Joni Ernst: “I think a number of us are in and out, but it does tend to be a very bipartisan issue.”

While government boondoggles abound, the term is now officially in the law books for the first time. No politician wants their prized pet project to carry that label, but now there's no escaping it.

Because unemployment programs are funded primarily by taxing employers, this federal mandate is effectively a reverse Robin Hood tax that takes from struggling small businesses to give to the idle rich and self-sufficient.

From the fields in Iowa to the battlefields in Iraq, I have worked my entire life. Unlike most of my colleagues in the Senate, I am not a millionaire. I know what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck.

Fraud is not a victimless crime, either.