Illinois Dem Rep After Fiscal Cliff Deal: 'The Unemployment Check is in the Mail'

Because “an economy that creates job” isn’t. Really. It isn’t.

For Rep. Danny K. Davis, Illinois Democrat, the “fiscal cliff” fight came down to one thing: the unemployment checks the government will still be able to send to thousands of his constituents.

“When I go to church on Sunday, I know that I will see people with the assurance that pretty soon an unemployment check is in the mail,” he said.

Mr. Davis said he’d come to the floor Tuesday after speaking with two constituents who’d called his office begging him to vote against the cliff deal, which extended tax cuts for most Americans, allowed rates to rise for the wealthiest and included $330 billion in other new spending such as the expanded unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless.

He told those constituents the unemployment benefits were too critical to too many Illinois residents for him to vote no.

I get the feeling that this story is related, somehow. A woman got arrested trying to use her food stamps to buy an iPad. The only surprise here is that she got arrested. Pretty soon iPads will be an inalienable right for unemployed. If you still have a job, it will be your patriotic duty to pay more in taxes to buy them.