Most everyone agrees that social welfare programs like unemployment aid offer needed relief to those desperately searching
for work in this tough economy. Since the debate over President Obama's
recovery package ramped up 18 months ago, economists have also tried to emphasize
just how effective this type of spending is at stimulating the economy
more broadly. Too often, it's a point that is overlooked in the jobs
debate nationally.
This week, the Economic Policy Institute crunched some numbers
in an attempt to quantify the impact stimulus spending has had on job
growth. According to their back-of-the-envelope calculation, the total
expansion of the unemployment benefit system since 2007 --
including a $25 boost in benefits and the extension of COBRA subsidies
to the unemployed -- has supported 1.7 million full-time
positions that would not have existed absent the spending. Those jobs,
of course, raise additional tax revenue that the government can use
anyway it sees fit.
Deficit-wary senators should keep that figure in
mind when they take another vote next week to extend the filing deadline for emergency unemployment benefits.
