Eric Burlison

One of the happier moments of Friday's madness was the legislature's decision to enable more out-of-work Missourians to collect unemployment benefits, and for a longer period. Facing 25-year-high unemployment numbers, the about-face from legislative leaders didn't come a moment too soon. 

Under the legislation passed Friday, unemployed workers can collect additional weeks of benefits when the state unemployment rate exceeds 6.5% through December, and workers can also receive benefits if they lose their jobs due to a "compelling family reason." The state is eligible for $133 million in federal stimulus money to fund the benefits.

The legislature's change of heart is particularly interesting because of the vociferous opposition from Lt. Governor Peter Kinder to any kind of extension or expansion of unemployment benefits with federal recovery dollars. Kinder, you may recall, even described the stimulus money for said benefits as a "bribe."

There were a lot of changes of heart in the House regarding the stimulus spending package, but Rep. Eric Burlison's (R-Springfield) face-saving explanation may be the oddest (so far). Burlison says that Budget Chair Allen Icet somehow convinced him that his support of HB22 would "help leverage the Senate in negotiations over the House's half-percent income tax cut." 

This just doesn't make sense. There's no indication that the Senate is going to take up the tax cut plan, so it seems that Burlison is an extremely optimistic guy, was duped by Icet, or isn't giving a straight answer on why he changed his mind.