"... This is one of the biggest stimuluses to our economy. Economists will tell you the money is spent quickly, it injects demand into the economy, and is job-creating. It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name. So it has a double benefit: it helps those who have lost their jobs but it also is a job creator. And for those two reasons at least it should be passed."

NO, only morons believe it is job-creating. Actually unemployment benefits creates more unemployment. Instead of looking for work, the average shlub will stay on unemployment as long as he gets benefits. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the following: suppose unemployment benefits were extended to 20 years. How many people would begin looking for work in year 10, year 15, year 19?

Unless you are a complete idiot, like Pelosi, you must agree that the longer the benefit period, the longer people willingly stay unemployed. Logic dictates that the best situation for job creation is to shorten not extend the benefit period; lower not raise the benefit amounts.

If the above argument doesn't convince you, then consider: the overwhelming evidence that extended unemployment benefits raise the duration and rate of unemployment comes from economists in the Obama administration, Larry Summers and Treasury economist Alan Krueger, as well as many others such as Lawrence Katz of Harvard and Bruce Meyer of the University of Chicago ¹.

We didn't just elect an incompetent idiot to be POTUS, we put in a whole slew of morons to assist him in dismantling our Republic.

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Notes

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Cato @ Liberty, Can Unemployment Benefits Create Jobs?

On the first point, page 75 of the 2007 OECD Employment Outlook explains: “It is well established that generous unemployment benefits can increase the duration of unemployment spells and the overall level of unemployment… This could have a negative impact on productivity through inefficient use of resources and depreciation of human capital during long spells of unemployment. In addition, by reducing the opportunity cost of unemployment, generous unemployment benefits may lead existing employees to reduce their work effort, thereby lowering productivity (see e.g. Shapiro and Stiglitz, 1984; Albrecht and Vroman, 1996).”

As I recently noted, the overwhelming evidence that extended unemployment benefits raise the duration and rate of unemployment comes from economists in the Obama administration, Larry Summers and Treasury economist Alan Krueger, as well as many others such as Lawrence Katz of Harvard and Bruce Meyer of the University of Chicago.

Contrary to Leachman, bribing people to stay on the dole for an extra 53-73 weeks leaves them with less money to spend, not more. It also looks bad on resumes, and may cause lasting damage to future job prospects.

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