries in vain to turn debt into prosperity. (more…)