I consider this a major victory for progressive economic policy advocacy. Dianne Feinstein is backing off her comments from yesterday in which she appeared to argue that the long-term unemployed were merely lazy and that we should start considering withdrawing their benefits if they couldn’t get a job in the worst recession in 60 years. For a refresher, here’s how the Huffington Post reported the quote:
“We have 99 weeks of unemployment insurance,” Feinstein said. “The question comes, how long do you continue before people just don’t want to go back to work at all?”
Feinstein communication director Gil Duran emailed me today to say the quote was incorrect. He indicated that Feinstein did not say the word “want” and that the quote came from “an impromptu press gaggle” that apparently made her true context and intent hard to read. He pointed to the Wall Street Journal’s article as being more accurate. Here’s what they said:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) was among those Democrats who supported the bill Wednesday. But she said a growing number of lawmakers weren’t as willing as they were during the recession to extend jobless benefits, especially with the mounting national debt. Europe’s debt crisis has shoved the issue back into the spotlight.
“We have 99 weeks of unemployment insurance now. The question becomes how long do you continue it before people just don’t go back to work at all?” Sen. Feinstein said.
I’m not sure how much this actually changes. Even without the word “want” in there, the quote does seem to suggest that she worries about unemployment benefits being a kind of permanent benefit to those who do not work, and the Senator does appear to be falling under the sway of the new Hoovers who want to throw the country into a Depression by removing stimulus before we have a full recovery.
I’ll leave it to you all to decide where she stands. Regardless, I see this as a big victory for progressives, as we have begun to set a narrative that suggests Democrats cannot place deficit concerns over supporting the spending we need to put people back to work.
UPDATE: Here’s the full statement Feinstein released today regarding this issue:
Senator Feinstein believes that unemployed Americans want jobs, not unemployment checks. She has voted for every single extension of unemployment insurance during this downturn because she knows that there is currently one job opening for every five out-of-work Americans, according to the Department of Labor. Some 880,000 people have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more in California, which has a 12.6 percent unemployment rate – one of the highest in the nation.
Senator Feinstein is concerned about the deficit, but she also understands that unemployment insurance is a financial lifeline for millions of Americans right now. Given the dearth of available jobs, a sudden cessation of unemployment benefits would be financially devastating to many people.
Senator Feinstein is working hard to make sure Congress enacts policies that will promote economic recovery, create jobs across multiple sectors of the economy and keep America’s economy strong in the 21st century.
No surprise it was on Huff Post one of the biggest Liberal Blogs on the net, of course it will get back to DiFi and he’ll walk back those comments but like many people with too much money to spend, that’s how they think. They don’t believe there are hardly any jobs available and the Recession is over?
The Recession is not over, who said that?
You know what would make them quake in their boots?
A mass exodus, the problem there isn’t really anyplace to go. If there was, I see no reason to remain in the United States if our Gumberment is going to behave like they need to tighten their belts while they keep funding wars and other countries.
If the EU wasn’t experiencing economic issues, I’ll almost sell everything I got and pull up stakes. I would return someday but with no income and no jobs really, no unemployment they rather you starve to death than to get benefits.
…and that’s just exactly what Alzheimers sounds like.
Not only would the cessation of benefits directly devastate millions, and in California 880,000, it would also devastate the millions who are paid by the benefits those unemployed receive, like landlords, grocery stores, gas stations, etc.
Every federal dollar that goes into the hands of the unemployed and/or the underemployed goes immediately and directly into the local economy.
…the question is not whether ‘want’ is in there, but that, since the line appears to reflect the thoughts of the “growing number of lawmakers [not] as willing as they were during the recession to extend jobless benefits”, whether she counts herself as one of those or is just making a statement as to others’ attitudes. Since she walked it back there’s no way to know, now; we’ll just have to keep up the scrutiny. She is not to be trusted on her own.
Senator DiFi has no clue about the realities in Calif, obviously. I am months past the 99 weeks with no income, now on food stamps. If she thinks I enjoy this, she is not fit for office.
The fact is, there will always be some people who game the system, especially one that exists as the gift that keeps on giving.
When I was layed off years ago and trying to find my way off unemployment, a number of acquantances from the same company in the same situation had found ways to keep getting benefits, mostly because the chances of an audit at the time (given all the people on unemployment) were low. While what they were receiving came nowhere close to what they had earned working, that didn’t seem to detour them. Getting something for nothing was the motivator.
So yes, there are people who eventually stop looking for a job (or take doing so much less seriously) when they are guaranteed, over the long haul, a check from the government.
And, there will always be someone trying hard to keep such a system in place, ostensibly because it is the “humane” thing to do.
But for many, it’s an enabler. This is something that “progressive economic policy advocates” (who seem oblivous to the negative realities of ever-expanding government) never take seriously enough.