Republican failure

Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009 | 2:06 a.m.

More than $3.1 billion in stimulus money has been left unspent by 23 states because they have failed to expand benefits for people out of work, according to the Labor Department.

As USA Today reported Tuesday, states must expand the benefits to qualify, including offering benefits to part-time workers who lose their jobs. The National Employment Law Project estimates that the states’ failures mean that nearly 350,000 Americans are not receiving benefits.

Republican governors or lawmakers in the 23 states have either declined to make the changes as required by federal law to be eligible or have declined funding. (Because of its Democratic-controlled Legislature, Nevada is thankfully not one of the 23 states.)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been among the Republican critics of the stimulus. His state has left more than $555 million on the table because of his refusal to change Texas’ unemployment requirement. Perry says his state would have to raise taxes once the stimulus money runs out.

Maurice Emsellem of the National Employment Law Project said the increase in benefits the federal government is calling for “is not the straw that breaks the camel’s back to determine whether taxes are going up.”

Instead, he said, the stimulus money could push off tax increases because it boosts the amount of money in state unemployment trust funds. Many states automatically raise unemployment taxes when their funds are depleted. For example, unemployment taxes will go up in Alabama, Florida and Indiana — all of which refused the federal unemployment money. Texas also may see a tax increase.

In other words: Not only are thousands of people excluded from receiving unemployment benefits because of the Republican position, but unemployment taxes go up as well.

This is the result of far-right ideologues running the Republican Party. They love to inflame the base with their rhetoric, but the bottom line is this: Their ideas hurt people.