Even amid coronavirus crisis, Kansas and Missouri senators want to punish the unemployed

This week, the four U.S. senators from our area — Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley of Missouri, Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran from Kansas — cast a profoundly disappointing vote, opting for partisanship in a moment of crisis.

At a time of unprecedented economic devastation in their states, all four supported capping enhanced federal unemployment benefits in the $2 trillion stimulus bill. Their votes were indefensible as policy, and just plain shameful.

Voters — and history — will not forget.

The $2 trillion coronavirus response package was designed to address a long list of crises, including underfunded hospitals and clinics, struggling small businesses, families facing uncertain financial futures.

It was hammered out during several days of intense negotiations involving Republicans and Democrats. While imperfect, it was a legitimate attempt to boost the economy while the nation battles COVID-19.

Enhanced unemployment benefits were a critical part of the bill. Under the compromise, qualified Americans who lose their jobs would receive an additional $600 per week from the federal government on top of state-based replacement wages.

For some workers, the combination would result in unemployment benefits that total more than their regular wages, for up to four months.

This stunned Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska. He seemed shocked that low-income wage-earners might get an extra $100 or $200 a week for a few months while the economy is in free-fall.

Workers, Sasse said, would simply leave their jobs to pick up a fatter unemployment check. He called it a “disincentive to work.” In a statement, Blunt said it was a “disincentive to keep people on their current payroll.” Moran said, “My goal is to protect the American workforce.”

Let those absurd claims sink in for a moment. On Thursday, the Department of Labor said 3.3 million Americans had filed for unemployment, including 64,000 in Missouri and Kansas. On Wednesday alone, the Kansas Department of Labor received 181,000 phone calls about the state’s unemployment insurance procedures.

Those calls and claims aren’t coming from people quitting jobs for government checks, and businesses aren’t firing workers so that employees can get a better deal. Workers have been laid off because businesses are collapsing. And at a moment when an untold number of families are facing an uncertain future, panicking about how they might buy groceries or pay the bills, our elected leaders are most concerned about ensuring they don’t get a few more dollars in the short term?

This stark reality didn’t matter to Sasse and his buddies, who make $174,000 a year. They offered an amendment to the rescue bill capping unemployment benefits at 100% of a worker’s previous salary.

Blunt, Hawley, Moran and Roberts all voted for that amendment. Thankfully, it failed.

Our senators seem to think poor people are irresponsible. They think employees would rather collect a federal check for a few months than show up for work, or hold on to a job. They are wrong.

And let’s not hear any talk that senators want to “protect taxpayers,” or are worried about the federal deficit. The deficit was $1 trillion before this package. Every dime in the $2 trillion bill will have to be borrowed, largely because Congress handed out billions in needless tax cuts for rich people just a few years ago.

In recent months, Republicans have grown fond of referring to their opponents as socialists. Coronavirus has put an end to that mindless chatter. All four senators voted for the $2 trillion package on the final vote — proof, as if we needed it, that everyone is a socialist in the face of pandemic disaster.

The national response to the coronavirus is just beginning. Worse days are still ahead. Our country has little chance to overcome the damage if our leaders lack empathy and patience — and resort to pointless partisanship.

Our U.S. senators from Kansas and Missouri ignored those truths this week.