The Myth About the Deficit and Your UI Benefits

Government has and can create jobs — on the federal, state, and local level — if the political will is equality to the need. It's been done as recently as the 1970s, and under a Republican president. The problem is that unemployment numbers don't worry politicians like they used to. Now, the bottom lines of Fortune 500 companies are a greater indication of the country's economic health than the size of the workforce.

(In fact, companies can improve their bottom lines even more when they layoff more workers, which is why they do so even when they're turning a profit — because it makes their profits even bigger.)

If the private sector is unable — or unwilling — to create sufficient jobs, at least enough to get unemployment back into single digits, then the government must, and is the only entity that can.