A recurring theme has been percolating through the airwaves and intertubes, all emanating from GOP sources concerning how to spend money in problematic economy.

Up first is the Tea Party candidate Sharon Angle (running under the GOP banner) from Nevada who has spent much of her time since winning the Republican primary to be their Senate candidate hiding from the media.  One of the reasons she has been so media shy is because of several extreme positions that she has championed in the past, including abolishing Medicare and Privatizing Social Security.  The latter being something which was attempted by President George W. Bush's administration while controlling being in control of both the House and Senate and failed.

Now, we all know that the current economy is rather shakey and even worse, jobs are lagging severely behind in the United States hovering around 10% unemployment.  Enter Sharron Angle, Republican challenger to Democratic incumbent and Senate majority leader Harry Reid who says in a rare interview that the maximum $300 unemployment benefits currently being held up by the GOP in the Senate, make people without jobs lazy.

Watch:



It's simply astonishing to think that you can run for the United States Senate successfully by calling the unemployed in the worst economy in a decades, lazy.  The last time I checked people were lining up around street corners for minimum wage jobs all across the country regardless of the size of their previous pay cheques, despite those huge $300 unemployment funds. 

It's just too bad that the whole unemployment benefits make people not want to work sentiment didn't end with Angle.  No, sitting Senator Jon Kyl (R- Ariz) doubled down on the attack against extending unemployment benefits saying during a debate in the Senate that unemployment insurance, "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work."  Opposition to extending the $30 billion in benefits to struggling families is being argued from an anti-spending/deficit point of view, with the GOP claiming that they can't in good conscience add the cost directly to the deficit.  Instead they want the benefits paid for with left over stimulus funds and as such will not let the extension bill come up for a vote.

For the record his assertion is simply not true, and when you look at the stimulative effect that unemployment benefits provide, $1.63 in economic output for each dollar spent according to the Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities, you can see why.  In practical terms that means that a family can pay its bills and continue to spend money, helping to support thousands of other businesses and jobs which are still in precarious positions.

Alternatively, Senator Jon Kyl wants Congress to extend to Bush tax cuts amounting to a staggering $678 billion for the wealthiest Americans before they are due to expire in the new year.  However, the Republican Senator isn't concerned how the tax cuts would be paid for, happy to add that cost directly to the national deficit.  The logic quite frankly is mind boggling, considering the massive deficits facing the United States and the need to help stimulate a sagging economy.  Cutting taxes amount to a stimulus of $1.02 in general for the economy which pales to the stimulus effect of a relatively small amount for the unemployed.

Usually you see a few people float a talking point like this here and there to test the waters so to speak, and since it is campaign season I'm sure that we'll see various incarnations of the similar topics, but when you look at the facts side by side it's clear which method is most effective.  That hasn't stopped calls by Republicans to go further down the rabbit hole than the George W. Bush administration had been able to take the American economy.  In the mean time we'll have to wait and see if these positions will help or hurt GOP chances come November.