Obama's economic illiteracy

Barack Obama: "Voting for unemployment insurance helps people and creates jobs. And voting against it does not".

I wish some reporter would ask the president how taking money (via taxes) from a productive member of the private sector and giving it to someone who is producing nothing creates a job.

I also wish some reporter would ask how the above can in any way be called "insurance." Insurance is when you voluntarily pay a fee to someone in exchange for their assuming a specific risk you wish to avoid in the future. In the case of unemployment payments, we are taking money, by force, from one person and giving it to another, who hasn't worked for it and to whom it does not belong. That's not insurance.

We can argue about whether paying people not to work is a good idea, but let's call it what it is: welfare, or, more accurately still, forcible income redistribution.