GOP Moves to Require Pee Tests and GEDs for Unemployed A new bill threatens to make being jobless
even harder than it already is.
Despite her MBA, Amy Davis was unemployed for over a year. Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA
It's a difficult time to be unemployed in America. But congressional Republicans seem determined to make it even more difficult.
On Tuesday, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed HR 3630, a bill extending President Barack Obama's 2 percent payroll tax cut. But the tax cut, which was set to expire on January 1 and will save the average American family an estimated $1,000 next year, is just about the only candy cane in this holiday stocking. The rest of HR 3630 is bursting at the seams with conservative goodies, including—get this—drastic changes to the unemployment insurance system that could force unemployed Americans to undergo drug tests, require them to get GEDs, and greatly reduce the time they're able to receive benefits.
Under current law, unemployed workers are eligible for up to 99 weeks of federal and state unemployment benefits. States pay for the first 26 weeks of those benefits, and the federal government foots the bill for between 34 and 73 more—the exact number varies from state to state based on each state's unemployment rate. If the Republicans get their way, workers who use up their 26 weeks would only be able to receive benefits through week 59—reducing their benefits by up to 40 weeks. The GOP bill also reduces the monetary value of the benefits it does provide.
Slashing unemployment insurance so dramatically could be disastrous for the economy. Unemployed people have very little money, and are therefore highly likely to spend any money they do have on necessities like food, shelter, and clothing. That's one reason why many economists, including former White House adviser Jared Bernstein, consider unemployment benefits to be one of the most efficient forms of economic stimulus in existence. Mark Zandi, an economic adviser for Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) 2008 presidential campaign, has estimated that each dollar spent on extending unemployment benefits generates $1.61 in economic growth. Meanwhile, according to an analysis from the National Employment Law Project (NELP), the Republicans' bill would result in $22 billion in lost economic growth and cost at least 140,000 jobs next year. With unemployment still hovering around 8.6 percent, those numbers are pretty catastrophic.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/12/unemployed-insurance-ged-drug-tests
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on food and clothing 
