You can tell by the fact that he’s demanding here that the House simply agree to allocate the money for another ‘temporary’ three-month extension of unemployment benefits for people unemployed past 26 weeks. The GOP is not adverse to extending benefits, by the way: but the House is fairly insistent that this spending be offset by an equivalent amount of cuts.

…Look, I’m sorry that Barack Obama and the fumble-fingered dolts of the 111st Congress completely gut-shot the recovery, and I am really unhappy about the fact that the labor participation rate in this country has sunk to a frightening level. But somebody’s got to be the adult here, and the adult thing to do in this situation is to stop extending unemployment benefits from half a year to one year, 20 weeks. You can call me a heartless old so-and-so all you like; that just tells me that you don’t have a better argument for keeping those people on the rolls than “When they start looking for work again the official unemployment rate is going to go through the roof.” Which is a major reason why the Democrats are so hesitant to finally bite the bullet and end the extensions.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: I don’t blame Harry Reid for wanting to talking about income inequity: in his shoes I’d rather discuss that than, say, poor economic stewardship, Obamacare, and/or shady real estate deals.