What if you were a state legislator and you could:
1. Help tens of thousands of your unemployed constituents.
2. Stimulate your state economy.
3. Save possible millions in Medicaid costs to your state.
4. At no cost to your state budget.
5. By changing only a single word in a state law.
Clearly a no-brainer. And yet in Arizona and several other states, sociopaths masquerading as state legislators and governors are refusing to do that, as detailed in the New York Times today: For Want of a Word, Arizona’s Jobless Lose Checks.
The word in question is "three" rather than "two":
Since the recovery has been much slower than predicted, though, Congress decided last December to allow states to continue receiving the money if their unemployment rates were higher than they were three years earlier. States simply needed to change “two” to “three” in the relevant state law.
The legislatures of several states, including the free-market paradises of Arizona, Wisconsin and Alaska have failed to make that minimal change, which will cost their state nothing.
The Times tells the story of Frank Ballesteros, unemployed for 78 weeks, who desperately needs the extra 20 weeks. Ballesteros has not been sitting on his ass, doing nothing. He's been applying, e.g., for a grocery store job along with 1500 other applicants.
The GOP is the Party of Scrooge. They rely on blind, ineffective ideology to directly cause human suffering. They should be outcasts, and yet they remain in power.
What happened to this counrty?