Levin slams GOP, Paul over jobless benefits

Congressman Sander Levin took to the national airwaves on MSNBC this afternoon to slam Republicans for practicing what he called inhumane politics by dragging their feet on an extension of unemployment benefits with just five House session days left this year.

In his live interview with Tamron Hall, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee said his GOP colleagues are giving jobless workers the "cold shoulder" by flirting with a Dec. 28 cutoff that would end federally funded unemployment checks for 1.3 million people.

Levin, a Royal Oak Democrat who represents most of Macomb County, was asked to comment on remarks made over the weekend by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. 
Paul said extending jobless benefits to unemployed workers does them a "disservice" because they become trapped in a mentality of government dependence. The senator also said that those who spend 99 weeks on unemployment insurance often find themselves unemployable after spending so much time on the economic sidelines.

Levin countered that Paul was making uninformed arguments because 99 weeks of coverage has not existed for two years. But the continued slow economic recovery has created an average stay on unemployment benefits of 54 weeks.
To suggest that 1.3 million people should be immediately chopped from the unemployment insurance rolls -- a number that could reach 3.6 million by the end of 2014 -- is "a disservice to humanity," the congressman said.
"I just can't believe that we're going to leave here in a few days and say to these people that they're going to get an empty box for Christmas."