this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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Even without the IRS, most states already calculate unemployment benefits based on income. This shouldn’t need much bureaucracy.
I don’t see inflation getting so bad that anyone with a million dollars every year need unemployment to survive in the next century unless a war occurs on our land or we run out of resources, by which time all laws should change drastically.
There is 1.8 million of unemployed people on unemployment insurance. Thousands is a drop in the bucket. You are looking at saving, what, 0.1% of the admin cost because a couple thousand people use it that don't need to? You are literally looking at saving around 26 million dollars per year with this measure (maximum payout is $500 per week). That's nothing for an agency that spends over 100 billion per year.
At 3% inflation in 50 years, 500k will be like 100k today in 50 years. In 100 years, 2 million will be like 100k in today's money. It does not take long for inflation to catch up. 3% is the historic average for inflation in the US.
This is an old conservative trick, don't fall for it. If we must have means tests, they must be indexed to inflation otherwise they turn into rollbacks of social programs with time.
I get your point with inflation now (the bill's text hasn't been released so hopefully it does talk about inflation), but 26 million per year is 26 million per year saved. Beyond the percentages there's also actual money.
With a population of 300 million, 26 million translates into an extra $0.08 in taxes per person per year. An amount, I might add, that isn't evenly distributed due to the progressive nature of our tax system. Is saving 8 cents per person really worth the added bureaucracy and potential for rollback of social programs? A million dollars can feel like a lot, I get it, but you really have to look at these sorts of social programs proportionally rather than in terms of absolute numbers.
To put things in perspective, the Arlington cemetery is spending 3 million dollars just to remove a statue.
The US gov could easily save 10 billion dollars, tomorrow, by reducing the defense budget by that amount. Buying a few less unused missiles and tanks. If we want to decrease the tax burden, then looking at the 700+ billion dollar military program almost certainly has a billion places to cut.
Or we could increase the tax rate on people earning over $1 million a year to cover the cost of millionaires using unemployment.
There is virtually no additional bureaucracy needed to carry this out as states already pay unemployment based on previous salary. To me, dividing it among many people doesn’t make it any better, especially since this is a state payroll tax so the poorer people pay more. Anything saved is anything saved.