They Really Don't Want To Work

Democratic National Committee Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz is being unfair. Responding to Thursday night's Repub presidential debate (transcript here) in Orlando, Wasserman Schultz remarked "the message is always the same. They have no new ideas for creating jobs or helping America's middle class" (and) "are offering no plan for securing our economic future."

An exchange between a debate host, Fox News' Megyn Kelly, and Newt Gingrich is illustrative:

KELLY: Speaker Gingrich, this next one's for you. You criticized extending unemployment benefits, saying that you were, quote, "opposed to giving people money for doing nothing." Benefits have already been extended to 99 weeks, and they are set to expire soon. If you were president today, would you extend unemployment benefits? And if not, how do you justify that to the millions of unemployed Americans who are looking in earnest and whose families are depending on those checks?

NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Well, what I've said is that I think unemployment compensation should be tied directly to a training program. And if you have to -- if you don't have a job and you need help, then in order for us to give you the help, you should sign up for a business-led training program so that that 99 weeks becomes an investment in human capital, giving us the best-trained workforce in the world so you can get a job.

But I believe it is fundamentally wrong to give people money for 99 weeks for doing nothing. That's why we had welfare reform.

True, the GOP has no ideas for creating jobs. But as Gingrich's answer indicates, at least one Republican has a plan for securing our economic future- a very bleak economic future, if the former House Speaker has his way.

Unemployment compensation is not welfare but is afforded individuals who have, beyond their control, lost their job. And in most states, the unemployed worker is required to seek a job. There are, roughly, five unemployed workers currently for every one job. Newt Gingrich, reflecting the new politics of resentment, implies that they're lazy. And just to prove it, he's determined to create a new layer of bureaucracy in service of that great conservative axiom: if it ain't broke, fix it.

Leave the private sector alone, the GOP counsels; reduce regulation everywhere. And here a leading Republican is advocating a whole new function for government to intervene in the market. This would, as Gingrich probably is aware, drive down wages and benefits, a major objective for a party loathe to see a thriving, prosperous middle class.

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