David Frum has some words for Cap’n Al and his kind

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Arizona Legislature refused to amend a single word in Arizona's unemployment compensation statute, thus ending any further unemployment compensation for about 20,000 Arizonans at the end of their eligibility. This was celebrated by "Neanderthals" (Republican Tucson City Council Member Steve Kozachik's choice of descriptive phrase) like Cap'n Al Melvin (TP-LD 26) and his kind in the Tea-Publican Arizona Legislature.

Here are some words for Cap'n Al and his kind from David Frum:

"In the aftermath of the catastrophe, the free-market assumption and expectation that an unemployed person could always find work somewhere has been massively falsified," Frum writes. "Speaking only personally, I cannot take seriously the idea that the worst thing that has happened in the past three years is that government got bigger. Or that money was borrowed. Or that the number of people on food stamps and unemployment insurance and Medicaid increased. The worst thing was that tens of millions of Americans – and not only Americans – were plunged into unemployment, foreclosure, poverty. If food stamps and unemployment insurance, and Medicaid"–an Axis of Not-Evil!–"mitigated those disasters, then two cheers for food stamps, unemployment insurance, and Medicaid."

(H/t HuffPost Hill)