Jim Bunning killed the unemployment benefits extension. What now? (CS Monitor)

[pinto]

Just a thumbnail sketch on the issue, but this makes a couple of good points. ~ pinto

Jim Bunning killed the unemployment benefits extension. What now?

Jim Bunning's opposition to unemployment benefits extension means they'll expire Saturday. But the unemployed won't see cuts immediately.

1. What's the immediate impact?

There's little practical impact over the next few days. Even though the extended benefit program officially ends Saturday, unemployed Americans will still be able to file Sunday and Monday for the benefits they are entitled to this week. It's the benefits for next week that would be affected.

2. How many people are affected?

At the outset, a couple hundred thousand of the nearly 5.4 million unemployed American receiving benefits will be affected. If Congress doesn't act, the number of Americans will grow to 400,000 during the first two weeks of March and nearly 3 million by May, according to the Labor Department.

3. Are all unemployed Americans at risk?

No. The extended benefits program is the last of three tiers of unemployment insurance, offering 13 or 20 weeks of additional money after the unemployed have exhausted other benefits. The first two programs remain in effect. At the moment, 37 states have unemployment rates high enough to qualify for the extended benefits program.

4. Will Congress act to extend benefits?

It always has in the past and usually quite quickly. Even when benefits have expired, Congress has routinely made their extension retroactive.

i.e., Congress needs to act this week to forestall any delay in extended benefits and include a standard retroactive clause to "back-fill" extended claims, if necessary. ~ pinto

http://www.csmonitor.com/Money/new-economy/2010/0226/Jim-Bunning-killed-the-unemployment-benefits-extension.-What-now

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. except for their religious page, CSM is a great newspaper.

Not many stories, but they are fair, professional, and thorough.

[pinto]

2. Agree. Professional is probably the key tag for CSM, in my opinion. They've dropped their print

edition (I got an offer for a weekly, recently, not sure what has become of that idea), yet maintain an international network of bureaus. I miss the daily, but the web edition works.