Roughly 2 million Americans will lose unemployment benefits this month because Democrats refuse to cut other federal spending to pay for extending jobless benefits.
Adding three months of benefits would cost $12.5 billion. That could be paid for easily by using some of the billions of dollars in unspent “stimulus” funds. That should be an easy decision, since the stimulus is failing in its goal of keeping unemployment under 8 percent. (Joblessness is currently 9.8 percent.)
But Democrats insist on keeping the stimulus in place and borrowing money for jobless benefits, adding to our $13.8 trillion national debt.
That’s irresponsible. Funds from the failed stimulus should be cut to pay for extending unemployment benefits without increasing debt.