Michael Berry

Michael Berry

Michael Berry has drunk homemade moonshine from North Carolina with Robert Earl Keen, met two presidents with the same last name, been cussed at by...Full Bio

 

GOP Sen Pushes Plan To Pay People Additional $450/Week To Return To Work

Typical swamp.

In the rush to pass the first Coronavirus stimulus bill, Congress came up with the bright idea to add an additional $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits on top of what the state is already paying.

In some states, people are receiving more than a thousand dollars a week in unemployment.

In fact, a new study by the University of Chicago found that two-thirds (68%) of workers now on unemployment are bringing home more money than they did when working.

In addition, some 20% of those workers are getting double their lost earnings.

So congress has basically incentivized for people to stay on unemployment. House Democrats new stimulus bill would extend the additional $600 a week in federal benefits through January.

Businesses are that are starting to reopen are finding it difficult to get workers to return to their job. So Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman wants taxpayers to people to go back to work.

Under his plan, the federal government would pay people an additional $450 a week if they return to work.

He says “why not provide a bonus to people to say, ‘If you go back to work, you can take some of this unemployment insurance with you.’ If you take $450, as an example, per week, remember this is per week, that would mean that in every state for minimum [wage] workers it would be more advantageous go back to work than to stay on unemployment insurance.If you did a $450 bonus to workers, good for workers, they’re going to get their salary plus that.”

Sound like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may be on-board with Portman’s plan saying last week “in order to create jobs, we need to incentivize people to go back to work, not encourage them to stay home.”

Reason.com's Nick Gillespie put it best, "Tired: Fed govt paying people $600 a week on top of state unemployment insurance. Wired: Fed govt paying people $450 a week to go back to work. Expired: Any pretense of allowing markets to function with fed govt yanking this way and that like a maniac."


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