High jobless rate adds billions to deficit

[tonysam]

The nation’s unemployment rate has pushed the budget deficit to a record $1.4 trillion in 2009.

The unemployment rate hit 9.8 percent in September and is widely expected to hit 10 percent before the end of the year. Some predict it will not fall until next September.

Unemployment hasn’t been this high for decades, and the added expenses and lost revenue is expected to add billions more to the national debt in coming months.

High unemployment means more unemployment checks and less tax revenue, costing the government roughly $100 billion annually, said Stan Collender, a former congressional budget aide. Those costs will persist for the next couple of years, if economists are correct in predicting the jobless rate will average more than 9 percent through 2011.


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Bush ran the deficit into the ground with his ruinous policies, and Congress bails out Wall Street, yet the millions upon millions of unemployed Americans aren't getting immediate help because some idiots in Congress worry about the deficit? Oh, please.

The comments following the piece are worth reading. Most of the commenters are as outraged as I am over our officials' screwed up priorities.

[tonysam]

1. Kick n/t

[tonysam]

2. Kick again because this is more urgent than health care reform