COLUMBIA, S.C. – Riding on a wave of support from the Trump administration, South Carolina has announced stricter conditions on state-funded unemployment benefits, requiring Carolinians to prove that that they are gainfully employed to be eligible.
Proponents celebrated that the new regulations “will lift South Carolinians out of poverty by encouraging as many as possible to participate in the booming Trump economy.” Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, echoed the sentiment at the bill’s signing, “South Carolina is home to 1.7 million out-of-work Americans, and it is our duty to safeguard the money that we’ve set aside for unemployment benefits for only for those motivated enough get of their couch and into the workforce.”
Emboldened by the Trump administration’s support in Federal courts, few local lawmakers fear legal threats to to the legislation. “How are these loafers going to sue?” asks State Rep. Philip Lief, a co-sponsor of the bill, “if you’re too lazy to work enough for unemployment handouts, then you probably don’t have the ‘go-getter’ attitude required to overturn a centuries-old system designed to maintain the cycle of poverty and humiliation that keeps them down.”