Senate Republicans blocked a third Democratic attempt to extend unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed last week, meaning that 1.3 million people have lost their weekly checks, and another 2 million will by August if the extension isn't passed. Are Republicans, as President Obama suggested, holding the jobless "hostage," or are they watching out for America's fiscal health by demanding that any extension be paid for up front, not borrowed? (Watch an MSNBC discussion about the "jobless summer")
The GOP's being "cruel" and "misguided": The Republicans are simply "heartless," says Paul Krugman in The New York Times. "Penny-pinching" on jobless benefits in a time of persistent unemployment is unheard of, and it hurts the economic recovery as well as the desperate workers looking for nonexistent jobs. Clearly, the GOP has made the "cynical calculation" that economic pain spells electoral gains for them, jobless be damned.
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