If the Seattle Times, hardly a bastian of conservative thought, has figured this out...
Wednesday, April 6, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 a.m.
Editorial
A state House foolishly powerful
State House Democrats have run amok with their single-party-controlled state government.
How else to explain the foolish about-face on the much-needed unemployment-insurance reforms of two years ago? That bipartisan effort in a Democratic House and a formerly-GOP Senate was a boon to businesses — and possibly helped the state begin its climb out of the economic doldrums. But last week, in a 56-41 vote, the House approved a bill that all but guts the 2003 reforms that reined in Washington's jobless-insurance program, one of the nation's costliest for employers and most generous for beneficiaries.
The bill would return to the previous formula for benefits that averages an unemployed worker's two quarters of highest earnings in a base year — which benefits people who routinely work only part of the year. The 2003 reforms, in stages, extended the formula to consider all four quarters.
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