Say No to UI Extensions

Word is, Congress is finally about to approve the Unemployment Insurance extensions President Obama is begging for.

I wish Congress wouldn't. I'll give two reasons.

One, whereas traditional funding for Unemployment Insurance comes from money paid into the system, in true insurance fashion, my understanding is that those companies paying out can not be charged for the extensions.

So, guess who is paying for them? You might be thinking the taxpayers, but that wouldn't be correct, unless you mean the taxpayers of the future. When congressmen asked where the money would come from, the answer was that it would be "stimulus" money.

In other words, the federal deficit.

The second reason I oppose the UI extensions? I oh-so-much believe that weening people from staying home and not working is a must. It will improve the economy. I look around and see people who have lost their jobs, gone on unemployment, and now do not want off it. This next sentence may seem backwards, but it's not. People become what they are. Or, in other words, they become what they practice. If a person gives himself to pornography one night, that is what he is at the moment, and that one time probably will lead to his doing pornography again and again in the future. So, a person becomes what he is.

The same principal can apply to unemployment. Not always, mind you, and maybe not even most of the time. But, if a person finds a way to pay all the bills with Unemployment Insurance instead of working, there will be a natural tendency for him to want to stay on UI, instead of returning to the job force.

Our economy needs a boost, a real boost. This is not a short-term fix, but instilling in people a strong work ethic will benefit the economy in the long run.

So, how much government money has gone into Unemployment Insurance? Remember, the current unemployment extensions came as we scrambled to save our economy. And, remember, the tradition way of funding UI is through money paid into the system, but extensions are not part of that.

A little graph in a USA Today last week gives the answer. A record $144.52 billion -- roughly double what was spent in any quarter before the current economic mess -- went into UI in the first quarter of 2010.

Stop and consider how that stacks up against other large bills the government has footed recently. What was the Obama stimulus package? Wasn't it in the $800-billion range, an amount so large we worry it could lead to the toppling of our economy?

So, $144.5 billion, to me, is a frightening amount. No, I do not support Unemployment Insurance extensions.