New GOP Push: No Jobless Benefits for Rich

The GOP has found some millionaires it won't stand up for: Millionaires on food stamps. House Republicans have added a measure to their payroll tax holiday bill that would cut off food stamps and unemployment benefits for people with a gross adjusted income of $1 million or more, the New York Times reports. Of course, there aren't actually any millionaires receiving food stamps, which are already means-tested. But some do collect unemployment benefits, which in 2009 cost the government almost $21 million.

Many Democrats are on board with the idea, and indeed already had a similar provision in the Senate version of the payroll tax holiday bill. But one economist scoffed at the measure as "a water drop in a hurricane," because millionaire unemployment benefits aren't "one of the major problems with the program." And the 99% shouldn't get too excited by the GOP's populist turn; their bill also seeks to shorten the time the jobless can collect benefits. (More payroll taxes stories.)