Wanted: One GOP Vote for Unemployment Benefits

Wanted: One GOP Vote for Unemployment Benefits

Wanted: One GOP Vote for Unemployment Benefits

Failure to extend unemployment benefits is a problem created by both the GOP and the democratic Congress, Laura Flanders and Tim Carney explain on The Ed Show, guest hosted by Christopher Hayes

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

The Nation‘s Washington Editor Christopher Hayes continued his week of guest-hosting The Ed Show last night, bringing on GritTV’s Laura Flanders and Obamanomics author Tim Carney to discuss the GOP’s continued reluctance to extend unemployment benefits. "Even from a very kind of bedrock libertarian perspective," Hayes asks, "do you really think the people who have exceeded the 99 weeks are doing it because of misaligned incentives as opposed to an economy that‘s just thrown fallen through the floor?"

It’s not just the GOP, Flanders and Carney say. It’s also Nancy Pelosi and the democratic Congress who overpromised funding. "Nancy Pelosi kind of backed herself into a corner," Flanders says. "What we really need is a government job creation scheme. Government jobs. Rooseveltian kind of plan. With that off the table, they‘re in the situation of hoping that some GOPer will wise up."

—Carrie Battan

Support The Nation’s June Fundraising Campaign

With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.

As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.

We can play this critical role because of support from readers like you. This June, we’re raising $20,000 to power The Nation’s independent journalism in the run-up to November’s immensely consequential elections.

It’s in our power to build a more just society, and your support at this critical moment brings us closer to that bold vision. I hope you’ll donate today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Huevel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x