Tillis Doubles Down on False Claims About Unemployment, Calls For Slashing Payments in Half

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

August 20, 2020

Tillis Doubles Down on False Claims About Unemployment, Calls For Slashing Payments in Half

Statement Comes As New North Carolina Unemployment Claims Increase Over Prior Week

Raleigh, N.C. - At an event yesterday in Fayetteville, Senator Thom Tillis doubled down on claims that $600 unemployment payments kept people from going back to work, despite ample evidence that such assertions are false. Tillis also called for cutting federal payments in half to just $300.

As far back as July, Tillis falsely claimed that federal unemployment payments for hundreds of thousands of out-of-work North Carolinians may “make the problem worse.” In March, Tillis opposed the $600 payments altogether, voting to remove them from the CARES Act -- payments that North Carolinians have referred to as a “lifeline” and how they “sleep at night now.”

Since March 15th, more than 1.2 million North Carolinians have applied for unemployment insurance, with more than 16,000 new claims just last week. Last month, the national unemployment rate remained above 10%, higher than its peak during the 2008-2009 Great Recession. 

“Instead of making false claims about out-of-work North Carolinians, Senator Tillis should explain why the Senate took off on a three week vacation without passing an unemployment extension to provide economic security for struggling families,” said Piedmont Rising Executive Director Casey Wilkinson. “Hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians are still unemployed, unsure how they will pay the bills or whether they’ll get any more federal support at all. If anyone needs to get back to work, it’s Thom Tillis. He should demand that the Senate cut its vacation short and pass the $600 unemployment extension North Carolinians deserve.”

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