Obama: No One Wants Unemployment Check over Job

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama presented a mixed economic message, saying that 2014 will be a “breakthrough year for America” while simultaneously touting the dire need to issue an unprecedentedly long and generous extension of unemployment insurance. 

Obama blasted as callous those who questioned the need to continue extending unemployment insurance.

“Now, I’ve heard the argument that says extending unemployment insurance will somehow hurt the unemployed because it saps their motivation to get a new job. I, I really want to, I want to go at this for a second,” said Obama. “I can’t name a time where I met an American who would rather have an unemployment check than the pride of having a job.” 

According to a St. Louis Federal Reserve study released last May, unemployment insurance fraud costs U.S. taxpayers $3.3 billion. The report found unemployment benefits going to individuals in prison, those who already have jobs, and scammers collecting unemployment insurance checks for dead people.