House Extends Jobless Benefits and Home Credits (NYT)

[pinto]

House Extends Jobless Benefits and Home Credits
By JACKIE CALMES
Published: November 5, 2009

WASHINGTON — The House voted overwhelmingly on Thursday afternoon to offer up to 20 more weeks of unemployment benefits to those who have been out of work a long time, sending the measure to President Obama for his signature. The White House said that he would do so on Friday morning.

The measure, passed after weeks of delay in which hundreds of thousands of Americans exhausted their government aid, will increase to 99 weeks, or nearly two years, the maximum length of time that a jobless worker can get benefits in some states.

The legislation was approved unanimously on Wednesday by the Senate, which added two unrelated provisions to extend and liberalize tax breaks that were in this year’s $787 billion economic stimulus package. One provision will continue for five months a popular $8,000 credit for many first-time home buyers, which was to expire Nov. 30, and create a $6,500 credit for some homeowners who want to buy a new residence. The other will allow businesses to deduct losses from their income in five profitable years instead of two; the stimulus law had limited the break to small businesses.

The Democrats felt an urgency to act now because the monthly labor report that comes out Friday is expected to show that the nation’s unemployment rate in October continued to be at or above 10 percent. Also, more than 600,000 workers had run out of benefits at the end of October, according to the National Employment Law Project, a liberal advocacy group.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/us/politics/06benefits.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[Royal Sloan 09]

1. K & R

[Ruby the Liberal]

2. Um, if your benefit is 26 weeks and you add 14, you get 40. 6 to that is 46

Where are they getting 99 weeks, or did I miss something?

[tonysam]

4. The current 79 weeks plus the 20 passed by Congress

It depends on your state's unemployment rate whether the unemployed in the state are eligible for as long as 99 weeks.

[TexasObserver]

3. Recommend