Is 99 weeks of unemployment checks enough? Or should it be extended? If extended, where will the money come from?
How can they extend the benefits when they have no money? Eventually these people getting unemployment are going to have to get off their ass and take a job that they may think is "beneath them".Getting unemployment for 99 weeks is MORE than enough time to find a job, even if it's a crappy job at Walmart. Enough is enough.
Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh, it just seems to me that 2 years is a very long time and should be a sufficient time to find employment. Or am I out of line?
(12-08) 16:28 PST --
Nearly 600,000 jobless Californians could run out of unemployment
benefits by April unless Congress extends a series of special
assistance measures that expire at the end of December, says the
National Employment Law Project.
The 65 percent federal subsidy for Cobra benefits will also expire
at year's end, said the Law Project and allied groups at a press
conference Monday in Washington.
Law Project chief Christine Owens said that nearly half of those now
enrolled in the health insurance program could lose coverage unless the
Cobra subsidy is reauthorized and extended.
Unemployment benefits normally last a maximum of 26 weeks and
laid-off workers typically pay for continuing their old
employment-based health insurance under Cobra.
But under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or the Obama
stimulus plan, Congress allocated $40 billion to make unemployment
benefits available for up to 79 weeks, and another $25 billion to
subsidize Cobra.
Lawmakers recently added up to 20 weeks of unemployment checks, for a total of 99 weeks of benefits in California.
But those provisions expire at the end of December, and the groups
holding Monday's press conference said that by the end of March, about
3 million Americans are projected to exhaust their benefits as the
unemployment coverage maximum reverts to 26 weeks.
Making 99 weeks of unemployment benefits available throughout 2010
would cost about $85 billion, and extending the Cobra subsidy could be
another $25 billion decision, said a Capitol Hill source.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she wants to extend both
programs before the end of the year. New bills H.R. 4183 and S. 2381
would address jobless benefits.