South Carolina Senator Willing To Die Hypothetical Death to Ensure There Are More Actual Deaths

 From Business Insider 4/30

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'Over our dead bodies': Lindsey Graham vows Congress won't extend additional $600 coronavirus-related unemployment benefits, as US death toll crosses the 60,000 mark

Kayla Epstein

Apr 30, 2020, 8:58 AM

• Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said he and his colleague Sen. Tim Scott would allow a $600 per week pandemic unemployment benefit to extend past July "over our dead bodies."
• Graham and Scott appeared at an April 29 meeting for AccelerateSC, Gov. Henry McMaster's task force dedicated to reopening the state's economy during the coronavirus crisis.
• The CARES Act provides three types of coronavirus-related unemployment benefits, including an additional $600 per week for people who are unemployed because of the coronavirus.
• Graham and Scott said giving people increased unemployment benefits would incentivize them to stay home rather than return to work, therefore slowing South Carolina's economic recovery.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday Congress would extend the additional $600 unemployment benefit provided in the coronavirus relief package past July only "over our dead bodies."His remarks came the day that the US passed 60,000 deaths caused by the coronavirus, by far the largest reported death toll in the world.

The senator made the remarks while appearing on an April 29 panel for AccelerateSC, the coronavirus task force created by Gov. Henry McMaster to examine ways to revitalize the state's economy. He was joined by his fellow Republican senator from South Carolina, Tim Scott.
"I promise you over our dead bodies will this get reauthorized," Graham said of his and Scott's opposition to government spending on unemployment. "We've got to stop this. You cannot turn on the economy until you get this aberration of the law of fixed."

The coronavirus relief package passed by Congress in late March provided emergency benefits to Americans who had lost their jobs because of the coronavirus outbreak. The law includes funds that grant people $600 per week on top of their regular unemployment benefits until July 25. Separately, the law also bolsters unemployment funds issued by individual states and makes more people eligible for the benefits.

Under regular circumstances in South Carolina, unemployment insurance lasts up to 20 weeks, and the average weekly benefit amount is $236. The maximum benefit is $326. In South Carolina, people who lost their jobs because of the coronavirus through no fault of their own are eligible for all three types expanded unemployment benefits under the relief package.

Proponents said the funds were necessary to shore up Americans' finances after social-distancing and stay-at-home orders closed nonessential businesses, which caused widespread job losses and furloughs. About 30 million people have filed for unemployment over the past six weeks.
Healthcare experts have said that social-distancing measures will need to remain in effect to some degree for several months and may need to be loosened or tightened depending on the state of the outbreak. Americans to a large extent are still being urged to work from home whenever possible and not to travel for work unless they are an essential worker.

But Graham and Scott said these additional unemployment benefits would incentivize people to stay at home rather than return to work, to the detriment of small business owners.
"The goal is to help people who are unemployed, to make sure that if they get unemployed, they'll have their income intact, but it was never our goal to pay people more to be out of work than at work," Graham added during a Q&A session, adding that "if a person is making $23 an hour on unemployment, it's going to be hard to get you go back to work for $17 hour job."

"If your job is available to you, please go back. The economy needs you back," Graham said.
In an email to Insider, Kevin Bishop, a spokesman for Graham, said the senator's intent was "to ensure people do not get more in unemployment than they do going to a 40 hour a week job."
Before the relief package's passage, Graham supported a failed amendment that would have prevented people from claiming more in unemployment than they would make in their 40-hour-a-week jobs. He said allowing people to have an increase in income on unemployment was "a perverse incentive which needs to be fixed."

Scott said he had spoken with employers in South Carolina who said they had difficulty bringing people back to work because they couldn't "compete" with the unemployment stipends.
"Bringing those folks back to work is creating frustration among their employees," Scott said. "The tension is real." Graham said he and Scott would oppose any extension of the additional unemployment benefits in upcoming legislation considered by Congress.

"I will never let this happen again with my vote," Graham said.

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This article seems very topical given our reading material on Profiles in Courage. Perhaps, Lindsey Graham should be awarded a profile in courage for his political bravery in standing up to Big Poor. It is controversial, but it is true. This additional benefit allowing people to stay home during a pandemic creates perverse incentives for workers. In reality, workers should have to choose between their own health and financial ruin. Otherwise, employers won't be able to force them to do what they want. I would like to commend Lindsey Graham for taking this courageous stand against the poorest, most disenfranchised members of society. Thank you, Lindsey.