No More Unemployment Checks for Two Million Americans by End of December
December 2nd, 2010Via: USA Today:
About 2 million Americans stand to lose their unemployment checks by the end of December after Congress failed to extend benefits Tuesday, threatening to crimp consumer spending in a fragile recovery and critical holiday shopping season.
A motion by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., to pass an extension on a voice vote fell short.
“Taking away these benefits only places greater strain on out-of-work Americans already struggling to put food on the table especially during this holiday season,” said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., author of a bill to extend the benefits for a year.
The National Employment Law Project (NELP) estimates extending benefits for a year would cost about $56 billion. But economists say they provide an outsized economic lift, because the unemployed spend cash on necessities rather than socking it away.
