Often in politics, elected officials choose to make the easier choice rather than the best choice for their constituents in the grand scheme of things.
Gov. Jim Doyle may be stepping into such a situation if he chooses to expand unemployment eligibility in order to receive more money from the federal stimulus bill. If Doyle adopts two of the four recommended changes, Wisconsin would receive $89 million in funding from the bill. The expanded eligibility would allow an extra 14,000 residents to apply for unemployment benefits.
Sounds like a pretty good deal, right? Wisconsin gets more stimulus money, the people get expanded unemployment eligibility and Doyle rides off into the sunset a hero. At least, that is, until the program's skyrocketing cost catches up with itself in a few years when the allocated funds run dry.
According to a Wisconsin State Journal article, 179,617 people in Wisconsin receive unemployment benefits, with 21,600 new unemployment claims filed the week of the report. During that same week, 105,521 people were receiving benefits, not including the 13,139 new claims.
In addition, Wisconsin already took out a $400 million loan from the federal government to keep its unemployment fund afloat, further displaying how financially irresponsible pumping more federal money into the program would be.
It's always difficult to pick fiscal responsibility over social struggle, but the floodgates are bursting at unemployment offices. If the number of people eligible for unemployment doesn't level off in the next few years, Wisconsin will be forced to watch its federal debt continue to spin out of control.
Doyle's latest parlor trick to solve the state budget woes was an increased tax on businesses. If the proposed expanded unemployment eligibility program further drains the state economy, will he turn again to businesses to carry the burden? Doyle's proposed heightened business taxes force employers to lay off workers. These workers are then forced to turn to unemployment in order to stay afloat, and the vicious cycle continues.
Although we understand Doyle's wish to provide immediate aid to those who are without jobs, his methodology seems painfully shortsighted and short-term. Will everyone still laud Doyle for his unemployment expansion if Wisconsin has an irreparable debt to the federal government in a few years?
In trying economic times, it's difficult to have to be the bad guy and ask citizens to simply persevere. If Doyle ever hopes to live down the near-irrevocable amount of financial debt Wisconsin has amassed, he'll realize that soaking up government funds in expanded unemployment eligibility is only feeding a cycle capable of perpetuating the same problems of job loss and state debt.
