This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Job losses happen all up and down the scale of income levels in America.
And unemployment compensation is intended to make sure that people in dire situations have a resource to pay for the basics, like groceries. It certainly isn't intended to replace an income.
Of course, those with higher incomes are more likely to have savings accounts, homes that are paid off, cars without car loans, things like that.
And those circumstances are triggering a U.S. senator to plan changes that will be coming.
Because she found that the Joe Biden administration paid $271 million in unemployment compensation during just two years – to millionaires!
A report at the Federalist explains, "Good news for millionaires and billionaires: They are currently eligible for unemployment benefits, whether they need it or not. That has been true since 1964 when the Department of Labor determined unemployment is for all eligible workers no matter their income level"
That precedent resulted in Biden, in 2022, giving unemployment checks to 5,773 people earning $1 million or more.
About $58 million went to "out-of-work millionaires," an average of about $10,000, the Federalist confirmed.
"In 2021, a COVID quarantine year with extra dough baked into unemployment, 14,972 people earning $1 million or more received unemployment compensation. The Biden administration spent nearly $214 million keeping millionaires fed, paying an average of $14,200 each," the report said.
The numbers come from a Congressional Research Service document prepared for Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the Senate DOGE Caucus chair, who plans to shake things up.
"Our nation's safety net shouldn't be strained by subsidizing the lifestyles of the self-sufficient," Ernst explained, the report said. "Able-bodied millionaires shouldn't expect handouts paid for by overtaxed and overworked Americans. The freebies for free-loading fat cats are over."
Her plan is the "'Ending Unemployment Payments to Jobless Millionaires Act of 2025," which would bar federal cash being used for unemployment compensation for an individual whose wages during their base period are equal to or exceed $1 million
The CRS numbers were based on tax returns of people who "earned over $1 million and also received unemployment," the Federalist said.
