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Ernst Eliminating Unemployment Handouts to Millionaires

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) is ending the gravy train for the idle rich after a shocking report revealed that individuals earning more than a million dollars annually received over $271 million in unemployment insurance during the first two years of the Biden administration.

Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Ernst’s Ending Unemployment Payments to Jobless Millionaires Act will disqualify anyone making a million dollars or more from being eligible for unemployment income support.

“Our nation’s safety net shouldn’t be strained by subsidizing the lifestyles of the self-sufficient,” said Ernst. “Able-bodied millionaires shouldn’t expect handouts paid for by overtaxed and overworked Americans. The freebies for free-loading fat cats are over.”

A Congressional Research Service analysis of tax returns from individuals and households reporting incomes of a million dollars or more found:

  • In 2021, 14,972 millionaires collected $213.6 million of unemployment payments, about $14,267 each.
  • In 2022, 5,773 millionaires were paid $57.6 million in jobless benefits, nearly $10,000 each.

Click here to view the bill text.

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