You can tell by the fact that he’s demanding here that the House simply agree to allocate the money for another ‘temporary’ three-month extension of unemployment benefits for people unemployed past 26 weeks. The GOP is not adverse to extending benefits, by the way: but the House is fairly insistent that this spending be offset by an equivalent amount of cuts.
…Look, I’m sorry that Barack Obama and the fumble-fingered dolts of the 111st Congress completely gut-shot the recovery, and I am really unhappy about the fact that the labor participation rate in this country has sunk to a frightening level. But somebody’s got to be the adult here, and the adult thing to do in this situation is to stop extending unemployment benefits from half a year to one year, 20 weeks. You can call me a heartless old so-and-so all you like; that just tells me that you don’t have a better argument for keeping those people on the rolls than “When they start looking for work again the official unemployment rate is going to go through the roof.” Which is a major reason why the Democrats are so hesitant to finally bite the bullet and end the extensions.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
PS: I don’t blame Harry Reid for wanting to talking about income inequity: in his shoes I’d rather discuss that than, say, poor economic stewardship, Obamacare, and/or shady real estate deals.
“@BarackObama decides NOT to be the adult in the room.”
.
Period. Full stop. End of story. In fact, that could sum up his entire term in office.
“Decides”? Does anyone really think Barrack Obama “decided” to ‘not be the adult in the room’ so much as that is just the reality which is? At what point has Barrack Obama actually been ‘the adult in the room’? America ‘decided’ to elect a vacuous celebrity man-child to the most powerful office in the world. The results are pretty predictable.