CBO: If We Extend Unemployment Benefits, It'll Create Jobs & Boost GDP!

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in a report released on Wednesday claims that extending long-term unemployment benefits for another year would add 300,000 jobs to the economy.

No, seriously.

“The analysis … from the nonpartisan office estimates that keeping jobless benefits would cost the government $30 billion. But it would also lead to more spending by the unemployed, boosting demand for goods and services and creating new jobs [emphasis added],” the Associated Press notes.

Of course, as the AP neglects to mention, the CBO also warns that extending benefits would “[provide] an incentive for recipients to stay unemployed longer than they otherwise would have.”

And in case you weren't aware, there's a battle raging in D.C. over extending said benefits.

“Federal long-term unemployment benefits are set to expire on Dec. 29 for more than 2 million workers unless Congress approves an extension,” the AP report adds.

Democrats, as many Blaze readers know, are fighting with everything they have to extended unemployment benefits, but Republicans oppose the move without at least a few spending cuts to "offset the cost."

"This report is more evidence that extending help to those who are seeking work is a better investment for our economy than extending tax breaks for those resting comfortably atop the economic ladder," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Extending unemployment benefits is a better economic investment than tax breaks for the so-called “one percent” (i.e. people who own, run, and create businesses)?

“The CBO report found that for every dollar of jobless benefits that the unemployed spend, there is a $1.10 boost to the economy,” the AP notes.

Then that settles it! Everyone should go on unemployment and help boost the economy!

But seriously, folks, this isn’t economically sustainable. First, there's the cost [via CNN Money, emphases added]

Jobless Americans have collected more than half a trillion dollars in benefits over the past five years. State and federal unemployment insurance programs have cost roughly $520 billion.

[...]

Extending federal jobless insurance next year could cost as much as $30 billion ...

Second, remember what the CBO said about incentivizing people not to work? Yeah, as mentioned earlier on TheBlaze, that's already a thing:

“[It] is now more lucrative — in the form of actual disposable income — to sit, do nothing, and collect various welfare entitlements, than to work,” Zero Hedge grimly notes.

… either [be] on the left side of minimum US wage, and [rely] on benefits, or move to the right side at far greater personal investment of work, and energy, and … have the same disposable income at the end of the day,” the Hedge notes.

Final Thought: Seriously, if unemployment aid boosts GDP, then why not put ​everyone ​on it?

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Featured image courtesy Getty Images.