Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Arizona Daily Star today published this editorial opinion, Lawmakers show indifference to struggling Arizonans:
By rejecting 20 weeks of extended unemployment insurance, state lawmakers have shown they care more about corporate tax cuts and hyperbole about socialists than the chronically unemployed.
State lawmakers wrapped up their special session Monday and went home without making the one-word change needed to continue funding unemployment for people out of work for at least 79 weeks.
Extending long-term unemployment insurance for another 20 weeks is a no-brainer. It would have extended a safety net to thousands of Arizonans on the brink. It would have continued to inject $3.2 million of federal money into the economy each week. And it should have been easy to do. All lawmakers had to do was change the number "two" to "three" in a formula used to grant the 20-week extension.
Most importantly, it would have been the right and moral thing to do.
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Extending unemployment insurance was the right thing to do. It should have been easy. But instead lawmakers showed they value hyperbole and political points more than the needs of struggling Arizonans.
The Arizona Republic today published this editorial opinion, Ideology tops common sense:
Ideology triumphed over economic good sense at the Legislature.
Legislators cut off unemployment benefits for 15,000 Arizonans – and an additional 20,000 to 30,000 by the end of the year.
They shut off a stream of $3.5 million a week, dollars that went straight into the cash registers of local businesses.
Because they refused to make a one-word tweak in state law.
In the worst economic slump in modern memory, a majority of GOP lawmakers [all but one] refused to maintain Arizona's eligibility for federally funded extended-unemployment benefits. The cut-off date was Saturday.
This is not conservative behavior. This is radical posturing.
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The rationale behind all this is severely flawed. Arizona's rock-bottom unemployment benefits are hardly a disincentive to work: barely $200 a week and lower than minimum wage. Applicants still overwhelm jobs: Bashas' got 2,600 applications for 400 openings last month.
As for the federal deficit, it won't be solved by one state's unilateral rejection of legitimate funding.
Lawmakers should stop their apples-and-oranges rhetoric, which confuses job creation with unemployment benefits. Last session, the Legislature took steps to encourage companies to expand and relocate in Arizona. But it will take time for those incentives to take effect.
Thousands of jobs aren't going to materialize overnight.
Lawmakers ignored their hearts and their heads when they cut off extended benefits.
Maybe Arizona's major publications should keep this in mind and refuse to endorse any Republican candidates for office in 2012. Change begins with you telling the truth about these polemic ideological extremists.
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