Cutting an automatic stabilizer like unemployment benefits at a time of official 9-10% unemployment is without sense.

There are about 5 unemployed people for every job opening-not that there are many job openings in the US.

This is not about lazy loafs leeching off of productive people. This is about people who are living in the worst economy since the Great Depression. I don't think people suddenly got lazy in the past two years.

In most states unemployment benefits max out somewhere between $300-400/week. I don't know about others but for me that's not much money at all-certainly not enough to sit around on easy street were I unfortunate enough to lose my job.

One of the driving factors in the current crisis has been the transfer of wealth from Main Street to Wall Street. When Wall Street was on the verge of collapse it screamed for government assistance and got it-billions of it. Few of the usual suspects in public discourse were speaking about deficit reduction or free market orthodoxy then. Now that the finance sector has been stabilized they are refusing to lend to small businesses or bankroll new startups-which has the impact of shrinking the economy. In addition there are only so many jobs to go around. The movement of capital to China, Mexico and other low-wage, low-investment type markets has devastated the American worker. Chinese refusal to let go of mercantilism is destructive. And the constant influx of illegal immigrant labor in the country just makes matters worse.

Certainly there are some individuals in a nation of 300+ million who do try to game the system. But I don't think such people are anywhere near the majority. Every time there is a job opening or job fair the area is swamped with applicants. People want to work.

Finally it's a matter of pure self-interest. Unemployed people-especially at the lower income/wealth levels tend to have to spend their benefits ASAP. They can't afford to save. This helps prop up aggregate demand-which remains weak in America. Without this stabilizer, demand is going to fall even further and we may wind up looking like Japan, with a lost decade or more of low interest rates, low wages, low inflation and high unemployment. And having large numbers of jobless people with no money and no chance to find work is not a good thing for any society. It can increase the possibilities of extremism. People with nothing left to lose are dangerous.