With joblessness a full-blown epidemic in America, Congress must hold the unemployed in higher regard than in the bad old days of the ’80s and ’90s, right? If there has ever been a time to be sympathetic to the plight of the non-working man, this is it. We polled some of Washington, D.C.’s most right-thinking individuals, and this is what they had to say:
Senator Jon Kyl (Republican, Arizona): “[Unemployment] doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.”
Senator Judd Gregg (Republican, New Hampshire): “Because you’re out of the recession, you’re starting to see growth and you’re clearly going to dampen the capacity of that growth if you basically keep an economy that encourages people to, rather than go out and look for work, to stay on unemployment.”
Representative John Linder (Republican, Georgia): “Even when businesses are willing to hire, nearly two years of unemployment benefits are too much of an allure for some. The evidence is mounting that so-called stimulus policies rammed through Congress are doing more harm than good.”
Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican, Utah): “A lot of people are saying, ‘Hey, it’s about time. Why do we keep giving money to people who are going to go use it on drugs instead of their families?’”
“But remember, vote Republican this November!”
