Idiotic Dems say: Unemployment benefits create jobs

Who knew? We now have two high-ranking Democrats in Washington going on record saying that the fastest and bestest way to economic prosperity is to keep handing out unemployment benefits.

Nancy Pelosi from last summer:

"[Unemployment benefits] injects demand into the economy," Pelosi said, arguing that when families have money to spend it keeps the economy churning. "It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name."

And now we have Obama's spokesmouth, Jay Carney, saying essentially the same thing just the other day:

There are few other ways that can directly put money into the economy than applying unemployment insurance... It is one of the most direct ways to infuse money directly into the economy because people who are unemployed and obviously aren't running a paycheck are going to spend the money that they get. They're not going to save it, they're going to spend it. And with unemployment insurance, that way, the money goes directly back into the economy, dollar for dollar virtually.

Seriously, how can people who are this ignorant make it that high into the upper echelons of power in this country? I mean, try to wrap your mind around their so-called logic: Perpetually paying people not to work creates jobs? This line of thinking begs the obvious question: If paying people unemployment benefits creates jobs, then why doesn't the government give EVERYONE unemployment benefits? I always think of the same thing regarding the minimum wage. If raising it from $5/hour to $7/hour with the stroke of a pen helps people so much, then why not force employers to pay employees at least $10/hour? Or even better $100/hour? That'll fix everything right? Quit pussyfooting around!

Please understand, I realize the immediate relief that people feel when they can fall back on unemployment payments while they ride a rough patch between the job they lost and their next job. However, if someone is unable to find another job after 99 weeks of supposedly (or actually) looking, then we have bigger problems facing the nation. Unemployment benefits do not create more jobs; employers who have the available capital and the confidence of consistent economic conditions unencumbered by excessive government taxation and regulation are the ones who create jobs. Keeping tax rates high in order to extend unemployment benefits does nothing but take more money away from the business owners and employers out there who could take that money and use it to hire more people.

Our government continuing to confiscate money and hand it to other people harkens to the old economic metaphor of scooping a bucket full of water from the deep end of a swimming pool and dumping it in the shallow end, with the expectation that it will improve the water level of the shallow end. What needs to happen is for government to put the bucket away and let the pool owners put in more water.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson