Unemployment

There are about 2 million Americans who will be losing their unemployment checks at the end of December once the current benefits are no longer in place. Right now, jobless workers are receiving 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, but this would be reduced back down to 26 weeks. The National Employment Law Project (NELP) estimates that it would cost approximately $56 billion to extend these benefits for one year and economists say that the benefits to the economy outweigh this cost because for every dollar that is spent, about $1.6 is put back in to the economy. There will be a major trickle-effect because holiday sales growth is expected to decline by a large number and general economic growth is expected to decline by .3 percent, therefore, about a million jobs could be lost in the next year. So we obviously see there are some serious negative side-effects to this, but do we want to continue adding to the gigantic budget deficit? There are certainly other ways to fund and help the unemployed (at least the ones who are actually making a true attempt to find work.. Even if it is minimum wage or part time -- better than nothing!)