There are some who object to the federal unemployment insurance extension, which will keep money coming for the long term unemployed, because it will add to the deficit. But employers pay a federal unemployment insurance tax in addition to the state unemployment insurance tax. When there is no federal unemployment insurance extension, which is almost all the time, the states pay for the unemployed, not the federal government. Those federal unemployment insurance taxes just go — somewhere. A trust fund? Like the Social Security Trust Fund? Was that "lock box" opened too for spending on other things? Or did the federal UI fund run out, perhaps because the tax only covers the first $7,000 of wages? I haven't heard anyone ask about this.
Another objection to the extension is that those who could find jobs, albeit not the perfect job they want, are lollygaging and collecting unemployment insurance instead. Cut it off, and they will get one of the plentiful jobs allegedly available for half what they once earned, some say. Others counter out that the long term unemployed see their labor value diminished by idleness, and find it harder and harder to get a job.
That objection and that concern, if they are real and not just posturing, could be addressed by extending federal unemployment insurance but adding a work requirement similar to workfare. Kind of like the old CCC and WPA back in the first Great Depression. The work might not be that useful at first, but as in the 1930s it might become useful if this thing goes on long enough for the projects to get organized. And it would get people doing something.
But first thing's first. What happened to all those federal unemployment insurance taxes paid between the recessions?