Huntsman said Paul's remarks do not get the U.S. closer to solving the problem. | AP Photos Huntsman jabs Paul on welfare

Jon Huntsman on Monday criticized comments from Sen. Rand Paul about unemployment benefits, saying the Kentucky senator’s remarks are not what’s “good for all Americans.”

The former Republican presidential candidate was responding to an interview Paul gave to “Fox News Sunday” in which he said if Congress were to extend unemployment benefits past 26 weeks, “you do a disservice to these workers.”


“This is language that’s suitable for the Republican primary, plain and simple. This isn’t the language that’s good for all Americans and that gets us closer to solving the problem,” Hunstman said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

( Also on POLITICO: Paul: Unemployment benefits 'disservice')

Huntsman, who is an honorary co-chairman of the bipartisan group No Labels, said Paul’s remarks illustrate why it’s time for politicians to move past petty politics.

“It’s about politics, and that is the broader issue that we’re all about here with No Labels, and that is in this long streak of pessimism this country has faced, the longest in our nation’s history, what are we going to do to come together — Republicans, Democrats, independents — and start finding solutions? Not words, not sound bites, not finger pointing, acrimony and anger, but actually finding solutions,” Huntsman said.

The former Utah governor acknowledged that unemployment is a problem that needs dealing with it, but it’s a “mystery” to him why Republicans aren’t talking about creating opportunities for people without jobs.

( QUIZ: Do you know Rand Paul?)

“We’ve got to do something about structural unemployment. We’ve left a lot of people behind,” Huntsman said. “The only way to deal with that is by rebuilding the opportunity ladder and giving people a way up. The Republicans own that narrative and the policies that go with that, and why we’re not talking about it in those terms is a mystery to me.”