Republicans give up on Job Creation, Cut Unemployment Benefits Instead. Bizarro World Continues...

Republicans continue to do everything “back-asswards.”

For example: Tort reform is based on the back-assward idea that the best way to fight malpractice is not to prevent medical errors, but cut lawsuit payouts to the victims of medical errors. 

Cut Unemployment Benefits, Forget about creating Jobs: Following in the same back-assward tradition, CBS had the following outrageous story about N. Carolina’s big cuts to unemployment

benefits. Yet they're not the only ones.

In Wisconsin, Scott Walker silently and without much media coverage spent and borrowed taxpayer money to cover our own shortfall in the unemployment funds so business wouldn't have to. More corporate welfare. And then to make his unemployment numbers look even better for his reelection, Scott Walker made it more difficult to get benefits, cutting the rolls even more. Details at the bottom of this post.

But N. Carolina went even further by limiting the weeks of eligibility, and dropping federal benefits. Never mind the major effect on consumer demand, the economy as a whole and the state’s basic standard of living. It’s a grand Dickensian experiment that could happen here:

North Carolina borrowed $2.5 billion from the federal government to cover its unemployment claims. The state cut long-term unemployment benefits to pay back the loan early, which Gov. Pat McCrory says will help increase hiring.

See if you've heard McCory's line of thinking before:

"...ensure our citizens’ unemployment safety net is secure and financially sound for future generations.”

We're going to save Medicare and Social Security the same way, aren't we? Jim Axelrod reports.

  

Here’s what Walker put in place on our dime:

jsonline: Under changes to the state's unemployment insurance system adopted by the Legislature's budget committee Wednesday, taxpayers would spend $26 million over two years to prop up the unemployment fund, To avoid having employers face new assessments this year, the committee voted to use $26 million in general tax dollars to pay down interest on that loan.

Think that’s bad? Taxpayers will be used to scam the federal government. Republican will borrow our hard earned taxpayer dollars to shore up the unemployment fund so the fed won’t raise taxes on EMPLOYERS, the ones who actually fund the account.

Additionally, the committee proposal would allow the state Department of Administration to lend up to $50 million in taxpayer money to the unemployment insurance fund. That loan would help the state ensure that the unemployment fund has a positive balance in 2014, which in turn would keep the federal government from raising taxes on employers by $191 million in 2015.

jsonline: Tighten the definition of workplace misconduct so that fewer people would qualify for benefits. Eliminate nine instances in which a worker can quit a job and still claim benefits.

Check out this article in Stateline about this shocking trend.

No state has offered fewer than 26 weeks of benefits —until recently. Georgia’s benefits now run out after 18 weeks, and five other states have set limits of either 19 or 20 weeks. As the reductions cut more deeply, safety-net advocates worry that state unemployment insurance won’t be sufficient to support jobless workers when the next recession comes.

“These are historic and disturbing cuts,” said Mike Leachman of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “When the next recession hits, the unemployment system of the country is going to be significantly less effective. And it means the next recession will be deeper than it otherwise would have been.”

Maurice Emsellem of the National Employment Law Project pointed out that unemployment insurance puts money into the hands of people who are sure to spend it, pumping more money into the economy. “One of the core functions of unemployment benefits is to help support a strong recovery,” Emsellem said. “(Cutting so deeply) undermines the recovery.”

Leading up to the recession, many states cut the employment taxes that support the trust funds, leaving them ill-equipped to deal with the growth in joblessness that followed. Many states borrowed money from the federal government to cover the resulting shortfalls. To pay back that money, many of them have raised taxes on employers, trimmed benefits for recipients, or both.

Also, weekly payments under the federal program have been pared by about 15 percent due to sequestration The federal program will expire at the end of the year unless Congress renews it, and many say that will be a challenge.

North Carolina last week opted out of the federal program entirely — the first state to do so. The move ended benefits for more than 80,000, by some estimates, and also made the state Exhibit A for those who oppose cuts in unemployment benefits.