Blaming Jobless Workers
”Unemployed people are just lazy and don’t deserve benefits” seems to be a bona fide Republican talking point by now. Yesterday, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay:
“You know,” DeLay said, “there is an argument to be made that these extensions of these unemployment benefits keeps people from going and finding jobs.” When CNN’s Candy Crowley described his argument as “a hard sell” to the public, DeLay replied, “It’s the truth.”
Crowley followed up, asking, “People are unemployed because they want to be?” DeLay again said, “Well, it is the truth.”
DeLay joined current House members Dean Heller and Steve King and current senator Jon Kyl in making this basic argument.
Kudos to Candy Crowley for following up with “people are unemployed because they want to be?” But there’s another follow-up I’d like to have DeLay’s answer to: “What do you make of the fact that there are six job-seekers for every job out there?” Let’s hear him, or Heller or King or Kyl, explain what the five people who there aren’t enough jobs for should do. Let’s hear them explain how those people are just being lazy.
Tags: Jon Kyl, unemployment
Actually, there are some prominent academic economists that are making the same argument. Of course Krugman and Stiglitz can explain why they are wrong. However, that belief is out there.
Obama needs to highlight this question as a difference between Dems and the GOP. Should the government try create jobs? Ask the American people. For sure the Teabaggers will be against government jobs (except for their own). But the majority of Americans would like to have Obama take a stand.
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