Congress is adding a TRILLION dollars to the deficit every year. A freaking TRILLION dollars. The Democrats of course can’t find a single item in $4 Trillion worth of Federal Budget to cut in favor of extending jobless benefits, and as should be expected, the Republicans are vile creatures because they don’t want Uncle Sam to pay unemployment benefits for nearly two full years.

A measure restoring jobless benefits of up to 99 weeks for people struggling to find work after months of unemployment is expected to rebound from a temporary setback in the Senate.

…Republicans were seeking to force Congress to pay for its $18 billion cost and not add to budget deficits topping $1 trillion. But George Voinovich, R-Ohio, broke with his party to vote with Democrats to keep the measure on track

Seriously, Republicans! Is this the straw that broke the camel’s back? Why didn’t any of you stand up against the expenses of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? And seriously, Democrats! Nothing at all in $4T worth of spending is less important than extending jobless benefits. There will be no studies on the methane content of bovine farts in 2010?

I don’t believe it for a second. See kids, look how easy it is to play partisan politics:

Democrats: We’ll extend the jobless benefits because you earned it and you deserve it!

Republicans: get off your lazy asses and find yourself a fucking job—any job!

It’s all boilerplate talking points. It’s easy to say to ask the Dem’s in the name of “fiscal conservatism” (which is a myth if ever there was one!) when is enough, enough? And it’s true. How much is enough? Where do you draw the line, Democrats? Two years of unemployment? Three? More?

And it’s easy to accuse the GOP of being unsympathetic towards the needs of their constituents, that they’ve lost touch with reality. It’s true, too. We’re not talking about “frictional unemployment” here, this shit is real and systematic. They have lost touch with reality (more on that later). Under normal conditions, persistent unemployment doesn’t last because people do get off their asses and find work.

Reality, on the other hand, is quite a bit different.

There is a “war of all against all”, only much to Hobbes’ chagrin, government is the primary instigator. They subsidize poisons, and people get sick. They encourage sloth and people get lazy. They steal from Peter to bribe Paul, and go fucking figure: Peter becomes jealous of Paul, even angry at him. Peter starts to demand that he gets to determine how the money will be spent on Paul.

Unless you’re on the outside looking in, this “laziness” or lack of “sympathy” is the problem.

When you’re on the outside, looking in, it should be apparent that a lack of freedom—to live, to work, to trade, to interact—is the real problem.

And more government will never fix it.