California Governor Gavin Newsom said Monday that the state could not afford to pay its share of President Donald Trump’s new expansion of unemployment benefits because it did not have the money.
The new expansion, created by President Trump in an executive order on Saturday, would provide $400 per week in additional assistance, $300 of which would come from the federal government. The remaining $100 would come from the states.
Newsom said that providing $100 per week would cost the state $700 million per week, rising to nearly $3 billion if the federal portion of the benefits were to run out of money. He said that the coronavirus aid that had already been given to the state had already been allocated to other spending priorities, and that the state did not have the money to make up the difference.
The state “cannot shoulder this burden without cutting important services,” he said.
Moreover, he said, paying an additional $100 weekly benefit through the state’s beleaguered unemployment system would also result in “time delays” and “enormous consternation” for people applying for benefits. – READ MORE
Listen to the insightful Thomas Paine Podcast Below --