The Federal-State Unemployment Insurance Program provides unemployment benefits to eligible workers who are unemployed through no fault of their own. In other words, it gives money to be people who get laid-off. Their job disappeared. They didn’t get fired. And the way this is paid for is by levying a tax on employers. Instead of giving you an extra sixty or seventy bucks a month, they give that money to the state and federal governments, just in case they have to ship your job to India. It’s not really that complicated. People who are out of work through no fault of their own are given a weekly stipend to help them through the transition from joblessness to employment. When times are tough and lots of folks can’t quickly find a new job, the government extends the benefits from six months to a year, or maybe even for a longer period. The point is, people who did nothing wrong and are out of work shouldn’t be ruined financially and left homeless and bankrupt.
But that’s not how people on the right see things. Newt Gingrich, for example, thinks that receiving unemployment insurance payments makes people lazy. He also thinks we should drug test people before they can receive the check that their employers paid for. That’s right. Maybe you didn’t want unemployment insurance. Maybe you would have rather had that extra sixty or seventy bucks in your paycheck. But Newt Gingrich wants you to pee in a cup before you see your own money.
How about if we ask people to pee in a cup before they see any of their 401(k) money or collect disability insurance payments? How about if we require presidential candidates to prove that they don’t have genital warts? Does Newt want to sign up for that?
I didn’t think so.
Newt also thinks we should drug test people before we give them food stamps. So, if you’re an eight-year old and your mom likes to smoke pot, you get to starve.
Here’s my idea. No one can receive any benefit from the government, whether it be a Social Security check or a mortgage deduction or a subsidy for their farm, unless they are registered to vote and have actually voted in one of the last three federal elections (including primaries) in which they were eligible to vote. Forget turning people away because they don’t have a photo ID. Have literally everyone vote, all the time. You can provide waivers for people who are mentally ill or incapacitated. And people can always vote for no one or nothing. Just show up and cast a vote for “don’t care.” The idea is that you can’t expect the government to provide for you if you won’t provide for the government.
The first thing that would happen under this new system is that conservatives like Newt Gingrich would go extinct. And that makes it worthwhile in my book.
