Com­ment: Yearn­ing for the pre-New Deal days, GOP spokes­men have been char­ac­ter­iz­ing unem­ploy­ment insur­ance as being bad for the econ­omy, because it dis­cour­ages peo­ple from seek­ing work!

“Polit­i­cal Ani­mal: GOP Still Doesn’t Like Unem­ployed” by Steve Benen; Wash­ing­ton Monthly; 3/8/2010.

It’s astound­ing, but in the midst of an unem­ploy­ment cri­sis, promi­nent Repub­li­cans con­tinue to cas­ti­gate those strug­gling to find jobs.

Yes­ter­day, for exam­ple, dis­graced for­mer Major­ity Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) argued that unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits are a bad idea, because, as he sees it, they dis­cour­age peo­ple from enter­ing the work force.

“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.”

When it comes to Repub­li­cans con­demn­ing the unem­ployed, there seems to be some­thing of a trend of late. Two weeks ago, Rep. Dean Heller ® of Nevada expressed con­cern that the gov­ern­ment is “cre­at­ing hobos” by extend­ing unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits. Around the same time, Rep. Steve King, a right-wing Repub­li­can from Iowa, explained his oppo­si­tion to extended unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits: “We shouldn’t turn the ‘safety net’ into a hammock.”

Last week, Sen­ate Minor­ity Jon Kyl of Ari­zona, the Senate’s #2 Repub­li­can, argued that unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits dis­suade peo­ple from job-hunting “because peo­ple are being paid even though they’re not work­ing.” And this, of course, coin­cided with Sen. Jim Bunning’s (R-Ky.) cru­sade against extend­ing benefits.

As a mat­ter of eco­nom­ics, the GOP argu­ment is absurd: “[W]hen the econ­omy is deeply depressed, extend­ing unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits not only helps those in need, it also reduces unem­ploy­ment. That’s because the economy’s prob­lem right now is lack of suf­fi­cient demand, and cash-strapped unem­ployed work­ers are likely to spend their ben­e­fits. In fact, the Con­gres­sional Bud­get Office says that aid to the unem­ployed is one of the most effec­tive forms of eco­nomic stim­u­lus, as mea­sured by jobs cre­ated per dol­lar of outlay.”

As a mat­ter of con­science, hav­ing promi­nent Repub­li­cans chas­tise those strug­gling to find work dur­ing an unem­ploy­ment cri­sis is just cal­lous and cruel.

And as a mat­ter of pol­i­tics, who, exactly, is going to be impressed by Repub­li­cans attack­ing the unem­ployed as lazy? Since when is “screw strug­gling fam­i­lies, let’s worry about cor­po­rate tax cuts and the estate tax” an effec­tive election-year mes­sage dur­ing dif­fi­cult eco­nomic times?