Congress finally was able to override Republican protests last week and extend unemployment assistance to 2.5 million who have gone without work for months.
While we have argued against additional stimulus spending, we believe it is wrong at this time of high unemployment to cut government aid to those who have lost their jobs.
Granted, unemployment benefits aren’t meant to last this long. Congress already has extended aid well beyond the normal six months to as long as 18 months for some people.
But with unemployment near 10 percent and under-employment about 16.5 percent, times are hard for many, many families as the nation tries to recover from this historic recession.
Further, even optimistic forecasts say the economy is stymied and growth will be anemic. That means even the most talented and ambitious of job seekers will be met with frustration.
Earlier this month we learned that the private sector added only 83,000 jobs in June. That’s desperately shy of the 130,000 to 150,000 new jobs that economists say are needed simply to keep track of population growth.
Some of the Republicans who fought against the extension, which will cost $34 billion just to supply the aid through November, argued, reasonably, that they weren’t opposed to extending aid.
Rather, they are worried that the tens of billions in extra spending will add to the nation’s already out-of- control deficit spending.
We share those concerns, and would rather have had Congress find money in its bloated budget to pay for the extra unemployment benefits.Republicans had suggested using some of the unspent stimulus money, which is reasonable.
Regardless, cutting the aid would have been unfair considering the realities of today’s meager job market, and would have created an additional strain on other public safety net programs.
At this point, cutting off relief to the unemployed didn’t make sense.
