That’s Right Nate

One of the best things that has come out of the economic downturn has been a new Republican economic strategy.  Many people like myself who have found Reaganomics and the theories of Milton Friedman solid, but too soft and cuddly to be truly satisfying have embraced this new philosophy espoused by the Heritage Foundation, pundits, and Republicans in Congress alike.    Maybe Arizona’s Senator John Kyl  explained it best when he argued that unemployment benefits dissuade people from job-hunting “because people are being paid even though they’re not working.”

Congressman Jack Kimble (R-CA) told reporters at a House Republican Summit last week, “Unemployment was meant as a safety net for the workers of this country.  It was never meant to be supposed to support non-workers.  The best way to get people back to work is to end this entitlement.”

I have to wonder if that’s really enough though.   Sure, cutting off unemployment and COBRA benefits will get some of the unemployed to stop laying on their couch watching Oprah and check out the want ads, but will it really get to the hard core unemployed–the ones who have made an art form out of life on the public rolls.  I think not.   To really get everybody to start looking for work, we need to start fining the unemployed.

I would say the fine should start small enough at maybe $10 a day and gradually double every week for those who are persistently unemployed.   This will give the recently laid off a couple of weeks to find something new before the big fines really start to come into play, yet still give those who are unemployed a great new incentive to get back to work again.  Now, I would never suggest imprisoning the jobless who could not pay, but I would suggest possibly public shaming or loans as a way to deal with those who refuse to pay their for share.   As Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle put it, “What has happened is the system of entitlement has caused us to have a spoilage with our ability to go out and get a job…There are some jobs out there that are available. Because they have to enter at a lower grade and they cannot keep their unemployment, they have to make a choice now.  We’re making them make a choice between unemploment benefits and going back to work and working up through the ranks of that job and actually building up a good wage again.”

Sharron Angle is running hard for Harry Reid’s spot as Senator from Nevada and Senate Majority Leader.   She’s excited the Nevada tea party and though she’s a fresh face on the national, she’s been known to Nevada residents for sometime.   She’s ahead in the polls and has been able to comfortably concentrate her campaign commercials on showing what kind of guns she can fire instead of policy issues.

She’s been a big advocate for religious rights ever since she pushed to get a Scientology program into Nevada women’s prisons in 2003.  In fact, Angle has argued that the separation of church and state imposed on this country in the first amendment is unconstitutional.

In the case of abortion, it is her faith that guides Ms. Angle.  Saying “God has a plan”, Angle is against abortion in case of rape and incest because she believes that God would not have had the woman in question raped if he did not have a plan for her and her baby.   The plan may be grand like the baby growing up to be President or it may be small like the shame of the mom being a lesson to other loose women to control their alcohol intake, dress more modestly, and not go into strange bars without a male escort.  I think it’s very reassuring for all rape victims to know that even if it was scary, God planned their rape and was guiding the actions of the rapist all along.

Angle is also ready to make big noise on the economy by forcing the lazy to get back to work.   Angle favors cutting unemployment benefits so that goldbrickers are forced to go back to work and take the many entree level jobs that they turn their noses up at.   Much of the current unemployment is caused by the desire of so many people to start in middle management or higher.  There’s an attitude sweeping the country that if you’re not going to get a key to the executive washroom, you might as well just live off your dividends and put off applying for work.

With a woman of faith and intelligence like this, the GOP is well on their way to taking over Harry Reid’s Senate seat and Majority Leadership.