Say it ain't so: Stimulus Would Alter Depression-Era Unemployment Benefit System

From Bloomberg:

The stimulus legislation would revamp the 74-year-old U.S. unemployment compensation program by encouraging states to give benefits to those who quit their jobs to care for ailing relatives.

The provision, sponsored by Representative Jim McDermott, is in the $789 billion compromise reached by House and Senate negotiators. Critics say the change would undermine the original intent of the Depression-era program as a cushion only for people whose jobs disappear.

“It’s fundamentally at odds with the basic tenets of unemployment insurance: temporary cash payments for people who lose their job though no fault of their own,” said Douglas Holmes, president of UWC-Strategic Services on Unemployment and Workers Compensation, a Washington-based group that represents employers. “Unemployment insurance is not public assistance, it’s not a family support program, it’s not food stamps.”