Rand Paul is a disservice to the GOP’s African American outreach



Photo credit: Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog

The day after he presided over the opening of the Michigan Republican Party’s office for African American outreach, Rand Paul told Fox News that extending unemployment benefits for workers unable to find work for as long as 99 weeks was doing them “a disservice”.

“I support unemployment benefits for the 28 weeks they’re paid for… If you extend it beyond that, you do a disservice to these workers.”

This news will come as a surprise to Detroiters who are out of work. In a city that is nearly 83% African American, the unemployment rate is believed to be a staggering 18%. To suggest that it is that high because people choose to live on meager unemployment benefits rather than because there simply are not enough jobs is an insult to Detroiters. Keeping this critical social safety net in place isn’t doing them a “disservice”, it’s keeping them from losing their homes and ensures they can keep the lights and heat on and food on the table.

In the last 2 months, the deficit is down $61 billion — more than 2x the cost of extending unemployment insurance. http://t.co/uTPXfoG1ND — LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) December 9, 2013

If this is an example the GOP’s rebranding of their Party to woo African Americans to support them, I’d suggest they are going about it in entirely the wrong way.

It’s just one more example of how tone-deaf and out-of-touch the Republicans are when it comes to the issues that impact minority groups in our country