- It’d probably be more expensive to mount a real jobs program—like a program where you show up somewhere and they give you a job—than to simply keep extending UI, but it’d be better to establish something for folks who’ve been out of a job for over a year where we actually employ them doing something. We should give Paoletti money, and we should also give her something to do. It just can’t be that there’s absolutely nothing of public use that could be done in-or-around Salina, New York.
I don't think UI benefits should be linked to any kind of public work plan, but, yes, there is plenty of work to be done. I really want to go back in time and be in the meetings of Obama's economic advisers back in January in 2009. I want to say, what's the plan 'B'? I want to say, what if, contrary to your predictions, unemployment is not at 7.5% 16 months from now, but is instead at 9.7%? What will you do then? What would you do differently now?