Protecting the Jobless

Lengthening the coverage period for unemployment insurance from 26 to 39 weeks is common sense--but will it get bogged down in partisan politics?

It’s an election year, and partisan acrimony has escalated. Democrats and Republicans portray themselves as the nation’s saviors and protectors against all the programmatic atrocities of the other side. Can we find a refuge of common-sense agreement amid this self-serving political din? Well, here’s a modest proposal for the economy: enact a temporary extension of unemployment insurance from the standard 26 weeks to 39 weeks. There’s nothing original about this; benefits have been extended in every recession except one since the 1950s. The proposal’s virtue is precisely its modesty. It would directly aid obvious victims of the downturn: people who lost their jobs through no fault of their own. Although most unemployed usually find new jobs within the normal six months, the task becomes harder in ...