A Note To John Carney — 14 Million Unemployed Are More Important Than the Deficit

Since Representative Carney is using his time in Congress to sign bi-partisan letters to the Deficit Supercommittee to Go Big in cutting the deficit, I thought I’d use my platform here to remind him of what the genuine crisis is right now.

14 Million unemployed Americans.

Today, I learned that more than half of our out of work fellow citizens are no longer getting unemployment benefits:

Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent — a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America’s 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more.

Congress is supposed to take up extending unemployment benefits for at least some of the hardest hit states by the end of they year, but it doesn’t look like they will take up extending benefits beyond the 99 week limit. So what happens if they don’t extend the benefits?

[…]If the emergency benefits expire, the proportion of the unemployed receiving aid would fall further.

The ranks of the poor would also rise. The Census Bureau says unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people from slipping into poverty last year. It defines poverty as annual income below $22,314 for a family of four.
Yet for a growing share of the unemployed, a vote in Congress to extend the benefits to 99 weeks is irrelevant. They’ve had no job for more than 99 weeks. They’re no longer eligible for benefits.
Their options include food stamps or other social programs. Nearly 46 million people received food stamps in August, a record total. That figure could grow as more people lose unemployment benefits.

14 million Americans going back to work *is* deficit reduction. 14 million Americans back to work means that they are paying taxes and buying stuff like houses and cars. Reducing unemployment means that revenues increase to the government, which helps to reduce the deficit.

This isn’t especially hard, but I am gobsmacked by the persistent and showy hand-wringing and finger-wagging about deficit reduction, with no attendant showy effort on reducing unemployment. Because no matter what the Beltway wonks and special interests tell you, getting Americans back to work is the more vital and important effort.

So please, John Carney — let’s have alot more work on getting your constituents back to work. If you need to pursue the bipartisan fetish, that is OK — as long as the effort to get people back to work Goes Bigger than the effort for deficit reduction. Employment is Priority 1, 2 and 3.