CNBC: Unemployment Benefits Are A ‘Fraud,’ We’re ‘Paying People Not To Work’

When Congress returns after the August recess, it plans to consider an extension of unemployment benefits for the 1.5 million Americans whose benefits will run out by the end of the year (a half million of those will run out by the end of September). Last night, CNBC’s Larry Kudlow hosted University of Chicago Professor Casey Mulligan and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich to discuss, among other things, the effectiveness of benefits as stimulus and a social safety net. Prompted by Kudlow asking Reich if “the thrust of the stimulus plan” constitues “paying people not to work,” Mulligan said:

This is the same fraud coming from the other party. When Republicans did it they called it trickle-down. You do this, you benefit one guy, he goes and spends it and it benefits another guy. The Democrats got their own version now, it’s called Keynesian or whatever, but they’re saying if I give an unemployment check to somebody who’s not working, he’s going to go spend it and create more jobs. It’s just another version of the trickle-down fraud and it’s a fraud.

Watch it:

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/08/11/cnbc-unemployment-fraud/

:grr:

CNBC is getting as bad as Faux.

when people aren't paid a subsistence when the jobs dry up because the financiers at the top fucked up.

It's not pretty. Having to dodge fighting in the streets on the way to and from their posh Manhattan condos will ruin their days.

as a standard deduction from our paychecks? Aren't we simply getting back $ that we put into the fund? Doesn't a person who paid into such a fund for 20 years deserve to get back more than 13-26 weeks of UI if they hit a rough spot?

Apples and oranges.

insurance fund, kinda like workman's comp. The higher the employers turnover the higher his premiums. Of course one could argue that without the need to pay into the fund wages could be higher so the employee is paying, indirectly.

...have Jack Welch's withered hand shoved up their asses.

That's what the morning show's called.

Guess he has to check up on his bitches and see if they're towing the corporate line.

:puke:

and give them to the unemployed? Problem solved.

Sorry about the all caps, but as one who has been on unemployment, I know first hand that that statement is pure total crap. I was unemployed twice because of plant shutdowns, which the employees had nothing to do with. We did not ask for our jobs to be shipped elsewhere but they were and thankfully, unemployement insurance was available. Otherwise, either be a 40 something man with a kid and a wife who would have had to live with relatives, or be street people. Neither was a viable option. I am tired of that old talking point and will argue with anyone, and I mean anyone who wants to say crap like that. Unemployment benefits are a safety net, not a living. Besides, when I was on it, I think I got around $250.00/week before taxes. That ain't much, people.

the mortgage interest deduction, which is just point-blank an upper-middle class handout. Doubt you'll be hearing anyone on CNBC attack the mortgage interest deduction anytime soon.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6274022&mesg_id=6274735

Most of those asswipes genuflect to the shrine of Reagan, especially Kudlow.

Reagan, by the way, called unemployment insurance “a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders”. Charming guy. :eyes:

This asswipe has no idea of what he's talking about! I've been out of work for 6 months, & my unemployment check is helping keep my family afloat. I've been looking, like 10-15% of America, but haven't found anything.

Unless you've found yourself without a job, STFU!

...we pay ourselves.

. . . being on the same show with Cokeman Kudlow and No-Crash Casey.

I saw this last night and was screaming at the TV because I was so enraged. FWIW, Kudlow said he thought most people wanted to work no matter what they were paid.

Mulligan is a well-known joke - "it's called Keynesianism or whatever?"

It cracks me up

Hey geniuses, trust me - with unemployment officially near 10% an unofficially much higher, the last thing you want for your precious market is for consumer spending to take the nose dive that it absolutely would without unemployment.

It's not a hand out - its propping you assholes up. I'd prefer you just said "thank you" and shut the fuck up.

he was laid off in December. He didn't just up and quit his job. He doesn't sit around the house all day, eating bonbons. He's responded to more job openings than I can shake a stick at. He is now in school, learning a new trade, because there just aren't jobs in the industry he had worked in for 20 years.

Kudlow can kiss my big white ass.

and stop laying people off.

:P

All this time I thought it was just about giving tax cuts to the upper tax brackets.:shrug:

I managed to be eligible for unemployment because my republican boss was a dick to me and I could prove it. It's the second time in 25 years that I have ever recieved it. The first was a layoff. I'm still working PT AND looking for another job.

They won't be happy until they can legally work us to death and starve us when it pleases them. Just like slaves.