Here we go: Congress wants to expand unemployment insurance and paid sick leave for coronavirus victims

And it sounds like the Trump Administration agrees that people need to get something, although there are supposedly differences on what that looks like and who’s responsible for it.

Congress never wastes a crisis if it can double as an excuse to spend more money, and in this case we could be looking at a gigantic hike in federal outlays:

Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D., Mass.), whose office is working on the legislation, said the focus of the measure is on expanding testing for the virus, as well as extending unemployment insurance and paid sick leave to individuals who contract the virus or need to be quarantined. The legislation could be expansive because of the virus’ fast spread.

“We should not limit ourselves, given the potential consequence,” Mr. Neal told reporters on Tuesday. “This is an emergency.”

When a Democrat who wants to spend more money declares “this is an emergency” grab your wallet and hold on to it tightly.

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By declaring “we should not limit ourselves,” Neal gives away the game here. He wants an open-ended commitment on the part of Congress to spend God-knows-how-much, because there is no telling at this point how many people might need to be quarantined. There are only 1,000 cases in the U.S. at the moment, and we’re all hopeful it can be contained without expanding too far beyond that.

But there’s no way of knowing. There’s also this question:

Who pays for the extra unemployment insurance and sick leave if Congress extends it? Every two weeks when I run payroll for my company, I have to pay into the unemployment insurance system. It’s the same with every company. The employer pays half and the employee pays half – and this all comes out of withholding. The system is designed to be capped at 26 weeks of benefits, although Congress routinely extends it whenever there is “an emergency,” which is pretty much any time you can get enough members of Congress to declare it so.

If they extend this more weeks, or indefinitely, does that mean I’ll have to pay even more in the withholding tax? And if it doesn’t mean that, does it mean Congress just funds it out of taxpayer receipts or borrowing?

The same question applies to paid sick leave. I offer paid sick leave to employees, and that comes directly out of my pocket. I accept this as a cost of doing business if you’re going to be a good employer, but there are limits to it. If Congress decides employees need more sick leave benefits beyond what employers have already agreed to provide employees, who pays for that? Me? The taxpayers?

Someone is going to.

I am not saying employers shouldn’t provide additional sick leave to employees who get the coronavirus. I certainly would, although in our case people could probably work from home and not lose too much effectiveness, so it might not even be necessary. And that’s kind of the point as well. Companies and their employees can work out their own arrangements if the issue arises, and we really don’t need Congress telling us what to do.

And while it might be nice to have the federal government reimburse us the cost of additional sick leave – if indeed that’s what they’re considering – I’m not sure it would work as smoothly as politicians would make it sound. And I’m not sure I like the idea of being told by Washington to do anything and just trusting that they’ll send me some money to cover the cost.

This is a classic case of Washington thinking it needs to “do something,” when those of us in the private sector can solve the problem just fine on our own, and would really prefer they not insert themselves into the situation – knowing anything they do will almost certainly make it harder and more costly for us to take the necessary steps.

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Thanks for offering to help, Congress! But no thanks.