The unemployment crisis should not be a state issue

Doing unemployment well is oxymoronic. Joblessness, as Pope Francis put it some years ago in an address to workers in Sardinia, "wears you out to the depths of your soul." There are no good circumstances under which millions of Americans might find themselves deprived not only of their wages but even of their ability to pursue employment.

This does not excuse the horrifying reality of the present, where workers in state after state have found themselves waiting on benefits as agency websites crash and bureaucrats politely suggest that they consider...