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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Lawmakers Question Whether Jobless Benefits Are New Welfare

While Congress struggles to avert the "fiscal cliff," a second battle is brewing on Capitol Hill over whether to extend federal unemployment benefits for more than 2 million Americans that are set to expire in less than three weeks.

Congress has extended the benefits six times since the recession hit in 2008, but each renewal brought increasing skepticism from Republicans who say providing benefits to people for as long as 99 weeks has encouraged some to quit looking for work. Unemployment insurance, which usually only last 26 weeks, has become a welfare program of sorts and shouldn't be extended, they said.

"I would be highly reluctant to do another extension," said Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, where the unemployment rate is nearly 7 percent.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yes it is a welfare to extend the unemployment benefits. I was unemployed, but worked for a temp agency, took short term employment for people on leave, until I found a permanent position. This is how my parents raised me. I could have sat home for the entire time(20 months) and collected unemployment. I know people who did just that as long as the benefits were being extended they did not look real hard for a job.