More Republican incoherence

It is hard to get someone to look at facts when those facts contradict their faith beliefs or their political ideology.    Perhaps we Democrats do it too, and I'm just blinded by my own world view cum political ideology.   But I don't really think that.    Democrats may be resistant to changing their ideas;  but their ideas are more often, to begin with, based on evidence and common sense.

Studies have shown that extended unemployment benefits do not discourage people seeking work.  But that doesn't stop Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) from declaring otherwise.   Speaking against extending the unemployment insurance program on FoxNews Sunday, he argued that it would be a disservice to those very unemployed people.

"I do support unemployment benefits for the 26 weeks that they're paid for. If you extend it beyond that, you do a disservice to these workers. . . .  When you allow people to be on unemployment insurance for 99 weeks, you're causing them to become part of this perpetual unemployed group in our economy."

That argument might make more sense if it came from someone who supports a vigorous job stimulus program to create sufficient job opportunity -- or if it came at a time of low unemployment.   But when you have 1.3 million long term unemployed people with little job opportunity available to them, what do you expect them to do?

Paul apparently doesn't care, or else he just denies that it is a problem.   His non-sequiter answer is:   "You get out of a recession by encouraging employment, not encouraging unemployment."

By "encouraging employment" I don't think he meant providing jobs and training;   I think he meant removing any help that would make unemployment easier to endure.   Paul apparently equates that with free-loading rather than subsistence support.

No, Sen. Paul.   You get out of a recession by government spending that stimulates job creation so that people can find jobs and earn enough money to buy the stuff and create more demand.

Fortunately, not even all of Sen. Paul's Republican colleagues agree with him, and there is some bipartisan support for extending the benefits.

Ralph