GOP Candidates Discuss Extending Unemployment Benefits (ContributorNetwork)

According to a new Gallup poll, 8.4 percent of Americans are unemployed and 18.3 percent are underemployed. In order ameliorate the consequences of this widespread joblessness, President Barack Obama has proposed a bill to Congress, the American Jobs Act, that extends unemployment insurance while Americans look for work.

All five of the candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination disagree with this approach. And at the recent South Carolina GOP debate, they had an opportunity to explain why.

Here is what they said, according to the debate transcript provided by the Council on Foreign Relations:

* Rick Santorum: "I think we have to look at having a reasonable time for people to be able to come back, get a job and then turn their lives around. But, what we've seen in the past under this administration, is extending benefits up to 99 weeks. I don't support that. I think if you have people who are out of work that long a period of time, it's without question it makes it harder to find work when you come back. When you're that far long away from a job, then you lose certain skills. You lose a lot of things when you're out of work."

* Newt Gingrich: "All unemployment compensation should be tied to a job training requirement. If somebody can't find a job and they show up, and they say, 'You know, I need help,' the help we ought to give them is to get them connected to a business-run training program to acquire the skills to be employable. Now the fact is, 99 weeks is an associate degree. ? It tells you everything you need to know about the difference between Barack Obama and the five of us, that we actually think work is good. We actually think saying to somebody, 'I'll help you if you're willing to help yourself,' is good. And we think unconditional efforts by the best food stamp president in American history to maximize dependency is terrible for the future of this country."

* Ron Paul: "A little while ago we were talking about funding the unemployed and of course that should be privatized and I don't support it, but I don't support cutting it off like that. I would cut some of this military spending like Eisenhower advises, watch out for the military industrial complex. Defend this country. We have to have a strong national defense, but we don't get strength by diluting ourselves in 900 bases in 130 countries. That is where the problem is."

Mitt Romney and Rick Perry did not discuss unemployment insurance at the South Carolina debate, but have shared their opinions on these benefits in the past.

* Mitt Romney: "If I were president now, I would go to Congress with a new system for unemployment, which would have accounts from which people could withdraw funds. ? Unemployment benefits, despite a web of regulations, actually serve to discourage some individuals from taking jobs, especially when the benefits extend across years. ? Establishing individual unemployment savings accounts over which employees would exercise direct control when they lose their jobs," as reported by The Washington Post.

* Rick Perry: "No, that (extending unemployment benefits) is giving incentives for people to be unemployed. Giving incentive to a job creator to create a job, that's we've done again in the state of Texas. You know, I'm going to go back to it because it's worked. It's one of the reasons I've called for a part-time legislature, part-time Congress up here. We only meet for 140 days every other year in Texas," according to a CNN forum transcript.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120119/pl_ac/10854535_gop_candidates_discuss_extending_unemployment_benefits

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