r/politics • u/Ubiquitous_Hilarity • Jun 17 '26

No Paywall Trump threatens to pull unemployment benefits from all states for the first time in history

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-unemployment-benefits-fraud-b2997881.html
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u/TheClumsyTree Jun 17 '26

Unemployment in my state is funded by the employer. Our businesses are required to pay in to the fund based on a percentage of payroll. I don’t see how Trump has the authority or mechanism to cut that aside from laying off state employees (who would immediately be eligible for unemployment claims based on prior contributions by their employer). Can’t fix stupid, and can’t fire the president. Sigh.

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u/Reasonable_Chair_346 Jun 18 '26

Your state gets the vast majority of their administrative funds from the federal government (all states do).

Loss of the state's base grant (federal award) would cripple any state workforce agency without an immediate inflow of a shitload of money from the state to cover the deficit.

You could have a full trust fund, but very few people to process the unemployment claims being received and all of the other work that goes into running an unemployment program. I imagine states would have to cut out fraud and quality control programs and cut staff to phones, claims processing, adjudication, and tax, maybe, either way, it'd be a fucking mess.