With about 10 percent of our people who want jobs suffering unemployment, and millions of them jobless longer than the six months for which they were eligible for economic assistance, the United States Senate moved this week to extend paying benefits to the jobless.
We feel sorry for anyone who is out of work and is hurting. We want to help them. But we are also concerned about the huge deficit spending that Congress is voting.
So wouldn’t it be merciful, economical and reasonable for Congress to cut some of its wasteful spending to offset the cost of extending unemployment benefits?
That would help those in real need – without increasing our debt and making economic recovery harder.
Unfortunately, Congress is “good” at spending more, but “bad” about not facing tax-spend-debt realities.