Huffington Post: 'Strong Jobs Report Could Doom Unemployment Benefits'

December 6th, 2013 10:52 AM

The unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to 7 percent last month as employers added 203,000 people to their payrolls.

This should be good news, right?

Not to the folks at the perilously liberal Huffington Post who actually published an article Friday with the hysterical front page headline, "Strong Jobs Report Could Doom Unemployment Benefits."

The interior headline was just as funny: "Strong Jobs Report Could Mean Bad News For Unemployment Benefits."

The opening paragraphs were equally humorous:

The good news that the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7 percent in November could be bad news for more than a million of the long-term unemployed whose federal benefits are scheduled to expire at the end of the month.

In recent years Democrats have insisted that Congress maintain a special safety net for the long-term jobless specifically because the national unemployment rate hadn't fallen beneath an historical threshold. This particular talking point could now backfire.

"Congress has never before allowed benefits to expire when unemployment was higher than 7.2 percent," Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said in 2012.

"Since the unemployment insurance system was created, Congress has never cut back on federally funded extended benefits when unemployment was over 7.2 percent," Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said in 2011.

"Since 1959, the government has never allowed these benefits to expire when the national unemployment rate is above 7.2 percent," Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) said in 2010.

As such, now that the unemployment rate has dropped below 7.2 percent, this Democratic talking point is invalid thereby making it tougher for the left to get another extension to unemployment benefits.

Which leaves the folks at the Huffington Post yearning for a softer jobs market instead of more people working so that a greater number of people could receive unemployment benefits.

This is how liberals think and why they should never be in control of the economy.