Last updated on July 27th, 2021 at 04:28 am

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) lied on national television on Sunday when he blamed expanded unemployment benefits for people not working.

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Sen. Scott said on Fox News Sunday, “They continued for several more weeks except for states like South Carolina where we decided to do away with enhanced on employment benefits and what happened to our unemployment rolls? They went down. They dropped precipitously. There’s no doubt that adding more money, adding more benefits for too long reduces the number of people who will go back to work. Secretary Yellen said just a few weeks ago that yes, we should expect inflation to increase for the next several months. That’s not transitory. “

A New Study Shows Cutting Unemployment Benefits Did Not Send People Back To Work

A study of Census Bureau data as reported by CNBC found:

Specifically, the share of adults receiving unemployment benefits fell sharply (by 2.2 percentage points) in the dozen states that cut federal funding on June 12 or 19, according to Dube. That translates to a 60% reduction in unemployment rolls in those states, he said.

But there wasn’t a corresponding increase in employment among this group — in fact, the share of adults with a job fell by 1.4 percentage points over the same period, according to Dube. (Employment rose by 0.2 percentage points in states that didn’t end the pandemic benefits.)

Republicans Threw People Off Unemployment With No Jobs To Go Back To

Sen. Scott’s lie was based on the myth that people who lost their jobs had the option of staying on unemployment or going back to their old jobs. However, many of the people who were laid off in the pandemic don’t have jobs to go back to, because the pandemic forced their employers out of business.

Republicans didn’t put people by to work by ending unemployment benefits. They created more poverty.

Tim Scott is one of the more dangerous misinformers in the Republican Party because he looks so credible while saying things that aren’t true.

People didn’t go back to work when Republican states cut unemployment benefits. Tim Scott lied to justify Republicans creating more poverty.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association