inequality which has grown, but he thinks it s worthwhile to talk about. my sense about it is, look, the people who are losing unemployment benefits had them for a long time. it is supposed to be a temporary measure. it s been extended repeatedly for a lot of people because the job market has been so slow to recover. i think on balance it s an issue that democrats can make some use of because it portrays the republicans as hard-hearted, which is a theme a lot of people agree with and which is a familiar democrat versus republican theme going back a long ways. there is some political motivation. i question how much. let me ask you, because you re already seeing ads from liberal groups pointing out people who were going to be cut off and lots of newscasts are doing reports on folks who were well intentioned but unemployed past the 26 weeks the state pays
inequality which has grown, but he thinks it s worthwhile to talk about. my sense about it is, look, the people who are losing unemployment benefits had them for a long time. it is supposed to be a temporary measure. it s been extended repeatedly for a lot of people because the job market has been so slow to recover. i think on balance it s an issue that democrats can make some use of because it portrays the republicans as hard-hearted, which is a theme a lot of people agree with and which is a familiar democrat versus republican theme going back a long ways. there is some political motivation. i question how much. let me ask you, because you re already seeing ads from liberal groups pointing out people who were going to be cut off and lots of newscasts are doing reports on folks who were well intentioned but unemployed past the 26 weeks the state pays
doing the medicaid expansion or talking about unemployment insurance and guess where the worst states are to be a kid. just happens to be predominantly in the red state south and yet those are the republican governors who are saying, do it our way. our way works. right. and they re wrong. right? so, you know, not to like mince words. they re completely wrong about this. but also, too, i think that eventually republicans will have to go back to the food stamps are not a partisan issue. unemployment insurance is not a partisan issue because i think the american people after the recession they understand it could be me out of work and not somebody else. a person of color. it s my family that s being affected. for the rhetoric that we hear about, you know, our children s future and the deficit right. what about our fchildren s future if their parents can t take care of them? absolutely. if you don t care about that, just say you re a hard hearted
joining us is guy benson, political editor for townhall.com and in the studio lena maxwell. are we a mean country? yes, we are, i think we re too mean-spirited. i don t think it s wrong to sue the widows because that is a part of consequences for andr andrew s behavior i disagree with you 100%. i don t think the widows had anything to do with the action. part of the estate. that s how the legal process works. all right. but they re inflicting pain on widows. there s not enough money in the world that would make me do that. now, why? what s the why behind it? have we always been a mean country when we were slaughtering native americans and taking their land, when we were enslaving yes. african-americans so from the jump has america become a mean country? mean is a little too simple. it s hard-hearted so we ve done
it s hard-hearted so we ve done a lot of things in the past that are mistakes. in order to make up for those mistakes we need to have policies that help the least among us, you know, live by matthew:25. i think we start with enslaving people then we re doing jim crow and all types of things policywise that harm african-americans all throughout generations and we re not making up for when we started out being mean during slave mr. benson, you say? i say america is absolutely not a mean or hard-hearted country. i mean, of course, i ll agree with zerlina that there are instances every single day of unimaginable cruelty in this society and history is littered with not just meanness but pure evil like slavery, like the trail of tear, we have a blemished history but that does not make the country itself at its core mean or mean-spirited and i think there are everyday examples everywhere you look that prove that point. on the micro level and on the