After their failure to come to a Congressionally mandated deadline to find a way to reduce deficit spending by $1.2 trillion, D.C. lawmakers will return to the nation's capital to discuss extending a payroll tax cut and reauthorizing extended unemployment benefits that allow up to 99 weeks of benefits for the longterm jobless. Without that reauthorization, workers laid off after July 1 of this year will receive only six months of assistance.
GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain said on CNN's State of The Union program Sunday that he opposes that reauthorization, which shouldn't be surprising considering the former pizza man's earlier statement that "if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself."
"Where do we stop?" he asked host Candy Crowley, adding, "Here again, extending unemployment benefits, extending the cut in the payroll tax are just distractions from the bigger problem, which is lack of economic growth which has not been there. Secondly, we're spending money we do not have."
This article appears in Nov 24-30, 2011.
