BENE – FIT TO BE TIED

   The radio station my alarm clock wakes me up to has a political show on Sunday morning. for the third week in a row they played our own newly minted North Carolina Governor, Charlotte's  ex-Mayor McCheese - Pat McCrory's first State of the State address.  And true to his Republican roots he has announced he's gutting unemployment benefits by 33% to repay the federal government. He also states that this money never would have borrowed by his administration to begin with.

   Really? Those benefits have kept people in their homes, paying their mortgages and utility bills. Without it there would have been many more families losing their homes. What would Bank of America do with 100,000 more repossessed foreclosed on homes? And with thousands of families no longer paying their Duke Energy or Piedmont  Natural Gas bills, those companies would no doubt be forced to enact even more lay offs and in turn forcing more families to apply for and depend on unemployment compensation. So how does not borrowing this money help exactly?

   I understand no one likes to borrow money, and I understand the need to pay it back. But that doesn't have to be done right now, in the midst of a recession when tax revenues are at their lowest and the number of families depending on this program are at their highest. Cutting benefits now will only prolong the recovery and the suffering of millions from years to possibly decades. Once someone has lost a home to foreclosure they may never be able to qualify for another mortgage. Borrow the money if you have to to keep these families viable. Once the economy starts to grow again, and people have gone back to work, Tax revenues will increase- then you can pay back the loan. It is not only the right thing to do economically, but I believe it is the moral thing to do.

   Doing anything less would be inviting economic disaster. Can McCrory really be that short sighted? Or is what I've always suspected actually true? That Republicans really do hate poor people, even the recently poor ex-middleclass.