House Extends Expanded Jobless Benefits By $93 Billion
Friday, May 28, 2010, 1:59 PM | 2 Comments
Washington Post reports today that the House passed a $93 billion package of jobless benefits and business tax breaks Friday after moderate Democrats fed up with deficit spending forced leaders to slice billions of additional dollars from the legislation. The vote was 215 to 204 to approve the measure which would extend the already expanded benefits for the unemployed through November.
The entire bundle of provisions now moves to the Senate, where it faces an uncertain future. The Senate left town late Thursday and is not scheduled to return until June 7. Federal funding that provides up to 99 weeks of income support for more than 5.3 million jobless workers is set to expire next week, as is the patch that protects doctors from a sharp cut in Medicare reimbursements.
About 200,000 people per week are set to begin losing jobless benefits when an extension of unemployment insurance expires next week, though lawmakers are likely to seek to restore them after the fact.
In a Nutshell
The House passing of the bill is good and dandy but what the good decent folks that are jobless need is go back to work full time. What happens in November when the benefits expire? Would there be another extension yet in jobless benefits? What the folks in authority should do is somehow develop an environment where the unemployed can be gainfully employed once more.
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