Bewildering Benefits ?

"White house: Extend Jobless Benefits"

December 5, 2013

By Jennifer Liberto

CNN

"Bewildering Benefits"

Currently, President Obama is obsessed with trying to convince Congress to extend federal unemployment benefits by another year, and Republicans claim that they are willing to consider. "Benefits for 1.3 million workers will expire December 28 if Congress fails to extend a recession-era program by the end of this month." A report was issued by the White House Council of Economic Advisers and Department of Labor, touting how jobless benefits "buoy the economy" while simultaneously keeping 2.5 million workers poverty-less each and every year. 

Thousands upon thousands would be affected by this decision, as many families would be harmed due to the millions of workers and their families that are unemployed. President Obama started using his bully pulpit this week to put more pressure on Congress to extend the program. "Christmas-time is no time for Congress to tell more than 1 million of these Americans that they have lost this unemployment insurance," Obama said in a speech on Wednesday. "(That's) what will happen if Congress does not act before they leave on their holiday vacation." 

The White House says that if these benefits do expire, the United States Gross Domestic Product could fall next year by 0.2 to 0.4 of a percentage point, according to the Congressional Budget Office and a J.P. Morgan Chase economist. This report also implies that the economy, currently, is not strong enough to end benefits. However, Republicans have been open to the idea of extending benefits, saying in memos that the program has already cost 252 billion dollars through July. But, the House Speaker, John Boehner, suggested he was open to an extension of the new idea and stated, "If the President has a plan for extending unemployment, I'll take a look at it." 

President George W. Bush first signed the program into law in June 2008, when the unemployment rate was 5.6% and the average duration of jobless insurance was 17.1 weeks. Since then, the unemployment rate has risen more than ten percent (2009) and the government extended the federal benefits to jobless Americans whose state unemployment insurance had run out. Currently, the unemployment rate is at 7.3 percent and the average duration of the benefits is 36.1 weeks. The Federal unemployment insurance benefits are tangible only after a person's state benefits run out. The range of the amount of time that that takes is between 14 and 47 weeks, depending on the state the person lives in.Only residents in Nevada and Illinois have access to the maximum 47 weeks, according to the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group. Most states have cut back unemployment benefits, as the improved “As lawmakers prepare to head home to be with their families during the holiday recess, they must not turn their backs on millions of families struggling with long-term unemployment and a weak labor market," said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project in a statement.