Last Call For The Unemployed In Wisconsin

Wisconsin Republicans are doing everything they can to brutally punish anyone who dares get unemployment benefits, because, well, just because.  We're doing this to protect workers, you see.

Among the changes included in the Republican-backed legislation would slightly increase the maximum allowable benefit by $7 to $370 per week, it would render anyone cut off from receiving benefits for not taking a job ineligible to ever receive benefits again until they find a job that pays at least six times his or her benefit rate at the time of termination of benefits. The current requirement is four times their benefit rate.

So if you get laid off (remember, you're ineligible for unemployment benefits in Wisconsin at all if you've been fired for "good cause" by the employer or quit yourself, it's up to the employee to prove they had a "good cause" to quit) and you get a measly $370 a week, you'll need to literally have a job earning more than $100,000 a year before you're eligible to get benefits again.  And you only get 13 weeks of benefits, max.  Good luck with that.

Oh, there's more:

It would force job applicants to apply for twice as many jobs to remain eligible for benefits. Currently employment seekers must apply for two jobs per week to keep unemployment benefits flowing. The new law raises that number to four.

Currently, people receiving educational or vocational training in order to qualify for a job can continue to receive unemployment benefits past their original expiration date. The new law would stop those payments.

Here's the best part:

The bill mandates that banks and financial institutions must hand over the private account information of any people suspected by the government of receiving overpayments.

In the event of overpayments, even those caused by government error or computer malfunctions, the government would be able to freeze and collect from the accounts of people receiving unemployment.

And remember, these are supposedly "small government Republicans" demanding these powers.

To recap, Republicans have zero problem with using the power of government to violate the freedoms of Americans if those Americans are those awful, parasitic unemployed.  They don't count as Americans anyway, the moochers.