GOP Senate nominee: $600 virus unemployment benefit is 'way too much'

Tommy Tuberville, the Republican Senate nominee in Alabama, said on Tuesday that the recently expired $600 coronavirus unemployment “was way too much” during an interview on “Alabama’s Morning News with JT.”

Tuberville, who recently won the Republican primary and is challenging incumbent Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, claimed Alabamians are not working because “they’re making more settin’ around” and said he didn’t want unemployed workers to “get used to all this.”

Millions of Americans are currently unemployed as a result of lockdowns occurring due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed over 157,000 U.S. citizens so far.

The $600 unemployment supplement passed in March in the CARES Act was paid out in addition to state unemployment insurance. But it expired after Senate Republicans refused to extend it, even though experts said the benefit is the single best help to stave off a more severe economic crisis. Many have used the money to pay rent and purchase food.

Alabama has one of the lowest unemployment benefits in the country at $275 a week.

From the August 4 edition of 105.5 WERC’s “Alabama’s Morning News with JT”:

TOMMY TUBERVILLE: We’d probably get more done with just the president running this country. So let the Democrats go home and do whatever they do, which is not govern, which is not try to help the American people. And President Trump can get it done, he’ll get enough done.

 

You know, you’ve got to remember now, we’ve still got a trillion dollars left that we haven’t spent in the other package, so it’s not like we’re – it’s a desperate situation. What happened is we had the elimination of the employment tax this past week, this plus $600, which was way too much. We’re having people just set out not working because they’re making more settin’ around.

 

We’ve got to go back to work. I’d rather pay ’em to go to work, pay people more money to go back to work rather than just set at home, because we’re going to get used to all this and it’s not going to work.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.