Submitted by Larry Littlefield, Feb 8, 2008 09:06

The failure to extend unemployment insurance compensation was the greater injustice. Both the state and federal governments collect unemployment taxes, but in normal times only the state governments pay. The state payments last for just six months, by which time people are expected to get a job. In times of high unemployment, however, the federal government extends unemployment benefits, on the grounds that if workers cannot find jobs, it is not their fault.

Nationally, it is not yet a time of high unemployment. But in the Midwest in general, and Michigan and Ohio in particular, the economy has been in recession virtually continously. The message from the federal government -- if you are unemployed in the Midwest, you have to move away to a place where employment is growing. But employment has now stopped growing elsewhere too.

I remember what is was like to be on the other end of such a policy, in the early 1990s. California and the Northeast were in a deep recession. The rest of the country never really lost jobs, and didn't see a problem. Unemployment insurance benefits should have been extended, because the Midwest needs the help, and the federal government has collected the money to fund it.

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