Millions Bracing for Cutoff of Unemployment Aid

[babylonsister]

Millions Bracing for Cutoff of Unemployment Aid
By MICHAEL LUO, KIM SEVERSON, DAVID HERSZENHORN and ROBBIE BROWN
Published: December 3, 2010


More than two million jobless Americans are entering the holiday season seized with varying levels of foreboding, worry or even panic over what lies ahead as they cope with the expected cutoff of their unemployment benefits.

Their economic fates are now connected on a taut string to skirmishing between Democrats and Republicans in Washington over whether to extend federal financing for unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless.

Tuesday marked the expiration of a pair of federal programs that had extended unemployment benefits anywhere from 34 to 73 weeks on top of the 26 weeks already provided by the states.

The federal extensions have been customary in past recessions and their aftermath, but they have become ensnared lately in political jousting over the soaring budget deficit.

Some recipients have already received their final checks. If the impasse remains unresolved, others will see their payments lapse in the coming days or weeks, depending on how long they have been receiving benefits.

By the end of December, more than two million are set to lose their extended benefits, according to estimates by the National Employment Law Project, and about a million more by the end of January.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/us/04unemployed.html?hp

[NightWatcher]

1. do not worry the milionaires and billionaires will get their $83,000 credit this year

that's what's really important

[WingDinger]

2. It will teach us to go out and get those 1/5 jobs. And those are burger flipper.