Recently I wrote about the insanity of the payouts to every
American through the recent “stimulus” bill. These were sold to the public as
essential to help those out of work because of the pandemic. But then it also
turns out these will go as well to people still fully employed – including
Federal, state and local government employees, to whom this is just an
unwarranted windfall at taxpayer expense.
And nobody in the media covered this. I wonder why …
These cash payments were also supposed help the economy and
hard-hit businesses by putting a lot of extra spending money into the pockets
of every American; money they could quickly spend giving an instant boost to an
economy flat on its butt.
Except for one important thing: The reason these businesses are hard-hit is
because they were ordered to close or severely curtail operations by the
geniuses in DC and then laid off most of their employees as a result. Big employers such as Disney, Universal, and
other theme parks, as well as the cruise lines, airlines, restaurant and hotel
chains, and many other retail and hospitality employers aren’t open.
So there are not enough places and businesses at the moment that
would normally suck up the extra spending money; certainly not enough that
could suddenly employ enough people to make a significant difference. The extra
cash sent out will probably be saved by most recipients.
As infinitely dumb as all this is, it gets worse under
the guise of helping the unemployed make ends meet before their jobs come
back. We are sweetening unemployment
comp by as much as $600 a week on top of whatever their state provides, making
it more attractive for some people to want to be unemployed, and less
attractive to go back to work until those benefits run out.
Which will keep the unemployment rate artificially high long
after the jobs are back. And which is
precisely what we saw when we last extended unemployment benefits – a large
number of recipients didn’t even bother to look for a job until their benefits
were about to be cut.
We’re also broadening who can collect unemployment. Now you
won’t even need to have lost a real full-time job to collect benefits. You can be a part-time worker. You can be a Lyft
or Uber driver, or deliver for DoorDash, making a few extra bucks on the
side. You can be a self-employed dog
walker or aromatherapy consultant, phrenologist. Or whatever.
Think about that.
In what world did some elected or appointed buffoon not see
the insanity of this? Who did not see how a whole host of part-time and
“self-employed” people and “gig” workers would game the system? Jesus, are the
people in Congress really that stupid, that naïve?
I withdraw the question. It’s obvious.
It’s probably more likely they just didn’t give a rat’s ass
about preventing massive fraud because it would help them politically.
Yes, in case you missed this, part-time workers,
“freelancers,” others who claim to be “self-employed,” off-the-books
contractors and landscapers, independent dog walkers, and Uber and Lyft drivers
– essentially all the people who already didn’t have a full-time job to lose –
are now eligible to collect unemployment. How’s that work again? How does anyone calculate the wages they’ve
lost from jobs they didn’t have? Just
take their word for it? Sure, that makes
sense.
One way would be to require them to show tax returns for a
recent year or so, or submit a simplified return, which is the current plan. That
makes perfect sense.
But Democrats in Congress and elsewhere are arguing that
showing tax returns shouldn’t be a requirement because some seniors on SSI and
some on disability aren’t required to file annual tax returns, so they don’t
bother to file.
Well so do a lot of off-the-books weasels and deadbeats who
should be reporting their income and filing, but don’t. There are also those who don’t work at all
that will suddenly “remember” working for an imaginary “business” that failed,
just to get unemployment benefits. I
think that’s who Democrats want to protect.
Democrats aren’t interested in closing that gaping loophole;
they want everyone, worthy or not, to get lots of free money. Mainly so they
can take credit for it around the 2020 elections.
I’ll wager the majority of these newly eligible people
haven’t even filed returns for years, or if they did they grossly underreported
income – which would significantly lower any unemployment comp they’d receive.
Either way, they haven’t been paying their “fair share” of taxes.
Where do you think the people in Optima Tax Relief
commercials come from? You know, the
ones who say they owed the IRS thousands in back taxes for years? They’re just
the ones who got caught. In addition to the usual deadbeats who “forgot” to pay
taxes, there are millions more running off-the-books businesses – like catering,
bookkeeping, decorating, or lawn services, for example – out of their homes and
not reporting a dime of income to the IRS.
If they provided a service to a regular business, they may
have gotten a 1099 along the way, which alerts the IRS.
But not always. If they do work
for a residential customer or another sole proprietor, probably not. That’s one
of the perks for them – they get to keep everything; Uncle Sam gets bupkis most
of the time. So now we are going to pay
unemployment comp to people who usually don’t pay much if anything into it?
Believe it or not, that’s the plan.
That’s why in a moment of karmic justice, it’s important to
require them to show a tax return to collect anything. All these years they’ve
skated and stayed below the radar. I know people like this – people with no discernable
regular income who live quite well. Chances are you do, too.
I also have first-hand experience with people collecting unemployment
comp and continuing to earn a lot of money off the books on the side. I had to
fire an employee one time, years ago, and he immediately filed and got
unemployment comp, even though I fired him for cause. He used the income from
unemployment to finance a new company he was starting. Even after that new company was up and
running, he continued to collect unemployment until his benefits ran out.
He didn’t need the extra money, but as long as he could get
it, he would.
Which is my point all along: nobody leaves free money on the
table. This new plan to help the unemployed
could have been handled easily within current unemployment benefit
qualification rules in place by each state. Although I believe it’s
unnecessary, the $600 per week bump in benefits would have been okay for a
little while, like a couple of months.
But expanding who can qualify – and then fighting against any
form of verification, like demanding a tax return to prove earnings – is simply
ridiculous, wasteful, and an invitation to widespread fraud. And a lot of people will gladly accept that invitation.
Next up: Saving businesses that aren’t really
businesses.
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