Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI)
Rep. Sander Levin, ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, is pushing back hard on Sen. Rand Paul's
bizarre lie about the effects of unemployment benefits. While Paul claims it's a disservice to jobless workers to give them emergency benefits while unemployment remains high, Levin said
ending benefits is a disservice to something else:
“I really think Sen. Paul really needs to look at the facts and then look at the reality for people who are unemployed,” Levin said on MSNBC’s “NewsNation” on Monday. “There are 1.3 million people who are going to lose every cent of their benefits while they look for work. A disservice is essentially cutting them off on Dec. 28,” when the emergency unemployment program expires. [...]
“They are looking for a job. They were laid off through no fault of their own. What do you do? Just give them the cold shoulder on Dec. 28? That’s a disservice to humanity, in my judgment,” Levin said.
Republicans are insisting it's outrageous to put an extension of emergency unemployment benefits in the budget being negotiated, and while Levin argued strongly that the benefits should be extended, he indicated more willingness to leave them out of the budget deal than Democrats need to be showing. According to Levin, "It has to be done one way or the other, either through the budget negotiations or through another vehicle." But if Democrats can't get it included in a budget that has to be passed (except maybe in Ted Cruz crazytown), exactly where does he think they'll find the leverage to make it happen otherwise?
Cutting off unemployment insurance would be an economic disaster not just for those who rely on the benefits to pay the rent and feed themselves. But Republicans would be all too happy to do it.