You Knew the Republican Economic Puritanism Was Coming to Gum Up the Works – Esquire

You knew it was coming. You didnt know when, or from whom, but conservative economic Puritanism was bound to gum up the works. Three prominent stoogesTim Scott, Lindsey Graham, and Young and Perpetually Troubled Ben Sassethink that the increased unemployment insurance is too luxurious and, to borrow from the great Dave Barry, I am not kidding about this, either. From NBC News:

How self-employed people lay themselves off is only one interesting conundrum raised by these characters. While were talking about real world problems, how are people in states that have been locked down by their governors supposed to be incentivized to go to work at places that are, yknow, closed? Sasse even had the cojones to use criminally underpaid home-health aides as examples of people who will be encouraged to stay home and eat them bonbons instead of doing the thankless work that they do every day. These really are the damn mole people.

Right on cue, of course, and to the cheers of his followers, Bernie Sanders threatened to block the bill unless the stooges dropped their opposition. Which, of course, is exactly what every Republican everywhere would like. The stooges are running a bluff. They dont want to be the people who block this. They just want to talk about blocking it. If Sanders does them the incredible favor of blocking it himself, thereby pulling Mitch McConnell out of the ditch into which the Democratic minority has rolled him, theyll all get re-elected.

Update: Florida Senator Rick Scott apparently has jumped onto the bandwagon as well. In times of pandemic, I know that I will seek advice from the guy whose firm committed the most massive Medicare fraud in history.

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You Knew the Republican Economic Puritanism Was Coming to Gum Up the Works - Esquire