The jobless rate fell to 9.5 percent in June, still far too high to signal a healthy economy. It came in slightly lower than the month before only because more than a half-million people gave up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.
Do workforce dropouts expect unemployment benefits to be extended past 99 weeks? They're bound to be disappointed for a while, as the latest attempt to extend payments is stalled due to Congress' summer recess. Joe Six Pack didn't save any of his unemployment checks, so he's going to have to bum cigarettes from his trailer park neighbors until Congress gets back to work. The anti-bailout mood on Capitol Hill is another headwind that advocates of more handouts will need to overcome.
I think the majority party will eventually carry through an extension of the bennies only because this is an election year and they need the votes from dummies. I've been wrong before but I couldn't care less. I did the smart thing and saved money all of my life, and now I get to pay higher taxes to feed my deadbeat countrymen who wouldn't know a saved dollar if it bit them in the pants. Yakov Smirnoff used to exclaim "What a country!" when he made some observation of American life that he found astounding. Now I feel like saying the same thing in shame, as I can hardly believe that so many Americans think the government owes them a living. At least Mr. Smirnoff still has a job.
