Republicans Gleefully, Cruelly Delay Unemployment Benefits to Lazy Wisconsin Jobless. Fitzgerald won't say if or when they'll get to it!!!

Call me cynical, but it looks like a case of good cop, bad cop. The Senate plays the good cop by approving an extension of unemployment with no one week waiting period. It also gives the recalled Republicans a chance to say "See we tried but failed to do away with the waiting period." The Assembly is the bad cop and basically doing the bidding of the Senate and Walker administration.  

AP: A disagreement among Republicans in the Legislature over whether unemployed people in Wisconsin should have to wait a week before receiving unemployment benefits is putting an extension of coverage for the jobless at risk.  

A spokesman for Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald refused to say Wednesday if or when the Senate would take up the bill again. “At the end of the day, there are still 225,000 people out of work in Wisconsin,” Fitzgerald spokesman Andrew Welhouse said. “That’s far too many, and the end goal here is to get them working again.” 

 “You are killing this bill,” said Rep. Christine Sinicki, D-Milwaukee. She said her office had been deluged with calls from unemployed workers concerned about losing the benefits. 

 Walker supports both extending the unemployment benefits and keeping the one-week delay, said his spokesman Cullen Werwie. Rep. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan, defended the waiting period, saying it would save the state between $41 million and $56 million.

Supposedly money will be saved by weeding out fraud, like over payments and wrongful approval of benefits. The one week delay gives the state time to deny and limit who gets unemployment. And yes, that’ll save money.