Originally Posted by Sly

No.

As an employee, unemployment taxes are taken out of my pay. My employer also pays an unemployment tax for me. The purpose of this tax is so that if I would become unemployed, I could file for unemployment and get a regular check that makes up a somewhat fair percentage of my regular pay.

The unemployment tax is something that I and my employer pay for myself. That is essentially my money. If I lose my job, I should be entitled to that money because that's why I was paying that tax to begin with.

Now obviously these benefits only last for so long. What has happened here is both the federal and state governments have pitched in to extend unemployment benefits using general tax dollars, and that is what many people have a disagreement with.

Everyone that has paid into unemployment should be able to receive that money back, same as Social Security.