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U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-12th Dist.) in a file photo.

(Frances Micklow/The Star-Ledger)

By Rush Holt

At the president’s State of the Union address last month, I was joined by Mark Wetherbee – a decorated two-tour Vietnam veteran, a Ewing community leader and one of the multitude of New Jerseyans struggling with unemployment.

Mark, who volunteers for the Ewing Township Green Team, Kiwanis and HomeFront in his free time, was laid off last October from his job as a property and facilities manager. Since then, he has sent out 203 resumes. He has had one interview.

Mark knows firsthand that nobody is immune to unemployment. Anybody can lose his or her job at any time.

The best way to deal with such an expensive, unpredictable hazard is to insure against it. That’s why we insure our homes against fires, our cars against crashes and our property against theft. In the case of unemployment, workers in essence purchase their insurance from the government. They pay a small premium in the form of a tax from each paycheck, and if and when unemployment strikes, they receive a modest weekly benefit until they can find work again.

In ordinary times, when workers can find jobs readily, unemployment benefits expire after 26 weeks. But when the economy weakens, Congress has always extended unemployment benefits.

A few weeks ago, however, House Republicans allowed the expiration of a program that extended unemployment benefits past the usual 26 weeks. They did so despite ample evidence that our job market remains exceptionally weak. Right now, 3.6 million people have been searching for work for six months or longer but can’t find a job.

So what were Republicans thinking? They claimed to be motivated by a desire to help the unemployed: that, by eliminating extended unemployment benefits, Congress would nudge out-of-work people to find good-paying jobs.

Yet this claim is as misinformed as it is hard-hearted. At a time when three people are out of work for every job opening, it would be impossible for everyone who is unemployed to find a job. There are more people than in previous recessions who are unemployed for long periods of six, 12, or even 18 months.

When the unemployment insurance extension expired last December, 90,000 New Jerseyans were immediately kicked off of the program. To put that in perspective, that’s enough people to fill every seat at the recent Super Bowl – with another 7,500 people attending a job fair on the football field.

Another 90,000 New Jerseyans will lose their unemployment insurance prematurely in the months ahead. Mark Wetherbee could, unfortunately, be one of them.

The move to cut unemployment insurance is part of a broader philosophy that Republicans have embraced: that our social safety net, however well-intended, hurts those it is intended to protect.

The former Republican vice presidential nominee, Rep. Paul Ryan, summed it up this way: The social safety net is “a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency.” Thus, Republicans say, we must cut unemployment benefits, food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and every other element of our social safety net.

I would encourage Paul Ryan to look Mark Wetherbee in the eye, hear his story, see his stack of 203 resumes, and then accuse this man of reclining in a hammock of dependency and complacency.

“The thing that’s really important to me is to contribute to a good employer and to my community,” Mark told me last month. “Having employment would allow me to provide the support that I can to my town and my community, and it would help me keep my family strong. The thing that scares me the most is losing this insurance. I don’t know where else to go.”

I’ve sponsored legislation that would immediately restore unemployment insurance benefits for New Jerseyans and others across the country who have been unemployed for up to a year. As the president said in his State of the Union address, “They need our help, but more important, this country needs them in the game.”

Rep. Rush Holt (D-Hopewell) represents New Jersey's 12th Congressional District.

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