Let Them Eat Cheap, Mass-Produced Cake

The Republican mask has fallen off.  They've pretended to care about America's working-class families but in the end the Estate Tax is calling, and GOP Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona is more than happy to help Kentucky GOP Sen. Jim Bunning continue to throw the unemployed under the bus.

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican whip, argued that unemployment benefits dissuade people from job-hunting "because people are being paid even though they're not working."

Unemployment 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," Kyl said during debate over whether unemployment insurance and other benefits that expired amid GOP objections Sunday should be extended.

"I'm sure most of them would like work and probably have tried to seek it, but you can't argue that it's a job enhancer. If anything, as I said, it's a disincentive. And the same thing with the COBRA extension and the other extensions here," said Kyl.

You get that, unemployed people in red states?  You're just f'ckin lazy.  You should have found a job that paid far less than your old job already, and then worked two of them.  Why are you so lazy?

Dem. Sen Dick Durbin of course comes back with the truth:  there are no extra jobs.

"The Senator from Arizona argues that unemployment insurance is a disincentive to jobs. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't know anybody who's out of work and is receiving some unemployment insurance believes that that payment is sufficient not to find a job. The payments are so much lower than any salary or wage would be, it's just ridiculous. I might add, there are five unemployed Americans today for every job opening in the economy," said Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee. "People are looking for work. They're not unemployed because of choice."

He added that Kyl's economic argument was flawed, as well. Unemployment benefits do create jobs because the recipients cycle the money through the economy. He cited a Congressional Budget Office analysis that said the Gross Domestic Product grew $1.90 for every dollar the federal government paid out. 

Having been on unemployment after 9/11 during the last recession, I wasn't unemployed because of choice.  There were jobs.  They just paid 50-70% what I was making, and that meant if I took that job, I wouldn't be able to afford my apartment.  When taking a job means you make less money than your current unemployment benefits, there's a problem.  It's a tough choice.  I didn't have anyone else to fall back on.  I could barely cover my bills with what unemployment paid me, and even then I was looking at a big tax payment at the end of the year.

Eventually I had to move.  It was not a fun time in my life.  If I was unemployed now -- and so many millions of us are -- I'd not even have the choice of taking the lower paying job, not when there's five or six applicants for every open job out there.

So if you think for a second that Republicans like Jon Kyl understand that, you're crazy.  They all think unemployed people are just lazy.  Jobs magically exist in the GOP's world...and they pay enough to support a family of four, too.

You know, except for all the jobs that don't even come close.